I read this and am amazed at the size of this carp.
http://www.bnd.com/389/story/333888.html

Newspaper:
Opel won the fight -- and the admiration of anglers everywhere who fantasize about landing a monster fish such as his trophy.

Weighed on a certified scale at Worden Food Market in Worden, the huge Asian carp had a 30-inch girth and measured 62 inches long. It obliterated the previous Illinois bowfishing record for bighead carp of 35 pounds, 5 ounces set by John Borgers on June 8, 2006.

According to Duane Chapman, a fish biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey who specializes in carp studies, Opel's catch is the largest on record by a recreational fisherman in the Western Hemisphere.

Chapman said there are only two bigger bighead carp on record in the world. A 93-pounder was captured in a reservoir in northern Texas a few years ago, but it was not caught by an angler and not weighed on a certified scale.

The 93 pounder caught in Texas "was not caught by an angler" so the record does not count.
This one was not caught by an angler it was shot with a bow. Does it count if I go "shotgun-fishing?"

I do not know what to think of this, but I had to rant...

That certainly is a beast of a fish!
I personally don't care for bowfishing, but it is a legally recognized (in many states) way to take fish. To each their own. As long as the person is going to use the fish they take with a bow, thats fine I guess. I just don't like the "shoot and toss" mentality. Just my 2 cents.

Wow. I think hook and line for a common carp (mirror, leather) is right around 90 pounds (france I think).

It would be wild to actually catch one of those bigheads! I guess in the comming years we'll see just how big these guys can get here in the US.

How long have there been bighead carp in Illinois? I guess they must grow awfully fast.

Has anyone researched hook and line fishing tactics for these invasive?

I would love to see what types of appraoches are used in getting these brutes to take a bait. Or if they just anything put in front of them? Also are they filter feeders like gizzard shad?

I need to research them more..

Speaking of gizzard shad Qauttro got one yesterday on a beetle spin inside the mouth... I HAVE NEVER seen one take a lure before it was amazing...

Meadeo

I have seen unusual end tackle for these fish. It is a type of method feeder with lots of small (size 20?) hooks dangling from it. The pack bait for the method feeder, or rather modified method feeder (I think it either floats or hangs mid column) is some sort of fine particle that dissolves and rains down these little particles. The algae loving carp (is plural of carp carps?) inadvertantly are hooked when inhaling the fine bait cloud. if I can ever find another photo of this I'll post it. I suppose if you knew what the mix was for the pack bait, or could come up with your own, the method feeder or whatever the rig is called could be homemade and taylored specificaly to your waters.
Maybe algae wafers and corn meal or minced aquatic plants with oatmeal would work?

It would be cool to target these with a flyrod. I have heard of people tying weed flies for targeting amur (grass carp).

I did at one point. I'll see if I can refind the paper I found, but it was out of the Transactions of the American Fisheries Society if I remember correctly. The general findings were that while they did on occasion eat somewhat larger things (one had like a 4 inch fish in its gut), they generally focused on the tiniest of tiny phytoplankton. When I compared the sizes of food particles they listed in the paper to hook sizes, the average was around 1/10 the size of a #32 hook. The gill rakers on those things look like a sponge. It's amazing.

Honestly, when the food gets that small, I don't think they're actively chasing it. The energy cost would be enormous in comparison to what they gained from it. So, if we could drift a teeny fly in front of a filter feeding fish, they might take it as part of the cloud of food they're feeding on.