Humans Are Losing the Fight Against Flying Fish

There's nothing like the thrill of chasing a flying Asian Carp in your fishing boat. And of course it means nothing if you can't document the experience with your DJI drone.

Humans Are Losing the Fight Against Flying Fish

Asian carp have been hurtling into boaters throughout the Heartland, where some now wear helmets and cups for protection; ‘darn near knocked me out’

By Jeanne Whalen, WSJ

April 8, 2026 12:00 pm ET

Clint Carter was enjoying the sunshine and gentle rocking of the boat when a 30-pound fish leapt out of the Louisiana water and smashed into his chest.

The fisherman was bruised but not particularly surprised. It wasn’t his first encounter with a beast that has become the Heartland’s most vicious invader.

Asian carp have taken over the Mississippi River and dozens of tributaries, where they have menaced native fish by eating much of their food. They’ve also spent years terrorizing locals by leaping from the waves and crashing into boaters, water skiers and fishermen.

“I’ve had them hit me in the arms and legs,” says Carter, who recalls one bone bruise on his shin that took weeks to heal. On one outing near Carter’s home in central Illinois, a flying carp knocked his friend out cold. “It actually hit him between the eyes, dropped him to his knees,” he recalls. Another friend had his nose broken.

YouTube is awash with videos of freaked-out Midwesterners batting the meaty fish from their boats. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the carp can jump as high as 10 feet into the air when spooked by outboard motors or other disturbances.

Politicians in Michigan and Illinois are pushing for help to build barriers and blast annoying sounds to repel the fish. Meanwhile, boaters are taking matters into their own hands.

When Nate Wallick takes his kids tubing on the Illinois River near their home in Peoria, he makes them wear football helmets. He’s also built a cage around the front of their inner tube, and gives everyone nets to catch the carp. Videos he’s posted show them howling with laughter while dozens of fat fish jump all around them.

Wallick wears a helmet and a cup when he goes water skiing, after once taking a hit to the groin that knocked him off his skis. The firefighter has a side business taking tourists bow-fishing for the carp along the Illinois River, where he rigs nets around the boat for protection.

He once neglected to put his nets up when he was driving the boat alone. “I took one right in the side of the head,” he said. “The fish darn near knocked me out.”

Asian carp originated in China and Russia and were brought to the U.S. in the 1970s to control algae blooms in ponds and wastewater treatment plants. Flooding allowed the fish to escape into the Mississippi Basin, and to reproduce at rates that have overpowered native species.

The big worry now is that the carp are migrating closer to the Great Lakes, where they could endanger the walleye, bass and trout that support the region’s $5 billion fishing industry.

When Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer visited the White House last month to speak with President Trump, she urged the administration to unfreeze federal funding for a river barrier that could stop the fish from reaching Lake Michigan.

In a social-media post after their meeting, Trump said he was working with Whitmer “on trying to save The Great Lakes from the rather violent and destructive Asian Carp.”

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker has also pushed the government to release the funding, saying the fish pose an “existential threat” to the Great Lakes. The barrier would combine a system of locks with an electric shield to stun and repel the fish. Underwater speakers blasting irritating sounds, and a curtain of air bubbles, would also deter the carp.

For now, alternative control measures continue apace.

At the Redneck Fishing Tournament in Bath, Ill., contestants use nets to catch as many jumping carp as they can. Some wear helmets, and a few have left with black eyes or broken noses, says founder Betty DeFord. She started the tournament to combat the fish after getting smacked by a carp while driving a pontoon boat 20 years ago. “I had a bruised shoulder and almost a black eye from it and I thought, well, this is on!”

A competitor is struck in the face by a fish during the Redneck Fishing Tournament in Illinois.

Carter started fishing for the carp full-time, lured by subsidies from the state of Illinois, which pays a dime per pound.

Illinois is also trying to get more people to eat them.

The state’s Department of Natural Resources has undertaken a marketing push to rebrand the fish as Copi, short for copious, to distinguish them from the bottom-feeding common carp and make them sound more appetizing. Fishermen and chefs report that Asian carp are actually delicious, though they are so bony they don’t make good filets. Chefs often grind them up and turn them into fish cakes.

Illinois officials have handed out samples of Copi cakes at the state fair, and set up a website, Choose Copi, to encourage restaurants, fishmongers and consumers to embrace the fish.

French chef Philippe Parola includes some carp recipes in his cookbook. PHILIPPE PAROLA

In Baton Rouge, La., the French chef Philippe Parola has become a passionate advocate for Copi. He includes some carp recipes in his “Can’t Beat ‘Em, Eat ‘Em!” cookbook, and wants to start a business to sell frozen Copi croquettes.

Parola says he has taken his fair share of carp hits over the years, but never to the head.

During a group fishing trip, one of Parola’s friends, Aaron Pierce, got smacked in the back by a flying carp, leaving a giant fish print on his t-shirt. “This was a 35-pound fish,” Parola said. “The guys were all laughing about it, but it could have broken someone’s back.”