Another lake invader on the way? (Texas)

As if Texoma getting zebra mussels wasn't bad enough, cleaning the water of plankton the threadfin shad and fry of game fish need to survive to grow up big enough for the game fish to forage on, now we have a new threat possibly poised to invade Texoma with the potential to be even more damaging to the 30 million dollar a year fishery we have today.

I hope I'm only going to whet your appetite with this article to make you want to go to the Lake Texoma Association web site or the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation site and watch the video with Bill Dance and read from the news releases what we are possibly facing with this new exotic species called the Asian carp. Most of us have probably seen short videos of these fish jumping in boats by the bunches.

These carp, when small, look identical to gizzard shad -- one of the prime forage fish on Texoma. In the young stage the only difference between them and a gizzard shad is the bottom lip on the Asian carp.

Well there is also one other difference that's noticeable -- if you get hit by one of these jumping fish it is because they grow to 40-50 pounds. The dangerous part is if scared by a motor or boat they all start jumping. Can you figure out what's going to happen if one of these fish from 5 to 50 pounds jump as you are running on a jet ski or behind a boat on a ski at 40 plus miles per hour and you collide with one of these jumpers? It's not gonna be pretty. When you watch the video you will see I'm not making this up. Despite being a hazard to lake users, these carp compete with our local native fish both game and trash fish and also filter the water and eat the plankton the baitfish need to grow. We might be facing a double whammy if these critters show up. The fisheries people say they could migrate into Oklahoma lakes and Texoma by coming up the Red and Arkansas River from the Mississippi. Unless people casting for shad below the Denison dam take them up to the lake to fish with, the Dam should be a pretty good blocker. They could possibly get into the Washita and come down. When guides were buying shad from other lakes last winter because there were none in Texoma to mention I'm hoping they all came from safe for now lakes.

The Tackle Box had a one-time, eight-hour tournament for the time being to kick off the Wednesday night tournaments. While only eight boats showed up to fish it, the 15 fishermen managed to weigh in some respectable springs. Winning was Shane Allison and Dave Youngblood with 13.73 pounds. Second was Kenneth Holmes and his partner with 13.03 pounds and in third was Sherman's fishing former Mayor Dean Gilbert with 11.47 pounds. Dean also had big fish with a 4.14-pounder. The Wednesday night tournaments start April 13th. The forecast looks like high winds for a while so plant a garden or do something on dry land. If you do fish be careful.
One word of wisdom I want to leave with you -- don't wreck your boat since things move slow in the world of insurance.

we have a carp take over here in one of the local lakes and they did a sweep using nets and boats they pulled out nearly 75,000lbs of these nasty fish and we are still spending millions to get the lake back to order