U.S. Parks and Wildlife Offering a $100 Bounty for Black Carp in the Red River

(Paris, Texas) - To be Captain Obvious, we like to go fishing in East Texas. Bass and catfish are our favorites but we'll fish for many other types. Once we get out of this cold weather snap, we'll start filling up our rivers and lakes to catch what we can.

With that fishing, there are some invasive critters we have to worry about. Zebra mussels are a big nuisance right now, so is hydrilla. There is now an invasive fish we have to worry about in Texas, black carp. There's a $100 bounty on their head if you catch one.

Earn a $100 Bounty for Catching a Black Carp

Black carp are found in many bodies of water in the United States (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service). While black carp aren't officially in Texas, they are in the Red River that borders Texas and Oklahoma. Black carp are not native to the U.S. and may have been brought over by accident from Asia.

Black carp pose a risk to the environment by declining the population for native mollusks and will compete with other native fish (chron.com). The biggest area that black carp are in right now is the Mississippi River basin. As you can see in the map above, other rivers are being affected.

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Catch a Black Carp, Earn a $100 Bounty

If you are fishing in the Red River and catch one of these black carp, do not release it. Get a picture of it and write down where you caught it. Put the fish on ice so it can stay preserved. Then give Texas Parks and Wildlife or U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service a call.

From there, you could qualify for that $100 bounty. There is a catch limit of 10 per month for earning the bounty.

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