Is the Bighead Carp caught during the 2009 December fish kill the nearest Asian Carp record for Lake Michigan?
NO. In 2004 a Silver Carp was found roughly two miles downstream from the Electric Barrier, making it the closest record to Lake Michigan. This was reported in the papers at the time, and the record has been published online and in books. We (or at least some of us) have known for years that occasional Asian Carp are swimming up to the Electric Barrier. The main body of the Asian Carp invasion still appears to be further downstream, somewhere between Channahon (where Interstate 55 crosses the Des Plaines River) and Joliet. This is a fairly typical pattern for a species expanding its range. You first see a few stray individuals that tend to wander from the rest of the group. Over time you see more and more of them until they become established permanent residents.
