# 54-pound grass carp in Lake Erie



## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

Whoa there, I made a mistake. I first posted this story in another carp thread. Note this was just a big carp story. 

Pa. Man Catches 54-Pound, 49-Inch Carp
http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/ne...06-654524.html
post http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/forum/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=1172124

Now I find there is a totally different importance to this story, not just a big carp story, but a Asian grass carp story.

Big fish has officials wondering how grass carp got in Lake Erie

5/12/2006 

ERIE, Pa. (AP)  Pennsylvania officials may have a bigger question than whether a 54-pound carp caught this week qualifies for a state record.

The Fish and Boat Commission is wondering how the grass carp got into Lake Erie to begin with.

Dennis Russian, 59, of New Alexandria, shot his grass carp Tuesday with a bow and arrow. Unofficially, it weighed 54 pounds, 4 ounces, which would break a state record.

"It's a little troubling, because they're not supposed to be in there," spokesman Dan Tredinnick said Friday. 

The species was introduced from Asia and is used in ponds to control vegetation, as its name suggests. People can apply to the state to get a permit to use them for weed control, but they must be sterile, Tredinnick said. Nonetheless, grass carp have wound up in many U.S. waters.

Roger Kenyon, a fisheries biologist, said the commission has known grass carp were in Lake Erie for a number of years, but no one at the commission had seen one until Russian nabbed his.

When the commission came up with the carp category for records, it was only thinking of the common carp, Tredinnick said. The record for the largest carp caught in the state was 52 pounds in 1962 in the Juniata River.

Tredinnick said the commission hasn't gotten Russian's record application, but expected to and commission officials then would consider whether the grass carp qualifies under the carp category.

"No matter how you look at it, it's a big fish," he said.


----------

