Carp Shooters

[oxnam]

Some of you guys shoot a ton of carp.  I have seen pictures and videos of guys shooting a lot of fish.

What do you do with them?  I assume they are not being consumed, so I was curious how they dispose of so many, especially after some of the contest shoots.

[KHALVERSON]

i personally bury them
they grow great tomatoes and roses
just bury them deep enough that you dont hit them with the rototiller
god what a smell
kevin

[Ragnarok Forge]

Give them to the local Russians.  They eat them and love it when you give them over.

[chad graham]

i put them in the ground next to my neighbors roses and he loves it! i shot 34 fish this year.

[Buckeye Trad Hunter]

Compost, turtle or catfish bait, bait for coon traps if permitted, and yes some people say if properly cleaned that they are some of the best fish you can eat, although I've never ate them myself.

[rp65]

When I was in my early teens my dad smoked them and they where very good, but only in the spring before the water gets to warm. We also thew them in the pen for the hogs to eat and boy did they love eating them. I have not shot carp for many years,but I think I should try it again. It's a blast!

[LC]

Well I gotta be totally honest here! Carp are NON NATIVE SPECIES. In simpler terms they was brought here and introduced and just like similar species they can and will overtake the native species in a short time. If with a open mind you investigate what happens to native species when they are introduced you will look at them more like a cancer! I don't take killing ANYTHING lightly but I will readily kill gypsy moths, flies, mosquitos, rats, mice, starlings, termites, slugs, aphidis, potato bugs, etc when deemed necessary. You get my point. With that said also they are bottom feeders. That means they suck thru the  silt of the bottom of ponds and rivers where most all the contaniments are. Most are full of mercury etc. I use to bring them home and bury in my garden till I realized the local DNR recommended no more than one carp a year for consumtion. Lets just say I quit burying them in my garden or quit giving to local pig farmers.

So now your left with the decision, let them run rampant and destory all native fish and live forever or try to do my best to control them and have a blast doing it! Well theres my answer! I practice catch and release. Slice the air sac and let them go back. I've never went back the  next day or actually a few hours later and I found a single fish. Usually within one pass a snapper has them or a raccon.Actually I feel sorry for both of them knowing the results of consumption.
I will add there was a local stream that was TOTALLY taken over by carp in our county. My trad brothers with a new found passion of bowfishing cleaned up that stream. They said it couldn't be done but lets just say after four years there was no more shootable carp in that stream. The locals never knew why but the game speices, smallmouth, large mouth, drum, muskie etc flourished. They loved it. Life was good! Then this year for reasons still not clear the water became polluted again, green alagae, and KILLED EVERY living thing in it..... EXCEPT some fry carp. Local folks were furious and rightfully so. They said all we had left was carp! Some was even quoted in the local paper saying this stream use to be nothing but carp but for the last several years  was full of game fish! Go figure! They eventually traced  this years fish kill back to mine runoff, gas well brine dumping all within legal limits. The bottom line they never cared about the river till some local trad bowfishermen cleaned it up and they never even realized it! True story!

[oxnam]

I am definately not concerned about the wasting of carp and they have proven to be quite invasive.  I have used them in the garden, but I sure don't have enough tomatoe plants for that.  

I have heard of the cutting the air sack, and I think I heard someone say that a fish and game officer suggested it.  Does that keep them from floating up when they are dead?  Where do you cut?

[yekrut]

I smoke them and eat'em , just cut out the mud line and get after em, there good if cleaned properly. we get them in the spring.

[LC]

The air sack is a rather large white sack located close behing the the gills and a knife on a dead fish will expose it quickly.

[LoweBow]

LC...I'm right there w/ you, especially w/ the Bighead and Silver carp that we shoot each summer.
I shoot tons...and not exagerating...literally tons of fish each summer.  Live for bowfishing!  Used to have a guy years ago that would take the commons and buffs, but when he passed I just began heaving them into a sinkhole here on our farm.  I have no remorse and the critters get a great meal outta them.  We eat the cats, paddlefish, some buffs, and my boy loves the gar.  Not saying we eat all the buffs and gar, but buffalo ribs and longnose backstaps are good eatin.

[Earthdog]

In New Zealand it is illegal to remove them from the area,most guys just leave them on the bank,but I bury them.

The reason your not allowed to remove them is that they are a noxious pest and not removing them is just one step in helping top stop the spread.

[tradsniper]

There is a wild life science center near were i usually go bowfishing so I just take them there and they feed them to the bears

[legends1]

Depends on where we hunt them.Some locations we go there are people who want them.They say there realy good to eat.Other than the bones they maybe.Other spots we dig a pit.

[Mechslasher]

fertilizer for deer foodplots

[finkm1]

I shot a few last spring and buried them in the garden, but a local family of skunks kept digging them up. The rest of the carp I shot, I disposed of in some tall weeds away from the river. They need to be harvested and the critters will eat them, so I don't see it as a waste.

[Roy Steele]

When I was younger the old guy I knew either dipping and later on summer when we carp fished he kept them all and cold packed them.Although I havn't  eaten it in a long time I've eaten it quite a few times.While along the river camping,dipping,fishing etc. and I liked it.

[John Nail]

send them to Gitmo. Good enough for teriorists.

[oxnam]

Originally posted by John Nail:
send them to Gitmo. Good enough for teriorists.

Too bad we don't treat terrorists like terrorists  

[Ranger Rick]

i bury them beneath bushes and flower beds. It makes good fertilizer and the contaminants dont get into the food chain. I also know a local fox farm(nonlonger in business) used to take them.