Carp, Common 41.84 38.00 Jun 8, 2006

This fish was bow killed. Almost 42#


Took out location for bow killers

Yup. Some get a great thrill in the kill.

what bow rig do you use?

He didn't kill it, he is disgusted by it.

Oh, thats unfortunate.

Um, so are you

BCH

Why is it unfortunate that I feel it's a travesty to waste a trophyfish?

Yes wasting fish is never a good thing. But not all people that bowfish waste what they shoot. I will eat big gar an when I shoot carp it gets thrown in the freezer for bait. I know people that the fish they cant keep for themselves, they sell to friends as bait. We also give away for free to people to use as they want whether to eat or as another use. There are many uses for carp other than bait like fertilizer, coyote/varmint bait, you can cut an entire carp and use as cat chum in your favorite spots and to start feeding frenzies. The chum can be used at lakes, river, pond, an creeks. Works well when throw around a trot line.

It is actually illegal to use a fish for anything but food or bait. If you need fertilizer goto home depot.

BCH, I guess you don't understand that this is not the venue to bring up killing the carp that we love to catch and release. You can do whatever you want with your legally harvested fish within TPWD regulations, but this is not the area to share what you do with your kills without potentially raising some hard feelings.

Wow a communistic "venue"...debate not welcome here. I guess...
Curt- Blame my ignorance or call me stupid don't matter to me, but yes at first I couldn't put it together to realize this was a one sided venue. It is not my intention to offend, but feelings will not stop me from expressing my view. I will try to do so as respectfully as I can but I will say what I need to for sake of a good argument. It is only the narrow minded that refuse to have a discussion because they get offended. Dont get but hurt step up and discuss your view.
Ted- I do support catch and release but if you do your research as I have, you will find that carp when not controlled can be negative on the environment. Carp do not belong here, no matter if its a trophy... an invasive species is an invasive species, bad news unless controlled. If they were good for Texas TPW wouldnt let us shoot them like on lake Austin, were bowfishing is regulated. Go look at the silver carp up north.

BCH,

You are certainly entitled to your opinion. I don't think you came in here intending to start anything.

There IS a reason why this forum has a no bowfishing topic rule; it's because in the past it has sparked some seriously ugly flame wars, with threats of violence at times (from both sides) when people would come in here with the sole intention of antagonizing carp anglers. I believe it's an issue that just shouldn't be brought up period here as it accomplishes nothing but stirring up trouble.

I don't have an issue with bowfishing in and of itself as long as it's done in moderation and legally. What does make us cringe is when we hear reports of trophy fish that may be older than most of us, and that we would practically give our left arm to catch, that are killed purely for the fun of it.

We love our carp as much as any other angler loves their species of choice. The common carp (which has very little in common with the silver, bighead and grass carp and is only distantly related) has been in our waters for well over a hundred years, and by and large those waters have done just fine without government regulation. And the common carp is not technically an invasive species, it is an introduced species, stocked throughout the nation by none other than the U.S. government in the late 1800's.

You won't find any argument here about the dangers presented by the Asian carp infestation in the Mississippi River watershed; in fact we do everything we can to differentiate between those species and the common carp.

I've seen bowfishers many times when I was out carp fishing and in all but a couple of instances they kept their distance and were respectful to us. But I've also seen them cruise right through our swim firing arrows amongst our lines. I'm pretty sure that's not legal, let alone ethical. These are the types that give you guys a bad name. I know there are dbags in every facet of life and that most of you are not like this, but it's stuff like this that colors some of our opinions of BF'ers.

That said, I know of a couple serious catch and release carp anglers that come from a bowfishing background and I consider them good friends and great guys.

Just trying to give you an idea of why the rule is there.

Please do NOT post bowfishing topics in this section. All such topics will be moved or deleted.

Dude read the header for this section,,,,,,,,Mods where are you??

Ignorance must be bliss

Wow, do some more research dude. Silver carp are a totally different species than common carp. Silver carp ARE invasive. Common Carp are NOT. They are NATURALIZED. They have been here since the 1800's. You would think that if they were so invasive, then all waterways would be decimated by now.

Go kill some silver carp.

It's interesting that attempts to advise and educate are now viewed as attacks. I tried to find that in my communist manifesto and had no luck.

Cyprinus- I am fairly new to TFF and was not aware that past problems existed, especially were a rule had to be made. I have wondered why I haven't seen anyone talking about BowFishing. I understand what your saying though, and I hold a high respect for that. I didn't intentionally want to offend anyone in anyway.
If you were thinking that was my intent I apologize. I'm not here to antagonize just for a conversation. I practice catch and released more times than not.

Honestly, when I see the grounds for creating a strongly opinionated discussion then I will. I guess I enjoy having the ability to share my views freely but at the same time get to listen to what others have to say. There has already been several times that I started a discussion saying one thing and at the end I was persuaded to support the the other side.

"To blame for BF'ings bad name"...
I can't believe the ignorance and how unbelievably self-centered some people are. When growing up raised as a baptist, my dad taught me to respect other fishermen. He would take me wading with him and he taught me that if people were bank fishing, we had to respect them and get out and walk the bank. When my cousin would bring his boat out to Inks Lake if we got close to any campers, we would have to turn the generator off to be respectful of other campers. He taught me when fishing on a crowded pier to keep a neat area and to give the person to either side has his fair space.
I support catch and release practices and think that more people should practice it also. And yes true monster trophy fish should be released, every year it'll get bigger. All catfish I catch under 2ft I will most likely let go to catch another day. Yes bowfishing should be done in moderation but to what extent of moderation is up to the individual or until TPW steps in.

I used to see guys bow fish from below Lavon Dam in the summer.They would shoot the fish from the bank about 10 feet away,no fun at all.

I'm glad this topic is relatively mellow compared to where it could have gone and where they have gone in the past. One could argue this was a bow fishing topic from the start, but I think it has probably run its course.