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Do any of you fish? I'm not sure if anyone can answer this question since it's probably niche even for fishermen. I live about an hour away from the Illinois River and I am sympathetic to the plight of the Illinois River's Asian carp problem. I am also very curious about what the bastards taste like and I won't accept the colloquial answer of "they taste bad, don't bother". I participated in a Redneck Fishing tournament one year where people sign up to get on motorboats that stir up the water and catch them with nets when they jump, which was quite thrilling. I'd guess thousands of pounds result from that every year, but I didn't ask if I could take any home; I think they were sent to a meat plant to get turned into dog food.
As far as I know, they're filter feeders. I possess no fishing equipment and I have only fished once in my life in some relatives' pond when I was 10 or so, and we tossed the fish back in that case. What's the cheapest way for me to fish Asian carp? A motorboat is out of the question, but a fishing kayak might not be, though I don't know how smart that would be on a big river like the Illinois River. These are big fish we're talking about, and capsizing is within the realm of imagination of a bunch of them smacked you on a small boat. Ideally I would be on the banks, anyway.
I don't think we have this kind of carp where I'm at, but there are lots of smaller ones around -- we fished for them as kids. (and were encouraged to bonk them on the head and throw them in the compost, so I guess they are also considered invasive?)
I don't recall them being bait sensitive in the least -- from what I recall the technique would be "chunk of hotdog on a treble hook, dangled just above bottom near some hiding place (usually a dock that we were standing on, but hey)".
The "hiding place" and "dangled just above bottom" bits might be trickier in a river -- I'd be surprised if casting a bobber set to whatever you figure the depth might be near/behind rocks/overhanging trees/snags didn't catch the odd fish though.
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