Are carp bad for the bass?

[Blake Riggs]

There are two or three carp in the pond that I fish in and the fishing has been tough for a year or two now. I was wondering if the carp had anything to do with it because I herd the fishing used to be great in there.

[BassThumb]

How many people fish it, and do they keep the bass?

 

[avidone1]

1 hour ago, Blake Riggs said:

There are two or three carp in the pond that I fish in and the fishing has been tough for a year or two now. I was wondering if the carp had anything to do with it because I herd the fishing used to be great in there.

Two or three?

I seriously doubt that unless your "pond" is an oversized mud puddle.   Even then I'll bet their are plenty more than that

[BassThumb]

10 minutes ago, avidone1 said:

Two or three?

I seriously doubt that unless your "pond" is an oversized mud puddle.   Even then I'll bet their are plenty more than that

That's the idea people have when they catch a carp and toss it in the bushes, that there are only a small number of these 'invasives,' when in fact, there are many, many more that go unseen.

Now all they did was stink up their fishing hole.

[Blake Riggs]

Can they affect the bass

[Raul]

Caught this one in my everyday lake, and it´s not even a bigun ( she weighted 14.3 lbs )

There´s a bunch of them and the bass in there are healthy, numerous and fat, actually bass are so numerous that in practical terms 90% of your bass catch is 8 -12 inchers all day long.

So let me tell you I doubt carp are bad for bass, millions of fingerling carp feeding them bass every year.

[WRB]

It's a double edged sword as adult size carp eat bass eggs, fry and young of the year bass, bass eat carp fry and young of the carp but they are not egg eaters....advantage carp.

Carp are nearly impossible to eradicate, very hardy fish. Lots of lakes will have open season bow & arrow harvest of big carp to curb the population.

Tom

[Wbeadlescomb]

The main reason carp are bad for bass is they disturb spawning areas. When a school of carp come thru a spawning area it disturbs the bass bed.

[N Florida Mike]

We have stocked grass carp in the lake.I don't see any reduction in the bass fishing and don't expect to.These carp can't reproduce so they won't overpopulate.

[blckshirt98]

From what I understand carp don't eat bass eggs, but as vegetarian bottom feeders they stir up the bottom as they rummage for food and in the process they smother bass eggs so they never get to hatch.

[WRB]

10 minutes ago, blckshirt98 said:

From what I understand carp don't eat bass eggs, but as vegetarian bottom feeders they stir up the bottom as they rummage for food and in the process they smother bass eggs so they never get to hatch.

Bugle mouth or common carp definitely eat bass spawn, bass fry, any small fish and organic bottom matter. White Amur commonly called grass carp are aquatic vegetation eaters and not known to eat fish eggs.

Tom

[lmobass22]

I did a research project on this.

Carp don't affect bass directly, but can end up killing them indirectly.

Their urine kills small, bacteria that many water bugs and small insects eat which many forage eat which bass eat so they are indirectly killing many fish species in a body of water.   

In your case, I wouldn't worry to much about them because they are in a small containable quantity but if you start seeing little carp, then get them out of there.

[j bab]

Let's just say that Toledo Bend is currently the #1 bass fishing lake in the country (according to bassmaster) and also has a very healthy population of carp/buffalo