Opening weekend of turkey season here and I just slept in this morning after hearing nothing yesterday. My dad sends me a text and says he saw a shallow plumb full of fish spawning this morning. So I string up the fishing bow and head for the lake. Sure enough, this little hole was FULL of spawning carp. Killed 25 in about 35-40 mins and decided I'd stop at 50. Complete pass through into a log on number 26...fish pulls off the string and broke the arrow trying to pull it loose. Didn't bring a spare arrow so called it a day at 25.

Now that is some real good clean fun. Nice going.

Idk bout clean but sounds like a good day.

Looks good, but now the real work begins. Nice bow BTW.

-Bones

OK. So, am I looking at garden fertilizer or what?

I am gonna have to check my local canal tomorrow to see if the same is happening here thanks

I can't even give the things away for garden fertilize. I just throw em out in the woods behind the house and let them fertilize the timber. The main thing is to never leave them laying on the banks...it gives us bowfishermen a really bad name and nobody wants to smell that in a day or two.

Ours will start as soon as it quits snowing sometime next month, lol

Fun.

Nice! Looks like you have enough to back a bow! Or plenty of stinky fertilizer.

That looks awesome KDog! I may have to hit you up for a how to on that.

Not my bow, but would like to do one similar. Maybe one our self bow guys will chime in and tell us how to cure the skins. Titebond 111 is the glue, tru oil or marine spar could be the finish.

Fertilizer..? Surely you have at least tried them? Not all fish are Crappie or trout. Others okay to eat too.

-Bones

You mean you don't eat em?

Nope. I don't eat them. It's an invasive species, non native to any and all fresh waters in North America. I have zero sympathy over killing them...they're just nasty crap eaters, guys. I think I am gonna try to cook up some buffalo this year if I can kill some.

In Europe carp are highly valued as food. No carp hunting in Indiana just got 2 inches of snow in the last 5 hrs, supposed to be 50 tomorrow, 67 on Tuesday and start raining again.

To each their own. I look at them in the same light as coyotes...I ain't eating them when I kill em either lol

Shag, I do know what you mean. There are some species I will not consider food, much the same as the coyote.

-Bones

I love fource feeding fishies

I think bow fishing was outlawed in Ct....

we have 32 inches of ice yet and ice fishing remains very good,,,,,,, lot of guys going to n mn and Ontario for perch and walleye,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

I believe the ice will be on the lake for opening weekend in early May

Dry Bones, what work? Burying them? They may taste okay out of Bighorn Reservior, but you really have to work to get a clean piece of meat away from all the fat and gook, but in most lowland waters they are toxic accumulators and mushy, taste like the poor quality water they come out of. Europeans and Asians can have them.

Good coyote bait maybe. Would not eat either.

Good coyote bait maybe. Would not eat either.

Good coyote bait maybe. Would not eat either.

Won't be any carp shooting around here for quite a while. Getting about six inches of the white stuff as I type.

So sick of winter.

We call them mud carp for a good reason.

I bartered with a Jewish gent at a 711 years ago he wanted some carp and got him some nice ones. need some for my garden too.

Somebody had a fun day. Good shooting!

If you slit them up the belly, they will sink and you can throw them back in the lake/river. Then they become nutrients. If you don't slit the belly, they will just float and wash up on the banks. We did a lot of that years ago, but I haven't been carp shooting for a couple decades.

Along the upper Mississippi they are plentiful, and there is hardly a river town anywhere that doesn't sell them smoked. Excellent eating that way. I've got some in the fridge right now.

Usually around late april - early may round here! Love me some bowfishing action!

I shot up s bunch of Carp s number of years ago. I just left them as food for raccoon s and snakes. Today , I would soak them in 7UP for a couple of days and they reportedly Taste great with people coming for seconds.

I don't eat them, but I quit bowhunting for carp after I stalked the shore and caught my first one on a fly rod. Instead of simply killing them and wasting them you should get yourself a fly rod, some carp flies and have a grand time watching that rod bend and hearing that reel scream. Sorry but IMHO they are way too much of a challenge on a fly and way too much fun on a fly rod to waste. Just my 2 cents.

Desperado I agree ??

In Wisconsin it is illegal to discard rough fish, back into the lake, in any condition,,,,,, one nice thing they do have, is waste dumpsters, at the big shoots, where they are picked up and taken to the farm fields

Desperado,,,,, fly fishing for them, on clear flats in Door County in Wis is popular,,,,,

I've ate them pickled, and it was pretty good. Don't know how it was done. My favorite spot has heavy brush on the banks, my carp find a final resting place there.

Good shooting Shag! Must have been fun. I personally, would shoot them and give them the taste test before dumping them. Also, catching and releasing them with light tackle should be a blast!

Carp are bottom feeders. Around here the streams have so much mercury in them I'd never use them for fertilizer in garden. If a person wants to eat them they suggest one a year. Think about putting them in your garden as fertilizer

Very good point, Coop. Whatever is in them would, in turn, be sucked up into the plants in the garden. They just aren't fit for much in my eyes. The poplars behind the house don't seem to mind them though.

A guy who used to work with me bottled some smaller spring carp from cold water, thinking they ought to be nearly as tasty as cutthroat or rainbows. I ate some. Wouldn't do it again. He finished them off but never did it again. I have never purposely fly fished for carp, but picked up a few accidental while deep nymph fishing an area trout reservoir. Don' t know how big on a couple of them but had to break off when they hit the end of a hundred yards of backing on a five weight rod. It wasn't unheard of for someone to shoot a 30-pounder or heavier when the club use to have a carp shoot in late spring. Lots of fun. And the wife's Irish water spaniel certainly likes them--to eat, roll, and bury them. We call it recycling, just before we take her to the car wash.

I, too... would like to know more about curing the skins for selfbow backing. I have a buddy, who would love a bow like that !!

That looks like a ton of fun!!!

we still have two feet of ice.

X2 what Desperado said. They are an absolute blast catching them under a float Withbread or hair rigged corn. I have coughs a a lot of them this way . And limber rod with 6 lbs line plus a box car carp is something you won't forget. I came very close to getting a seven weight fly rod just for Carp.

Hey BOX CALL, I've shot AT the flying carp lol. Fortunately, we don't have them here...they haven't made it this far up the Cumberland River and I hope they don't. But I have made a 2 hour drive just to shoot at the flying carp. I killed about everything in those waters that's legal to kill except the Asian carp. It was a ton of fun shooting at them though.

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