Missouri Carp Crawl

[Gatekeeper]

I left the boat at home and walked the shores of a local lake yesterday and wound up having more shots than I could keep track of. The area that I prowled is very shallow and trying to maneuver a boat around this slough is more trouble than it’s worth

   

   

   

I stopped on the bridge Wednesday night to check on the carp activity since the recorded lake temps was 63 degrees and I found the activity to be good. So I made plans to be at the lake the following day.

The wind was a little strong and created a lot of waves, which made it hard to spot the fish at times and then there were other times when I would find a small pocket of water that was calm and some of those spots showed a lot of this…

   

I wasn’t the only one fishing this slough

   

   

…And there was this guy. I don’t mind snakes as long as I know where they are. It’s when they surprise me that I find myself high stepping my way along the bank. This was one of those times. I was standing on a bunch of rip rap watching a snake in the water with a large bulge about midway in its body and I looked down and there was a big SOB about 18” away from my foot!  Activate high-speed knees to chest marching band leg moves! It wasn’t until I regained my composure that I realized his mouth was already full.

   

I spent the first half of the day walking the west side of the slough throwing all the shot fish on the shore and then after a couple of hours I walked the shore back the way I came from hunting the same water again shooting more fish and gathering the fish that were shot while walking in. I put them on a stringer and dragged them out.

   

[Gatekeeper]

In the afternoon I hunted the east side of the slough the same way as I did during the morning on the west side of the slough.

 
 
By the end of the day’s hunt I shot 19 fish and landed 16 of them. For some reason my arrow tip would work it’s way to the open position and 3 of the fish slid off the arrow just as I was about to land them. Grrrrr! Very frustrating.

The largest fish shot was 10#. The total pound hauled out of the lake was 88#.

   

   

By the way the humane way to kill a fish is very simple and very fast. After you land the fish face it away from yourself (tail towards you) and the fish’s belly flat to the ground (as if the fish were swimming away from you) then use a sharp steel rod (I use a heavy duty tent stake that has been sharpened to a point) Put the point of the rod at the base of the fish’s skull (on the top of the fish) and push the rod into the fish’s brain and give it a couple of wiggles. Done dead fish, quick and easy. Now the arrow can be removed without worrying about the fish flipping back into the water.

 

Porter, logging out

   

[Mudd]

Thanks for sharing!

   

[Izzy]

Awesome story telling. My spot is picking up speed since my last hunt and Im hoping to hit the water as soon as I get out of work.  

[Big Ed]

Very nice!!

[Jeff D. Holchin]

Looks like fun.  Also looks like a harmless water snake    

[Gatekeeper]

Originally posted by Izzy:
Awesome story telling. My spot is picking up speed since my last hunt and Im hoping to hit the water as soon as I get out of work.      

The lake temp as of this morning is 64deg and yesterday's temp report was 63deg so the spawn is starting. I'll be out again this afternoon.      Good luck and have fun!

[BMN]

Nice Tom!  

[Tsalt]

Nice!!

[Over&Under]

Some fine shooting!

[Jerry Jeffer]

Thanks for sharing your great day of bow fishing story. Nice catch.

[Barry Wensel]

I really like that last picture of you. You look like you'd be a nice guy.  8^)  bw

[ron w]

Cool......but where's the Derby??

[Thumper Dunker]

Cool stuff.  

[Gatekeeper]

...and the hits just keep on coming.

I only got out for an hour tonight and on the last shot the expandable wings on the arrow's tip broke off. I'm not sure how I managed to get the last fish that was shot landed but I did it.

There are only 5 fish pictured but I actually shot a total of 6. The biggest was 9.5# and the others were 7.5 or 8.5# each. The total weight was 50#+-      

 

 

Originally posted by ron w:
Cool......but where's the Derby??

Its a little too warm for the Derby.

[Gatekeeper]

Another day    

[Gatekeeper]

[Gatekeeper]

[Charlie Lamb]

[Charlie Lamb]