Just when you thought the list of invasive pests sneaking into Texas couldn’t get any longer, it became.
Silver carp, a freshwater carp species native to China, was recently discovered in Choctaw Creek in Grayson County. The creek has its source about 15 miles downstream from Lake Texoma near Sherman and runs about 60 km northeast before flowing into the Red River along the Texas-Oklahoma border.
In June, Sherman’s bow fisher Stephen Banaszak threw two of the carp with arrows, including a 13-pounder. Pottsboro fisheries biologist Dan Bennett of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said the fish had been turned over to the TPWD and the US Fish and Wildlife Service, who identified them as silver carp. On July 19, Banaszak gave an even larger fish from Choctaw. This one weighed nearly 21 pounds, Bennett said.
Although this is the first time silver carp has been found in Texas, the fish were documented in other areas of the Red River as early as 2019, according to Bennett, including just downstream of Lake Texoma in the waters of Oklahoma.
Silver carp are also not the first invasive Asian carp species to be found in Texas. Bennett said that big head carp – a cousin of the silver carp – were documented several years ago in the Red River and in tributaries downstream of Lake Texoma. Bigheads have also been identified in Big Cypress Bayou downstream of Lake O’the Pines and in the Sulfur River downstream of Lake Wright Patman.
Like the big head, the silver carp is a strange-looking fish with a scaleless head, deep-set eyes, an upturned mouth and no teeth. As young animals, both can easily be confused with allis shad or minnow.
How did you come here?
How long the inconspicuous silver carp have been floating around in Choctaw Creek can only be imagined. Or how many. But there is no doubt how they got there.
Silver carp are one of several invasive carp species that were purposely imported from Asia to the United States in the 1970s to clean up pesky algal blooms and aquatic vegetation in aquaculture facilities, farm ponds, and wastewater lagoons.
Subsequent floods washed the fish from private ponds and aquaculture facilities into streams, canals and other waterways. Since then, the fish have infiltrated large river basins such as the Mississippi, Ohio, Missouri, Illinois and Tennessee, the maze of tributaries that feed them, and have entered numerous reservoirs via lock / dam systems that allow boats and barges to pass between river basins to travel.
The release of live bait and deliberate restocking is also believed to have contributed to the spread of an invasive species known to reproduce rapidly, grow over 60 pounds, damage fragile aquatic ecosystems, and threaten valuable sport fish populations.
Silver carp can also be a problem for recreational boaters, jet skiers, water skiers, and fishermen. That’s because they tend to jump several feet out of the water when startled, often in schools that run in the hundreds. Walk face first into a 10 to 20 pound fish in a boat going at 50 mph and the consequences won’t be nice.
The fish have been found in at least two dozen states, including Texas and the adjacent states of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. Bennett is certain that the fish entered Choctaw Creek via the Red River.
“They came down the drainage of the Mississippi River, met tributaries and are now slowly walking up the Red River,” he said. “I assume that all of the high river rivers we’ve seen since 2015 have facilitated their migration upstream.”
Grateful for dams
To date, invasive carp have not been documented in any reservoir in Texas. Though fish are knocking on Lake Texoma’s back door, fisheries experts believe the non-navigable dam has so far successfully stopped them.
“We are fortunate to have no navigation locks for shipping that would allow fish to move upstream from the dams,” said Craig Bonds, TPWD director of inland fisheries.
What worries scientists are tail fish catchers who mistake juvenile silver carp for allis shad and transport them upriver to the lake or other body of water for use as bait. While there are already state laws in place prohibiting the transportation or possession of live invasive carp, a careless or ignorant fisherman could do a lot of damage in a short amount of time.
This is especially true of Texoma, which supports valuable populations of striped bass, largemouth bass, black bass and blue catfish. The strip perch fishery in the lake alone is expected to bring in more than 25 million US dollars annually for the local economy.
Bonds said the river-fed lake is perfect for the current-loving fish to do annual spawning runs upriver, which could quickly swell the numbers. In addition, the fish are planktivorous, feeding almost constantly on plankton, which is essential for the allis shad and the early growth of young sport fish.
This is bad. In theory, forced competition for the same food source could reduce baitfish biomass and have a negative impact on the sport fish populations that feed on them.
“My concern is that they will be moved upstream over the dam and into a system that has enough river kilometers above the reservoir for them to spawn,” Bonds said.
“Texoma is a prime candidate for this. They could impact allis shad populations and indirectly harm an estimated striped bass fishery and other sport fish populations. We don’t want to see what happened to our valuable reservoir fishery in Texas at Kentucky Lake and elsewhere. “
Silver balls
Bennett cited the possibility of collisions between jumping fish and boaters, fishermen, or other recreational users as another potential problem that could arise if silver carp establish themselves in Texoma or any other Texas reservoir. Located north of Dallas-Fort Worth, Texoma is a hotbed for anglers and weekend pleasure boats.
“It could definitely be a problem,” said Bennett. “These fish [silver carp] are jumpers. You would definitely create a recreational risk of people getting injured out there. The bow fisherman who shot the fish in Choctaw Creek told me that they jumped into the side of his boat and broke some of his night lights. “
Lance Freeman knows everything about what can happen when the surface of the water erupts with silver balls.
Freeman is a 26 year old perch angler from Eddyville, Kentucky. He grew up fishing on the reservoirs of Kentucky / Barkley along the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers. He has been running a commercial fishery targeting silver carp since they infiltrated his home waters in significant numbers in 2015.
Freeman and his crew started fishing with gillnets 1,200 feet long early 300 days a year. He’s sold fish for human consumption, lobster and lobster bait, and to protein markets for dog food, cat food, and fertilizers for a quarter to just eight cents a pound.
Daily catches of over 10,000 pounds are common, but Freeman has made much larger prey. His record catch per day is 26,000 pounds. Freeman estimates that he and his crew removed 10 to 12 million pounds of silver carp from the two lakes.
“We made a dent in them, but they are by no means under control,” he said. “We’ve had them for a while, but they made a big splash here in 2015 when we had a high flow of water at just the right time. It was the perfect storm for them to spawn and the population exploded. “
Freeman claims he has seen 8-10 pound silver carp in huge schools more times than he can remember. He said things can get pretty bizarre – and dangerous – when hundreds of fish break the surface around a moving boat.
“I have videos where there are so many that you couldn’t see another boat 12 meters away,” he said. “It doesn’t happen every day, but it’s pretty intense when it happens. When one is excited, everyone is excited. I’ve been hit and thrown out of the boat once before. I know a water skier who dropped out on a competitive ski course near Paducah. [Ky.]. Think about it. Eight pounds of anything thrown at you will hurt, especially if it hits you at a speed of 30 mph. “
Matt Williams is a freelance writer based in Nacogdoches. He can be reached by email at mattwillwrite4u@yahoo.com.
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