Grass Carp Advice

[curtintex]

Has anyone ever stocked grass carp in their lake? I have an approximately 17 acre lake that we rebuilt and restocked a few years ago. It’s stocked with Florida-strain bass which are growing nicely. Our fish are plentiful and recent survey shows the lake is really healthy and the bass are growing as planned. The problem is that weeds have taken over most of the shoreline of our lake. I prefer to fish from the boat, but lots of people like to just ride down there and fish from the bank, which is now made impossible by all the grass. Has anyone ever stocked grass carp and what were your results? Do you regret it? Did it help your purpose? I’ve already applied for, and received the necessary permit from TPWD to stock the carp, but my mind is still not made up as to if it is a great idea or not.

I remember how vastly devastating grass carp was to Lake Conroe 30 to 40 years ago. It took that lake years to recover, if it truly ever has. My biologist recommends the Carp to help control the grass, and he hasn’t steered me wrong yet, but I’m a little nervous about this. Any experience-related advice?

[dbaio1]

Curt,
No direct experience but we have a neighbor at our farm in Louisiana that followed a LDWF biologist advice to use sterile grass carp for his 8 acre pond and had great results controlling vegetation. That was about 5 yrs ago and the pond and fisherie are doing well.
Good luck.

[MtnMike]

If possible I would recommend stocking Sterile Grass Carp to control numbers. Would not want to take out all vegetation.

https://southlandfisheries.com/our-fish/sterile-grass-carp

[bloodtrailer28]

Don't know about ponds but have seen them things ruin some **** good lakes! Prob good in ponds if stocked in very low numbers but those bass love grass!
on Lake Austin which used to be one of the best lakes in Texas for big bass once they ate all the grass on the entire lake they moved onto the reeds on the shoreline. Killed and ate all of them too.

[Patton]

One of my best friends put sterile carp in his 7acre tank 15+ years ago, in accordance with TPWD recommendations, and they are still in there eating every bit of grass. Very hard to get rid of them.

[Huntingfool]

I have owned 3 different ponds and have used sterile grass carp in all of them. You have to get a permit if you live in Texas. They do grow fast and the larger they get the less weeds/grass they will eat. So I restock young ones every 4-5 years and kill out the older larger ones. Keep in mind when they get really large (up to 20 libs) they can make your water cloudy because they like to flop around on the bottom and stir up the silt.
I suggest going to www.pondboss.com - it is a pond forum that is awesome and there are alot of experts on there who will answer any questions you have about ponds and pond management. It has been a great resource to me over the years. Good luck!

[Deerguy]

Be careful. It works obviously, but too well most of the time. I don't know of any ponds that have been stocked with grass carp where the owners were ultimately happy with the results (if interested in a quality fishery). It's hard to get the right number of fish in there without completely denuding the lake of vegetation. Some vegetation is important for pond health, cover, and as a substrate for invertebrates. If you do it, put in far less than anybody recommends, even your fish guy; something like 1/4 of what is recommended or less. Remember than you can always add more later, but as has been mentioned, they are difficult to thin out. Add a very few, give it a while to see how much they eat (6 months to a year), and then decide if you need more. Carp grow very fast and very large.

[Bucknaked]

I’m on a much , much smaller scale at 1 acre but small pond weed had pretty much taken over other than in the deepest parts. I received my permit late spring of last year for 5 GC. They told me to start with 3 so I purchased the larger ones at around 12” long. Within a month they had increased double in size and now I’d bet they are very close to 15 #’s but one died early this spring. They have made a great difference and my pond is fishable from the bank. I’m going to stay with the two for as long as I can. They eat their weight of grasses in a day. Oh, if you feed protein they love that stuff too but probably wouldn’t be a problem in a 17 acre pond.

[TeamAmerica]

They work for sure. I would get a biologists opinion on number and of course sterile is key. Needs pictures of the 17 acre lake! I dream of having a lake at some point!

[lab man]

Have you thought about tilapia? They will eat grass as well and provide forage for your bass. They are pretty good to eat too.

[Slew]

Grass carp have ruined plenty of lakes!! Caney used to be awesome until LDWF loaded it up with carp. After a while they would school on the bank if you were on a lawn mower eating the clippings that ended up in the lake. We would shoot em with bows. Like said above. Ask em about tilapia. Depending on where your at they may die in the winter but still might be better than carp.

[curtintex]

Lots of good information and few good assumptions. For Clarity: According to TPWD ratios, my lake can support 120 Grass Carp. I asked for 100 in my permit and it was approved. My biologist is recommending starting with 60. These are STERILE grass carp.

[Deerguy]

Lots of good information and few good assumptions. For Clarity: According to TPWD ratios, my lake can support 120 Grass Carp. I asked for 100 in my permit and it was approved. My biologist is recommending starting with 60. These are STERILE grass carp.

I'd still go with 30. You can always get more if needed. You bet, sterile is the only way to get the permit, illegal to release breeders.

[eradicator]

One of my best friends put sterile carp in his 7acre tank 15+ years ago, in accordance with TPWD recommendations, and they are still in there eating every bit of grass. Very hard to get rid of them.

Yep. They ain't so sterile lol

[Huntingfool]

This is outside my home office window. Hard to beat a pond.