Fish H8 Me™: STRANGE "INVASIVE" RECENTLY NETTED

10.4.10

STRANGE "INVASIVE" RECENTLY NETTED

I received an e-mail Friday from Shannon, a fellow fisherman and outdoors enthusiast. His email reported that a strange fish was recently caught and he'd do some investigative work and get back with me. Thank you Shannon.

Shannon made a trip to Lake Shore Ace Hardware where the fish was reportedly weighed and photographed. It turns out the fish was a Tench, an invasive non-native fish to Lake Champlain. In fact, a nonnative fish to North America. The folks at Lake Shore were nice enough to let Shannon have copies of the photos. The fish weighed in at 4.77 pounds and was 20 inches long.

Tench

From what I was able to find, Tench were first discovered in the Lake Champlain Basin in May of 2002 by two fisherman, fishing near the lamprey dam barrier on the Great Chazy River. The fish these two fellas caught was also a 20" specimen. A "few" are caught each year by unsuspecting fisherman.

Tench fish are native to Europe and similar to carp that live on lake or river bottoms. They are a slimy, slow moving carnivorous member of the minnow family that prefers tranquil, shallow water and weedy areas where they feed on invertebrates. It is unknown how the tench found its way to the Great Chazy, although the Richelieu River already has a viable tench population. In Europe, the tench is considered a food fish, here it is a nonnative nuisance aquatic invader.

Lake Champlain doesn't need any more invasive species. So please, please...learn how to prevent the spread of undesirable, unwanted, harmful, nonnative nuisance aquatic invaders.

Please watch this important video from Lake Champlain International, and visit The Lake Champlain Basin Program website to learn how.