Willard Carp???

[kd...]

Does anyone know whats killing the carp at willard? What ever it is, it seems to be working good. There were hundreds of them floating on Monday. Is the same thing happening at Utah Lake?
[signature]

[Theekillerbee]

I also noticed all the dead carp. I wish I could take the credit. Maybe Gary the self proclaimed Carp_Punisher was up this way! I hope whatever is doing them in doesn't do any harm to the nice fishies in there.
[signature]

[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]It could be a carp-specific illness, but I suspect it is post spawn stress syndrome. Many species of fish have a percentage of dieoffs after spawning. The more delayed the spawn and the more physically draining, the greater the physical stress and the greater the mortality rate.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]There is a similar accumulation of dead carp in some areas around Utah Lake. I have observed that some carp are still completing their spawn, after the spawn began about mid April. Some carp I arrowed last week were in their spawning rituals and still had roe and milt in their perforated (by me) bodies. I had a cooler full of ugly green eggs when I took some home for bait preparation.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]I further observed that the carp I kept were about the skinniest and most unhealthy looking specimens I have ever seen. They have not been eating well and have been continually interrupted in their spawning cycle by the ups and downs of weather and the cooler waters. I caught and filleted another carp over the weekend, to replace my bait stash, and it was also slack sided, although it had spawned out. There was no vegetative matter or any other food in its digestive tract, in spite of being in an area with lots of flooded vegetation and newly grown natural water weeds.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Just some observations. Without CSI doing some postmortem work, we can only speculate. I doubt that we have to worry about the population crashing. However, the remnants will add nutrients to the food chain, for crawdads and catfish. I once noticed a commotion going on in the shallows at the northeast corner of Willard and kicked my float tube in to investigate. It turned out to be a dead carp (very dead) with a couple of big cats working it over like sharks do to a dead whale. Retch.[/#0000ff]
[signature]

[mateo]

Maybe it's the after-spawning smokes that are killing them?[laugh]
[signature]

[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Could be STD's too (spawning transmitted deaths). How do you advise a carp about "safe spawning"? Why would you want to?[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Don't know if you have actually witnessed the spawning process for carp, but it is brutal. Usually about three or four males will "escort" a spawn ready female...crowding and squeezing her until she "downloads". That is all the thrashing and splashing you see during the carp spawn. Lotsa S&M.[/#0000ff]
[signature]

[Theekillerbee]

I thought all that thrashing was arrow induced?[]
[signature]

[fishluvr]

Arrows do tend to cause quite a bit of thrashing and splashing as well. Yesterday when we were out shooting carp I saw a lot of two, three, and four fish groups. The fish in these groups were swimming right together, usually touching, and made for easier targets. I had more than one two carp with one shot times which was fun.

I was just wondering if these carp swimming together had anything to do with the spawning festivities of carp. Anyone know, anyone, anyone, anyone, Tubedude?
[signature]

[Fin-S-Fish]

Since you've brought up the subject of carp love-making as "brutal," why not expand to the o-masochistic tendencies of largemouth and smallmouth bass. Instead of kissing french style a male bass "kisses" the female over her entire body using his teeth. Biting and nipping the female, he drives her into the nest and stimulates her to deposit eggs. After she lays her eggs she becomes attached to her eggs and doesn't want to leave. However each time she tries to go back right on top of the nest, the male bites and shoves her, even knocking her so hard she is forced to swim almost belly up till she eventually leaves. By the time she finishes love making, she is bruised, her fins torn, and quite "whipped." But she always comes back to the male for more....torture. Being quite the fish voyeurist, I've "peeked" upon many bass couples in their 'bed'--rooms.
[signature]

[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Sheesh! Nobody never reads my previous posts. In the one just a couple ahead of this one I made mention of the tendency of carpkind toward "plural marriages". Polyandry is the term used when one lady carp gets all spawny with two or more males.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Actually, many species have spawning rituals that see ripe females depositing their eggs in more than one nest...usually made and guarded by a single male. That is instinctive insurance against a major calamity occuring in any one nest...or undesirable hatching problems between any individual male or female...genetic foulups. Nesting fish, like bass and bluegill, frequently have several female donors in each male's carefully maintained nest.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]"Scatter spawners", like carp, walleye, white bass, stripers, etc. often see the spewing females being "escorted" by several males...each doing his individual part to make sure the eggs are fertilized. That would make it tough for the babies to prove paternity, but it does give every egg a better chance at being fertilized and it gives all of the "geek" males a shot at ecstasy.[/#0000ff]
[signature]

[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]As they say, love is a hurtin' thing. Bass are "insistent" for sure. Both sexes are pretty well whupped by "post spawn". That's why there is usually a lag in fishing productivity before they recover and go back on the feed.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]You wanna talk about "tough love", you should do some window peeking on big catfish. First, there is a major battle between the males for the best hollow log or rock crevice in which to establish a nest and to which he can attract females. Then, they have to bully and coerce females to go inside and dump their eggs. Even then, the fickle females may visit several male "dens" before being spawned completely out.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Probably some of the most serious "courting" takes place among sharkkind. The males physically "mate" with the females, rather than them laying eggs to be fertilized externally. There ain't no candlelight and flowers with sharks. The guy just grabs the lady shark by the pectoral fin, with full teeth contact, and wrestles her into submission. They got a name for that among humans and it usually carries a pretty good prison sentence. Female sharks get to looking pretty chewed up by the time the "silly season" is over.[/#0000ff]
[signature]