Lake Erie- Asian carp threat

People always have to screw with every ecosystem. One guy thinks Asian Carp are the solution to algae problems on his fish farm in the South, years later and they've destroyed river fish populations and are on their way to the Great Lakes which are some of the largest recreational and commercial fisheries in the country. The article seemed to say smallmouth bass fishing would improve but walleye, steelhead, and Emerald shiners would decline. I wonder what effect they'd have on the (sadly) less popular Lake Trout, Drum, and White Bass (my favorite fish in the lake to target). Either way, we need to put every effort towards keeping them out of the lakes, let the fish archers (bowfishermen) go crazy at the river with them in it that leads to Lake Michigan LOL. Honestly, though, a strong system of large, impassable dams, electrical fields, and species-specific (Asian carp only) poison may help keep them at bay,
 
zebra mussles, gobies, spiny water flea, etc.

These were all going to ruin the great lakes. Hasn't happened yet. Fishing has been slower the past two years because of global warming, i mean polar vortex. The great lakes will be fine.

For the record, I hate all species of carp and am all for removing them from everywhere, but asian carp will not ruin the great lakes. As far as sheepshead (drum), these fish have been hated and treated poorly for a lot longer than I've been around, and they show no signs of going anywhere, they'll be fine.

Building dams to stop fish migration will cause more harm than good in the long run.
 
Gobies have had a very significant impact on various species. They eat large quantities of Lake Trout eggs and fry which is part of the reason for the lack of natural reproduction of them in the lake. In addition, they completely extirpated native populations of smaller benthic lake-dwelling species like Mottled Sculpins, Logperch and Greenside Darters.

It's terrible how little attention the native Freshwatwr Drum get. They're one of the best fighting native species in the lake and I'll take a big 14 or 18 pounder over a 20" smallmouth any day. Another thing people fail to realize is the Drum are the largest consumers of invasive species in Erie (in the upper Great Lakes, Lake Sturgeon are tied with them). They're primarily benthic feeders and in addition to rusty crayfish which they love, they'll eagerly hunt down gobies with ease and use their strong pharyngeal jaws to crush up zebra mussels like snails. You'd all be pretty frustrated with the number of gobies, which are already extremely abundant, if it weren't for Freshwater Drum.
 
I'd like to see a pic of an 18lb sheepshead (or 14lb for that matter). SMB also eat a lot of gobies.

EDIT, I just looked and the PA state record is 19lbs caught mid 90s and NYS record is 26lbs and change and caught in 2014. I've never caught one bigger than 7 or 8 lbs, didn't realize they got that big.

I don't think the gobies have as much as an affect on lake trout as you think. the problem with Lake Erie, in my opinion is eutrophication. The Lake Trout population is fine in Lake Ontario and gobies have been there longer.

Do invasives affect the great lakes? Yes. But the affects are greatly overblown and exaggerated.
 
Are the lakers in Lake 'O naturally reproducing? I thought they were still stocking all of them. That is a valid point though about eutrophication. Pollution isn't helping either.

Back to Drum, here's a 14# I caught in August:
http://www.roughfish.com/sites/default/files/image_265.jpg

And a 12# caught in the PIB channel:
http://www.roughfish.com/sites/default/files/image_262.jpg

They get WAY bigger than that as well. I've seen a few while diving on wrecks in the 30-60' range that had to be 40"+ and girthy as heck, probably a few were over 50 lbs (no joke!). I think the next world record has the potential to come from Erie waters if one targets them long enough (my plan). I've also noticed that artificials tend to yield larger fish whereas bait gets you numbers but most of the time you never get past 10 pounds in weight with live (at least, in my experience).
 
Those are some monster sheepshead. I've never actually fished for them but have caught tons fishing for SMB.

There is natural reproduction of lake trout in LO. Lots of lake trout spawn in the Niagara River (below the falls), and some of these fish area wild. Not much is known about lake trout spawning in the niagara river other than juveniles have been observed.

There is definitely no shortage of lake trout on the west end of LO.
 
moon1284 wrote:
I'd like to see a pic of an 18lb sheepshead (or 14lb for that matter). SMB also eat a lot of gobies.

EDIT, I just looked and the PA state record is 19lbs caught mid 90s and NYS record is 26lbs and change and caught in 2014. I've never caught one bigger than 7 or 8 lbs, didn't realize they got that big.

I don't think the gobies have as much as an affect on lake trout as you think. the problem with Lake Erie, in my opinion is eutrophication. The Lake Trout population is fine in Lake Ontario and gobies have been there longer.

Do invasives affect the great lakes? Yes. But the affects are greatly overblown and exaggerated.
Click to expand...

Yea, that threw up a flag with me as well. 10 lb maybe. 18? Learn something every day.

Char, the largest freshwater drum I ever caught was actually out of the Allegheny river. I didn't weigh it, but would guess 7 or 8 lbs. Was amazed when I reeled it in. I didn't even know they were in there.

We were fishing for carp. Hot summer day, so we spent it fishing and swimming in the river up near President. Caught crayfish in a small stream for bait.

It was fun, but not nearly as much fun as the 5 lb bass I caught on a fly rod within a mile or two of that same spot (on a different warm summer day).

Interesting fact about sheephead. I read somewhere that sheephead can live up to 70 years, but now I can't find it.
 
I think people just don't realize how big these guys get because one, they aren't often targeted and two, the very large and old ones are incredibly smart and difficult to hook up with. If you check the IGFA records, the world record is over 55 pounds, and that's just the largest fish verified! I'm aiming for a 20 pound fish by the end of this year, which would actually break the state record, which again with such an underfished species is not as difficult to accomplish as say the state record Muskie or Steelhead. I know a guy who fishes in Cleveland whose personal best is 34 pounds, so there's some lunkers is the 'ol pond!
 
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