The folks in Bath, Illinois, have the right idea when it comes to putting a dent in an invasive species population. Kill ’em, kill ’em all if you can!

Hundreds of people flocked to the small village to take out (or watch people take out) as many silver Asian carp as possible from a stretch in the Illinois River about three hours south of Chicago. The Redneck Fishing Tournament was held Aug. 4-6.

Tournament-goers wearing hockey masks and wielding landing nets in boats big and small removed more than 20,000 pounds of “copi” – a new name given to the scourge of the waters from up there to down here – and also raised nearly $7,000 for homeless veterans and breast cancer victims in central Illinois.

According to a Field & Stream story Aug. 16 by Paul Richards, the event got its start when tournament founder Betty DeFord came up with the concept in 2005.

“They’re just a nuisance fish. They’re driving out all our other fish. They’re bottom-feeders. They eat everything there is, and they spawn four times a year,” DeFord said.

It’s a wild, wild scene, as any Acadiana freshwater fisherman can imagine after stirring up the slimy suckers in and around the Atchafalaya Basin. Some of the Illinois tournament fishermen brandishing the nets leave bloodied and bruised.

Quick reflexes are a must to catching as it propels itself out of the water.

Willie Schrader, a past Redneck Fishing Tournament winner, said, “Don’t fall out of the boat and don’t get hit and you’ll be just fine.”

There are photos and a video at www.fieldandstream.com and at news.wttw.com/2018/08/09/redneck-fishing-flying-asian-carp-illinois-river.

The fish jump and clear the surface whenever startled by a boat’s outboard motor, or even a trolling motor, anywhere. You’ve got to keep your head on a swivel while boating here in the nation’s last great overflow swamp and, unfortunately, Lake Fausse Pointe.

We absolute loathe those silver Asian carp. One hit my face when it jumped five or six years ago as I was idling to cypress trees near Charenton Shell Beach Landing.

Other tales of woes have been told around here and elsewhere. One day a leaping carp will swmash into the head of a driver or passenger in a boat on step and do serious harm.

If one lands in the boat, well, it behooves boaters to get it out quickly. The invasive species bleeds easily once it begins thrashing around on the deck or the bottom of the boat.

Silver Asian carp represent 70 percent of the fish swimming in some parts of the Mississippi River system. They are threatening the Great Lakes region, where a barrier dam planned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers could prevent the ugly, good-for-nothing trash fish from infiltrating Lake Michigan.

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources renamed the fish copi (from the word copious) in an attempt to encourage people to eat the fish. Louisiana officials also have started campaigns over the years to get it on the dinner table.

Perhaps a tournament like the recent event in Illinois could eradicate silver Asian carp. Well, at least make a dent in the population.

Those 3,300 copi amassing 20,000-plus pounds caught in the recent tournament amounted to a drop in the bucket.

Hoover attended the event to study the fish by collecting bone samples to age the fish and examining ovaries to learn more about their reproductive cycles.

“We’re really only beginning to understand the life history of these animals. They have unprecedented powers of reproduction. These fish are maturing at 1 year,” Hoover said.

The invasion really is out of hand.

That’s why I cheered for the shark(s) in the borrow pit that dined on silver Asian carp near the old Verdunville Boat Landing along the West Atchafalaya Basin Protection Levee, per my column Aug. 7 on the Outdoors pages of The Daily Iberian. Tim Choate of Youngsville, formerly of New Iberia, was bass fishing there July 29 with his son, Eben, and daughter, Phebe, 14, when they witnessed two bloody shark attacks against carp.

When sharks win, we win. Unfortunately, right now it seems like a losing battle so somehow we’ve got to win the war against silver Asian carp. They are overwhelming our ecosystem and outcompeting native fish for food.

It doesn’t look good for the home team.

DON SHOOPMAN is outdoors editor of The Daily Iberian.