Illinois River becomes a battleground waterway for silver carp, alligator gar

We live in the northern rust belt, not the deep south where grits, deep-fried catfish and cornbread are menu mainstays.

Many in our midst cherish those moments on the ice chasing panfish and walleyes, while the majority of our angling brethren wear our the bit in their mouths with continuous champing while waiting for the spring softwater season.

But because we live in this highly populated region we just don't have the wonderful year-round fishing opportunities our cousins to the south enjoy.

And that brings me to the Illinois River and its monstrous population of silver carp (or Asian carp), a ravenous fish species that could very well be a circus act in own right. This waterway is becoming a kind of battleground for fish species control.

I'm told television stations on both coasts snatched up video pieces of Illinois River jumping silver carp as if the scene was taken from a 1950s science fiction movie.

I'll cut right to the chase.

After a long conversation with Dan Stephenson, chief of the Illinois DNR Fisheries Division, I now believe some bureaucrats have possibly gone off the deep end.

Not Stephenson, mind you. He noted his department received a load of alligator gar fry to be planted in a handful of rivers and streams in this state. The tots came from the Mississippi River, with appetites akin to a regiment of teenagers invading a kitchen after a day in classes. The idea, of course, is that the gar will help keep the carp population under control.

The alligator gar came from the feds - the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - with Illinois footing the bill from monies from state excise taxes and the fishing license fund.

But I have been to Oklahoma and Texas to witness the catching of alligator gar and I personally believe the action by federal and state biologists, as an answer to the burgeoning silver carp population, is a nightmare waiting in the wings.

Not to get Stephenson in hot water, but I will report to you that in his opinion the addition of these prehistoric-like fish into the Illinois River will probably not have much impact on the frolicking invasive carp. The gar's preferred food of choice is the gizzard shad, a species of forage in great numbers in the river.

I understand that it's an appealing narrative. I can almost picture the novice reporter getting jazzed up to write about it.

But I caution everyone not to jump to conclusions in this situations.

A similar scenario played out in recent years when landowners decided to use imported grass carp to help control the weed and algae problems in residential and farmland ponds.

In some cases it was salvation for a few hungry-for-positive-action landlords. But other landowners wondered what happened to the fantastic panfish angling they'd had before the grass carp were introduced to their waters.

The scientists who deal with issues like these claimed in some cases the carp were in direct competition for food with resident fish.

In contract to what some biologists have reported, alligator gar are a vicious predator. I have wandered the banks of some southern waterways and watched 150-pound alligator gar chase young children from a swimming hole.

I guess it all depends on just how hungry the gar happens to be at any given moment.

If these aquatic behemoths react to the "soup's-on" messages in their brains, then we could see a reduction in the silver carp population in perhaps 15-25 years.

Then again, maybe not.

• Contact Mike Jackson at angler88@comcast.net, catch his radio show 7-9 a.m. Sundays on WGCO 1590-AM (live-streamed at www.1590WCGO.com) and get more content at mikejacksonoutdoors.com.