TRI-LAKES AREA — When summer temperatures peak and days become searing and sultry, it's often difficult to catch fish of any sort. Hot water with low oxygen levels often gives bass, crappie, walleyes and other popular gamefish a bad case of lockjaw.
There's one fish, however, that's always eager to bite when the mercury is high, a fish widespread in Arkansas that fights hard, jumps high and, despite popular misconceptions, is great on the table. That fish is the grass carp.
Few A rkansans ever tr y catching this Asian import, also known as the white amur. Most don't consider carp of any kind to be worthy quarry, but many simply aren't familiar with the unusual techniques required to catch these silver-scaled scalawags.
To catch a grass carp, you see, you must toss a salad. Throw in some cherry tomatoes, some lettuce, celery, pea pods, a bit of watercress, some duckweed, coontail, pondweed and muskgrass.
OK, so it's not your regular salad, and chances are, you never figured on using vegetables for bait.
Don't worry, though; grass carp will like it, just the same, because grass carp are vegetarians. They shy away from "normal" baits like kids eyeing a plate of liver and onions. Cast some veggies their way, though, and they'll rush in like a kitty to a can opener.
And why, some of you may ask, would anyone want to hook a grass carp in the first place? Because, my friends, these underrated ruff ians often weigh 40 pounds or more. Specimens topping 110 are known, and grass carp of any size immediately go airborne when hooked. Battling one on rod and reel is like tussling with a tail-hooked tarpon. In fact, long sleek grass carp resemble tarpon, with big silvery scales and an upturned mouth. They're not at all like common carp with their barbeled, vacuum-cleaner snouts.
Grass carp are mighty good eating, too. A platter of deepfried strips won't last long at a backyard fish fry. And chances are, there are lakes and ponds near your home with plentiful grass carp that could use a little thinning. Many Arkansas lakes, particularly those owned by the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission, are wellstocked with these hard-hitting vegetarians. A lot of pond owners have stocked them as well.
Most folks won't complain if you thin them, either. In fact, some will say you're doing the world a favor catching all you can and ridding our waters of this alien invader. The name "carp" still sends shivers down spines of the unknowing.
Gr a s s ca r p were int ro - duced into the United States in 1963 when the Bureau of Sport Fisheries brought 70 fish from Malaysia to the Fish Farming Experiment Station at Stuttgart. Amurs are native to larger east Asian rivers with Pacific drainages, including their namesake, the A mur River on the Chinese-Siberian border. But introductions have expanded their range to India, Europe, New Zealand and, some researchers say, at least 40 American states.
The experimental imports did what they were supposed to do - eat excessive aquatic vegetation - and by the early 1970s, the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission began using grass carp to control weeds in public waters. The amur's mouth is toothless, but in the throat are two rows of large, comb-like teeth that grind the salad it eats. One carp can eat two to three times its weight daily and may gain 5 to 10 pounds a year.
Early grass-carp introductions were controversial from the get-go. Some claimed they were needed to control vegetation, providing a natural alternative to costly chemical and mechanical controls. Grasscarp opponents saw nothing "natural" about importing an Oriental fish and releasing it to become a 50-pound intruder gobbling up bass habitat.
The controversy continues. Some states such as Arkansas stock sterile fish produced in hatcheries; a few outlaw grass carp completely.
Grass carp offer a troublefree, ongoing method of weed control when stocked at the conser vat ive rates recommended by fisheries' biologists. But when weeds are in check, biologists recommend reducing by at least 50 percent the number of grass carp in a pond or lake. That's where fishermen come in.
Ken Perry, a fisheries program coordinator for t he Missouri Department of Conservation, outlined a simple method for catching grass carp in an agency newsletter. First, he scatters two or threecups of fermented corn in shallow areas of the lake he's going to fish.
"Fifty pounds of cracked corn cost next to nothing at a feed store," he said. "Fill a quart milk jug with cracked corn and add water a few days before fishing."
The soured corn attracts carp to the fishing area.
Next, Perry employs his secret weapon: cherry tomatoes. Canned corn, earthworms and other baits work, too, but these also attract catfish and bream. With tomatoes, Perry said, you can target grass carp specifically.
Perry's fishing rig consists of a long, limber rod-and-reel combo spooled w it h light monofilament line to which is tied a single, heavy-wire No. 1 hook without a sinker.
The reel is placed in freespool so line plays out freely when a fish takes the bait. If there's no bite in 30 minutes, Perry changes spots.
"Many lakes that need grass carp taken out are privately owned," Perry said. "Often the owners will be delighted to get rid of the fish, but be sure toget permission first."
In waters where most weeds have been eliminated, amurs are especially easy to catch. They often feed at the surface and quickly rise to hooked bits of aquatic vegetation, vegetables, even French fries f loating in the water. Warm months offer the best fishing; feeding activity slackens when water temperature falls below 57 degrees.
In his book Fishing for Buffalo, Rob Buffler reported that floating doughballs also take hungry grass carp. His recipe calls for mixing equal parts peanut butter, Rice Krispies and crushed corn flakes.
"Place a grape-sized glob of this mixture and a green party marshmallow on a 2-inch square of white, sheer pantyhose," Buffler wrote.
"Stretch it tightly over thedoughball and tie up the ends with green thread to make a ball. Roll the ball in green food coloring."
Thread a baitholder hook through the pantyhose material and cast the ball into waters where grass carp feed. With luck, a giant amur will rise and take the bait.
My own method for catch-ing grass carp goes like this:
Take a lawnmower to your chosen carp lake (if the owner and law will permit it) and mow a strip of grass along the edge.
The mower should be positioned so the grass clippings spray into the lake.
Now, take a small bundle of green grass and attach it to a hook with a little rubber band.
If you prefer, you can create a little "grass fly" and use it with a fly rod.
When carp start coming up to eat the grass (if they are present, they most certainly will), cast this lure/bait among all those big rubbery lips and get ready to do battle.
Fishing for grass carp in this manner is great fun. I say that from experience, having caught two 17-pounders one day while casting plugs of Bermuda sod in a private lake.
Someday I hope to use thismethod to catch some even bigger ones.
Grass carp may never become standard fare in the waters of Arkansas, but they're widely available and offer great fun for anglers who like tackling "those other fish." If you're not embarrassed by the thought of fishing with a tomato or French fries for bait, give grass carp a tr y.
Somewhere out there, a 100-pounder is lurking.
Tri-Lakes, Pages 131, 134 on 08/30/2009