Bowfishing for Carp SUCCESS! LTL

[LongTatLaw]

Well, after seeing a few people on here and on TV try bowfishing for carp I thought Id give it a shot

Sooo, when I ventured near the Tennessee River in Knoxville Tennessee for a date / father's day dinner and noticed some carp top feeding...well, lets just say the location was noted!

After a quick trip to the bass pro shop and local archery shop...I had a cheap but doable bowfishing set up and a TN fishing license! Soo, me and the wifey headed out to the river where we saw dozens of carp top feeding in the late afternoon just days ago. Unfortunately, after 2 hrs of chumming the top water I had only two shots and both were basically too far and too deep!


We decided to head to another local city lake that was reported to have good carp fishing!

We got there and sure enough there were tons of carp...most staying at about 15 yards and 2 feet deep...  but I still took many shots and had a great time!


Finally one surfaced at about 10 yards and that orange head poking out of the water was too easy a target to pass up!


I expected a great fight but this fish literally died on impact without even a single thrash!

So,...  we kept looking!


We had to take frequent stops...my wife is 2 days from giving birth to our 3rd baby! She is a trooper!


Any way,

I had enough chances to have a good half dozen in this pic but Im really not well practiced with the bow fishing set up and the set up I was using was kinda cheap but all and all..it was every bit as fun as I expected! If you get the chance...try this guys and gals!

oh...heres the money shot!   sorry Michelle...no work for you in this trip!

[huntnphool]

Looks like a giant goldfish Longtat

[LongTatLaw]

Yeah...they have a carp here that they call gold fish carp...not sure if this is one or not??   they are all free game and year round open season so...whatever

[teal101]

How did that reel setup work for you?  I been contemplating getting one of the spendy ones but if that worked OK for you I might give it a try first.

[SpokaneSlayer]

I'm intereted as well.

BTW - Welcome home man!

[LongTatLaw]

I have the 120$ one from cabelas at home and the clear plastic bottle pops off often but otherwise its a good system.

This was 31$ and overall..Id say it was worth the money I paid...remembering that the arrow that came with was 20$ so it is worth the 10$ I spent for the rest. The white cord tangles easy and the reel mechanism tightens on itself basically locking it deeper and deeper into the stabilizer hole until it wont move. So I spent all night just hand dragging it in and hand spooling it onto the spool. It still worked and after maybe 25 shots its still in decent shape. I had to re-tighten the arrow head after every single shot..but whatever.

Theres better set ups but this will get ya fishing for 30$.

Hope that helps...Im a LOOOOOONG way from an expert on bowfishing...this was my first successful trip and I went 1/25... although..many of those were forced shots and really...i had 3-4 shots that I actually had a decent chance of hitting fish...  still. NO expert!

There are some super studs on here that have probably filled the backs of pick up trucks dozens of times bowfishing for carp! Maybe they can weigh in...

I replaced my big game bow this year so I believe Ill set my old bow from 78 lbs to about 55 and make it a permanent bowfishing rig with one pin...

any way

give it a try..it was hella fun!

dave

[couesbitten]

Welcome back Dave! Nice shootin' down at the koi pond.

Scott

[LongTatLaw]

coues...  apparently u dont know me well enough!! 

I could have fun shooting gold fish outta the lil 50 gal pond inside the China King buffet...lol

I thought mine was a big gold fish carp but I looked and the TN state record is like 50 lbs...  soooo  wow..thats a big damn gold fish...lol

[tlbradford]

I used the cheepie set-up and it works great.  I found that gluing the head to the arrow shaft works better than having it release.  I shot with this set-up on a flipper rest, so I don't know how it works on a drop away or a whisker biscuit.  Because you are using heavier line with this set-up you lose some range, I don't think I have ever shot one past 25 yards.  Of course you can haul them up out of the water easy if you are shooting from a bridge or steep bank.

[oneezreiter]

That looks like FUN!!  and your wife is definatly a trooper.

[robb92]

Very Cool.

[big ed]

We used to shoot 'm down in so cal we found out if there swimming just under the surf of the water shoot low about 5 or 6 inches it improved are hit rate.The water seems to put where they are'nt.Any way good shooting .