Monday's Alligator Gar/Asian Carp Post- A Follow Up

I wanted to post a short piece of information to follow up on Monday's post about how the state of Illinois is looking to use Alligator Gar in the fight against Asian Carp.  While on our way back from Truman Lake last weekend, my dad and I stopped by Lost Valley Hatchery in Warsaw, Missouri.  I have driven by this hatchery many times but had never visited it before and didn't know what excatly was being raised.  The visitor center was closed so my dad and I just took a walk and looked at some of the pools where young fish were being raised.  We didn't get to look at all of the pools but we did see two that had juvenile spoonbill and one that had a long, slender fish with a short snout.  After reading the article about Alligator Gar on Sunday night, I immediately started to wonder if the fish that I saw was Muskie or Alligator Gar.  I suspected they were Muskie because I know they are stocked at different lakes in the state, but then part of me wondered if the Misouri Department of Conservation was on board with the Alligator Gar idea for reducing Asian Carp numbers.

A couple of days later, curiosity got the better of me and I contacted the hatchery.  I spoke with a very polite and well informed man and explained what I had seen.  He informed me that what I had seen was juvenile Musky which will one day get stocked here in Missouri.  I mentioned the article that I had read and he had recently read the same article.  He told me that there were no plans by MDC to stock Alligator Gar in the state and that the department's only involvement with Alligator Gar is that it monitors population numbers around the bootheal of Misssouri.  We both got a laugh out of letting Illinois pilot this program and that they should be the lab rats that test out such an idea.

Regardless, it is an interesting idea and one that we as anglers and scientists will need to monitor for the next few years.  It will certainly not eliminate the Asian Carp invasion, but might curb numbers and reintroduce a native species in the process.  Sounds like a win-win if you ask me.  For more information about Lost Valley Hatchery, please click on the link below.  Next time you are in the Warsaw area, it might be worth a visit and it is free.  Also, there is a kid's fishing pond in the front of the visitor's center which I am going to guess is pretty well stocked with fish.

Lost Valley Hatchery, Warsaw, Missouri-
 http://mdc7.mdc.mo.gov/Applications/MOATLAS/AreaSummaryPage.aspx?txtAreaID=8930