Fish ID please

[IndianaOutdoors]

Is this a big shad?  

[IndianaOutdoors]

Sorry, can't figure out why Photobucket just cut me off

[OCdockskipper]

Yes, it is so big it has a speedometer...

[IndianaOutdoors]

There we go.  What is that? Guess I'm done with Photobucket.

[BigAngus752]

Yes.  That is a gizzard shad.  And you catch shad that are bigger than the LM I catch so I'm not speaking to you anymore.  Good day, sir.  

[IndianaOutdoors]

9 minutes ago, BigAngus752 said:

Yes.  That is a gizzard shad.  And you catch shad that are bigger than the LM I catch so I'm not speaking to you anymore.  Good day, sir.  

It's sad. That shad is the biggest fish i have caught all year.

[Bluebasser86]

That is a NOT a shad, it's an Asian Silver Carp, the ones the are infamous for their jumping skills. 

40 minutes ago, IndianaOutdoors said:

It's sad. That shad is the biggest fish i have caught all year.

 

[IndianaOutdoors]

1 minute ago, Bluebasser86 said:

That is a NOT a shad, it's an Asian Silver Carp, the ones the are infamous for their jumping skills. 

 

Yup that's it.  After looking at some more pictures I'm pretty sure you're right.  I thought the Asian carp had large scales like a common carp.  I was wrong.  I know the river is full of them. I see them jumping every time I take the boat out but had never seen one up close.

[BigAngus752]

18 minutes ago, Bluebasser86 said:

That is a NOT a shad, it's an Asian Silver Carp, the ones the are infamous for their jumping skills. 

 

I should have recognized that since I live so close to the Illinois River.  

[Bluebasser86]

13 hours ago, IndianaOutdoors said:

Yup that's it.  After looking at some more pictures I'm pretty sure you're right.  I thought the Asian carp had large scales like a common carp.  I was wrong.  I know the river is full of them. I see them jumping every time I take the boat out but had never seen one up close.

They're disgusting, slimy, stinking things. They seem to start bleeding if you look at them funny. They do have very tiny scales like a shad, which is part of the big concern with them. It's hard for even experienced anglers to tell them from shad at smaller sizes, which could lead to them being used as bait and potentially transferred to bodies of water they don't currently reside in. I've killed hundreds of them with a bow, even more with a cast net. I've had times when the newly hatched ones gather below dams I can catch over a hundred in a throw, over and over again. Places that used to be full of shad and goldeye are now full of them.

[CroakHunter]

This is a big head but they get huge! Note, guy holding fish is 6'4 230lb

[Bluebasser86]

5 minutes ago, CroakHunter said:

This is a big head but they get huge! Note, guy holding fish is 6'4 230lb

 

When I worked at Cabelas in KC we had a kid bring in a nearly 100lb Bighead he caught below the Truman dam on Lake of the Ozarks. It was a disgusting fish that thankfully ended up dying from the stress of being transported before it made it into the aquarium. The big blue cats in the tanks enjoyed their Bighead carp fillets though

 

[CroakHunter]

2 minutes ago, Bluebasser86 said:

When I worked at Cabelas in KC we had a kid bring in a nearly 100lb Bighead he caught below the Truman dam on Lake of the Ozarks. It was a disgusting fish that thankfully ended up dying from the stress of being transported before it made it into the aquarium. The big blue cats in the tanks enjoyed their Bighead carp fillets though

 

Nice! We estimated this one at 76lbs. He shot this one with his bow during a flood.