As you are enjoying a relaxing boat ride on the mighty Mississippi River, out of nowhere comes a fish traveling toward you at 20 mph. Rarely do you have time to duck. Working on the Mississippi river for over 35 years, I have been hit by the bullet fish multiple times, once coming home with a black eye and my wife questioning me about getting in trouble.
For some reason, these bullet fish react to the vibration and noise from boat motors, eliciting their jumping behavior, sometimes reaching ten feet in the air. We have found if you get up and go 30 mph, you probably will not get hit by the silver bullet. These bullet fish named by locals are actually the notorious silver carp, brought into the United States to control algae in aquaculture ponds, eventually escaping and establishing reproductive populations in the Mississippi River. Now, they are one of the most abundant fish in the river.
Our great river became a haven for silver carp, providing unlimited spawning habitat in the swift waters that these fish require, and a buffet of food in the many backwater lakes where their preferred food, plankton, is plentiful. As their numbers increased exponentially, they began to invade the entire Mississippi river basin. Silver carp can reach up to 30 pounds. However, there are other invasive carp species in the Mississippi River, including the bighead carp that can exceed 100 pounds. Thank goodness bighead carp don’t jump out of the water like their cousin, the silver carp…