What Kind of Fish Are Invading The Riverfront At Smothers Park?

Angel here, Charlotte and I took a stroll down on the river at Smothers Park yesterday and we noticed hundreds of fish at the surface of the water feeding. We had never experienced this before and want to know what they are.

I shared the photos and video with Chad when I came to work and he said he thinks the fish may be Asian Carp. I did a little research on Asian Carp and found these fish to be quite a nuisance for the ecology system.

I know you are probably thinking much like me "Asian" Carp what are they doing here in Kentucky? They are believed to have been brought to the states in the 1960s to clean out ponds and fish farms of overgrown weeds and algae. Flooding could have possibly washed them into lakes and rivers throughout.

Asian carp are like the rabbit of the sea and they multiply. According to Kentucky Fish & Wildlife, these fish didn't pose a threat in Kentucky until the early 2000s and now they are in all states.

They overtake the waters they inhabit and cause issues. They are aggressive and if provoked will literally jump in your boat with you. I was riding with my friends the Naves and Wrights and we were on the river and one of those things hopped on in the boat and we all couldn't move fast enough away from it. We almost jumped out of the boat.

According to leoweekly.com;

Containment programs have taken on various forms, such as the Asian Carp Harvest program that has monitored and fished Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley since 2013. According to a Department of Fish and Wildlife study, between 2013 and 2018, nearly 4 million pounds of Asian carp were pulled from the two lakes.
One effort that happened six years ago was a fishing tournament called Carp Madness with a single event on Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley, where Asian carp are a problem. That event gave commercial fishers a chance to see how many they could catch over a certain time period.

One female carp can have up to a million babies on her own. That makes me feel like a big ole' whimp saying I've birthed five kids compared to one million.

Apparently, U.S. Fish & Wildlife are trying to keep the fish at bay with a "fish fence" that creates a barrier underwater. Fishermen are also being encouraged to catch and commercialize this type of fish for eating. They are compared to that of a salmon as far as the grade of fish for eating.

So, what type of fish did we see on the riverfront at Smothers? Are they Asian Carp?