Rudd and Tench

[jbritch]

Sounds like two new cartoon characters but they're not funny.

I checked out under the bridge on Rte.7 over the Rock River this morning and there were several other guys there already.  They reported a large party of New Yorkers had been there most of the night looking for White Perch.  I was using some worms but I didn't get even a bite but two of the others were hooking Tench and Rudd along with some pumpkin seeds and a baby perch on a simple lead-colored bibbitt.

I had never seen or even heard of Tench and Rudd.  I'm guessing we'd call them invasive species as possessing Rudd is a crime in the South.  The first Tench was easily two feet long and quite chubby, I'd guess close to 5 lbs.  The Rudd wasn't much bigger than that little perch.

Has anyone seen these species?  How did they get here?  Is it possible they hitched a ride on the bait we buy from down there?  Or did someone release their pet gold fish into the lake?  Are they eating our Walleyes' eggs?  They have a vacuum mouth like a carp.  Apparently, they are not good eating; they were all thrown back but I wonder if that is a sound practice???

[Boatless in BTV]

Has anyone seen these species?  How did they get here?  Is it possible they hitched a ride on the bait we buy from down there?  Or did someone release their pet gold fish into the lake?  Are they eating our Walleyes' eggs?  They have a vacuum mouth like a carp.  Apparently, they are not good eating; they were all thrown back but I wonder if that is a sound practice???

I've seen tench in a few places in shallow areas of the lake. They're well established now. As for how they got here:

"More recently, Tench were illegally stocked in a pond in Quebec Canada; in 1986 a farmer transported 30 Tench from Germany to stock an aquaculture pond (Marcogliese et al., 2009). By the 1990s Tench had escaped into the Richelieu river and established a reproducing population. Tench are currently known to be established in the St. Lawrence and Humber Rivers in Ontario, Canada as well as Lake Champlain  (Avlijaš et al., 2017)"

From: https://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/greatlakes/FactSheet.aspx?Species_ID=652&Potential=Y&Type=2

Rudd look very similar to golden shiners when they are small. They're an easy one to accidentally transport via the bait bucket if you don't know the differences. https://i1.wp.com/www.wnyprism.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Rudd-Scardinius-erythrophthalmus-comparison-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1

[jbritch]

Thanks for the info.  I suspected something like that.  What a shame.