If they're keen on eating pond weed perhaps the stocking truck should pay a visit to Hatch Pond on it's way to Candlewood.

I don't suppose they'll be able to eat all the weed in Candlewood. But how much effect will they have on the weedlines we currently fish relative to providing cover for forage and ambush points for bass?

this is a big mistake

Agreed, I'm with Cwood only time will tell.......if its bad it will be very bad. Seems to me, in typical fashion.....they are taking the cheapest way possible to fix the problem regardless of the ramifications. Hope it works!

I have been involved with grass carp and weed control since the mid-80s before grass carp were even controlled here in Ct. using them in my own pond and since 1997 being on the Ball Pond Advisory Committee for the Town of New Fairfield where we chose grass carp over chemicals and harvestors to control eurasian water milfoil in conjunction with the DEP's Inland Fisheries unit. Peter Aarrestad, the current Director of Inland Fisheries, was the biologist on the project.
RichZ, Jimfish, Jon Pski and other bass fishermen on the site have been involved in a lot of the discussions and situations that influenced what we did at Ball Pond. All of the people involved with the CLA project have been involved from the beginning with Ball Pond and if there had not been success with the Ball Pond project this would not be a viable proposal for Candlewood.
Some history:
--Ball Pond was 95% milfoil in 1997 with milfoil biomass over all of its less than 20 foot depths growing to the surface. Now it is less than 10% of the biomass found in the very shallow areas with native coontail replacing it in the deeper waters along with an increase in a half dozen other native water plants. So there is much better bio-diversity in the pond now.
--Over all biomass reduction is about 50% of the base biomass of 1997. The intent is never to eat all of the weeds or destroy any weed beds at the root level. Grass carp feed at the soft tips and eat down the stalk until it gets woody and then they snap off the stalk at the mid point and go on to the next plant. With coontail they feed from both the top and on the tips of the side branches.
--Much of the grass carp data on the internet is still quoted from 1970s documentation. For instance, in the 1970s stocking rates were 60 carp per surface acre of water. Now it is 15 carp per VEGETATED surface acre of water with all water over 20 feet deep not counted. Over stocking should not happen any more. The Candlewood plan is simply to have the carp feed on the top of the milfoil beds so that they don't grow to the surface and interfer with boating, swimming, and other activities. There will still be an inside and outside weed edge and a weed free shoreline area depending upon the winter drawdown depth plus sun light will penetrate the milfoil beds better allowing low growing native plants like Najas, Elodea and the pond weeds better opportunity. Hopefully, there will be enough grass carp to keep the weeds cropped down and off the surface.
--Ball Pond electro-shocking data which is taken at least every other year shows an increase in Largemouth Bass populations in all year class categories and has helped in reducing stock piling of stunted blue gill. Forage for bass in Ball Pond is primarily blue gill and alewife herring, the same as in Candlewood. Ball Pond is rated one of the top large mouth bass lakes for both quality and quantity in the state.
--Stocking grass carp is both a science and an artform. It is not like chemicals that simply kill everything. You control your weed biomass by the number of carp stocked and monitor this every year. There will be underwater transects that will be harvested and weighed every year to measure the effectiveness of the program. If biomass reduction is not enough or it starts to come back then more carp are added. If everything is going fine then no carp are added for a year or two or just enough to offset attrition rates which run between 10 - 15 percent a year depending upon the water body.
Anyway, those are my thoughts on what I thought were the biggest concerns. There is a lot more that could be written but Ball Pond was also given a grant to prepare a document on the entire multi year carp project and we have hired a PHD Limnologist to write the document with Inland Fisheries participation so next year it will be available to the public.