A little bit of carpin (pics)

[Carp-fisher]

I headed out in the sprinkles yesterday to a little lake west of the metro. The carp were crowded in the shallows, cruising all over the place. I sight fished these guys by pitching corn just 10 feet from shore. I caught three fish in 3 casts and then it slowed down a bit. I think the fish thrashing around on the line spooked the others.

First one about 10lbs.

4lbs maybe

7lbs or so

[DEADhead]

nice catch. FYI, Carp release a phermone when they are caught, notifying other carp of a threat. Could be one reason the action slowed down.

[Ralph Wiggum]

 Originally Posted By: DEADhead

FYI, Carp release a phermone when they are caught, notifying other carp of a threat.

I always hypothesized that, but I am glad to know that it's a fact!

[dufek]

Man i bet thats why it got so slow last time i was out, 3-4 like nothing and then it just died. Couple hours later 2 more, then nothing. Thanks for the info!

[JimBuck]

Wow. Nice to know that. Thanks DEAD.....

[badfish]

Yeah that is very interesting I read that somewhere last year and it explained why I only caught 3 or 4 carp in about 15 minutes then nothing for a long time.

[DEADhead]

carp also release pheromones to attract other carp to to school up and congregate. They'll often use this tactic during periods of low dissolved oxygen in the winter; carp will school up and open up a hole through the ice with all the current, to get more oxygen into the water.

There have been a few pheromone studies done on carp; they're very interesting...

[goblueM]

They are very clever fish... people talk trash about em but I think sight fishing for carp in clear water is just as tough as bonefishing, and just as fun

[Carp-fisher]

Ah very interesting tidbits. My brother is a student at the U of M in the fisheries biology program. One of his professors, Dr. Peter Sorenson, is a carp guru and does all sorts of research into carp pheromones. He was the one who developed the pheromone attractant for lamprey in the Great Lakes. He's working on trying to do the same thing with carp in order to remove them from our lakes.

[goblueM]

Yeah Sorenson always seems to have a buncha goldfish or carp around in the wet lab, I've seen papers tacked up down there about pheremones

[Stick in Mud]

Hmmm...I'm not scientist, but it seems like the girls at the bar have something similar, though I didn't know it was called pheremones.

[crazyice]

That pheremone just comes in a glass!

[Cyberfish]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm