It was a successful spear fishing day on Glen Lake Monday. The Thundering Aspens Sportsman Club out of Mesick contracted with the Glen Lake Association to remove multiple large Koi fish that threaten the lake’s environment. They even got a world record in the process.
Greg Wright and Sam Jones of Thundering Aspens captained the hunt looking for the goldfish styled carp that are threatening the lake’s vegetation and ecosystem.
“The bad thing about carp is they tear up ground and ruin other fish spawning habitats and even stop vegetation from growing,” Wright said.
By the time they left, they successfully spearfished two Koi and two common carp with one of those Koi’s being a world record measuring in at 32 inches and 25.4 pounds. The record was confi rmed by Heather Hettinger, MDNR Fisheries Management biologist.
“It took many hours of grinding out the lake in the shallows looking for the fish,” Wright said. “One more Koi is still in there and we caught a glimpse while shooting the other ones.”
This female Koi was pregnant with an estimated 200,000 eggs in her belly when speared in the shallows of Little Glen Lake.
Glen Lake does not have a record of carp in the lake.
Koi is a carp breed for ornamental use and showed its mutation in the early 1800s.
Thundering Aspens plan on coming back next Spring for another hunt.
“Boy, you guys are good at this. We have to get them to come back,” Rob Karner of the Glen Lake Association said.
Glen Lake announced they have contracted with the Mesick hunters for six more hunts.
Karner says they estimate three more koi fish are roaming in Glen Lake.
“We’ve been surveying surface water with an aerial drone in places that milfoil might grow and intelligently look for the plant. By accident, while looking milfoil, we found koi fish. We then went back through all 24 miles of drone footage and started spotting koi,” Karner said.
Karner reiterates that this is new territory for Glen Lake and that not many people are dealing with that particular issue. The future is unclear if koi fish will threaten major damage to Big and Little Glen Lake.
