Texas Fishing Forum

Severly injured carp.

Posted By: Curt0407

Severly injured carp. - 06/08/15 07:11 PM

I was fishing Lake Quitman with a couple of guys today. The last fish that was caught had suffered a severe injury to it's underbelly near the tail. The injury was very recent as the fish started bleeding from the wound after it was landed. It was revived and swam away. Here is a pic. I am trying to figure out what might have caused this. I have my speculation, as we saw another nice sized freshly killed fish floating a few yards from shore.

Posted By: HeavyLead

Re: Severly injured carp. - 06/08/15 08:33 PM

I'd guess an alligator did that.
Posted By: Action_Jackson

Re: Severly injured carp. - 06/08/15 09:03 PM

Could it possibly be a gar fish that tried to eat it hmmm
Posted By: uncle_bagster

Re: Severly injured carp. - 06/08/15 10:53 PM

I don't know, but I'd write that place off as a swimming hole.
Posted By: Action_Jackson

Re: Severly injured carp. - 06/08/15 11:41 PM

Maybe a giant snapping turtle hmmm
Posted By: Curt0407

Re: Severly injured carp. - 06/09/15 12:04 AM

I may go with the alligator snapping turtle. The wound was all the way to the backbone. I have seen a huge snapper in that lake in the years past.
Posted By: Cat finder

Re: Severly injured carp. - 06/09/15 12:09 AM

Im in for turtle as well. Other then cat and drum/ rock fish seems to be the only other thing i catch on carp chunks.
Posted By: Woj

Re: Severly injured carp. - 06/09/15 12:15 AM

Poor shot placement from a bow fisherman
Posted By: Blues

Re: Severly injured carp. - 06/09/15 12:39 AM

Originally Posted By: Woj
Poor shot placement from a bow fisherman


With what an axe?
Posted By: fishenrod

Re: Severly injured carp. - 06/09/15 01:47 AM

Originally Posted By: Woj
Poor shot placement from a bow fisherman


My thoughts too, then he was open season for others such as turtle as he left a blood trail.
Posted By: dmunsie

Re: Severly injured carp. - 06/09/15 01:26 PM

I'm not ruling out poor bow shot placement, but the bite shape does tend to look like a snapping turtle's mouth structure with the point near the top of the bite. Fish seems to be hanging on if he had enough energy to take the bait and survive the reel in. Interesting post, photo, thanks for sharing.
Posted By: banker-always fishing

Re: Severly injured carp. - 06/09/15 01:50 PM

I would guess turtle! hmmm
Posted By: Fishbreeder

Re: Severly injured carp. - 06/09/15 03:15 PM

What did the other (dead) fish look like?

Sure looks like an otter got aholt of that carp. Usually, otters tend to eat the fish tail first, and toss the head away. That does not look like a bite from a turtle or alligator to me.
Posted By: Curt0407

Re: Severly injured carp. - 06/09/15 03:32 PM

Originally Posted By: Fishbreeder
What did the other (dead) fish look like?

Sure looks like an otter got aholt of that carp. Usually, otters tend to eat the fish tail first, and toss the head away. That does not look like a bite from a turtle or alligator to me.


The other fish was too far out to see any obvious wounds. The injured carp weighed well over 13 pounds. I would think that this fish would have been too big, and if healthy before the injury, too active for an otter to catch.
Posted By: BCJC82

Re: Severly injured carp. - 06/09/15 05:32 PM

I was thinking it might be a bowfin bite.
Posted By: Droyhef

Re: Severly injured carp. - 06/09/15 11:49 PM

Not to big for an otter, and plenty of snapping turtles in etc
Posted By: blooper961

Re: Severly injured carp. - 06/10/15 01:22 PM

Yea the turtle.The carp would be slowly swimming and feeding.
When he swam by the turtle,he latched on and would not let go until a chunk came out.
This is normal behavior for these guys.
Posted By: SharkBaitTV

Re: Severly injured carp. - 06/10/15 01:55 PM

not a gar bite they cant take chunks out of as fish like that, they have holding teeth not tearing teeth, they only eat what they can swallow.

i have seen kind of a similar injury on catfish form great blue herons..i used to have a catfish pond the damn heron would spear my 10 pound catfish in and not even eat them..
Posted By: Action_Jackson

Re: Severly injured carp. - 06/10/15 02:16 PM

BTW...when I saw this pic the other day, I immediately put my fishing tube up for sale! Didn't even take it outta the box. Don't wana risk bumping heads with whatever took that chunk out!
Posted By: CrappieAddict

Re: Severly injured carp. - 06/18/15 04:28 AM

I can tell you that a carp hit hard enough with an arrow can do major damage. I hit one directly in the side and the hit literally made its belly area explode. It is possible a bow fisherman did that and the arrow came out. It would also explain why there would be a second uneaten fish floating near by. Snapping turtles spend most of their time on the bottom ambushing their food. Red eared sliders and soft shell would most likely not be able to keep up with a big carp still swimming. I doubt an alligator only got that small of a piece of that fish. The alligator they spotted a few days ago was 9 feet long. Could have swallowed that carp whole. Just my 2 cents tho.
Posted By: J/\Y

Re: Severly injured carp. - 07/07/15 07:51 PM

That fish looks like it had a major fart
Posted By: serg1001

Re: Severly injured carp. - 07/20/15 08:48 PM

I was also going to suggest poor arrow placement from a bow fishermen because I have seen a cousin of mine shoot big carps and it has happened that the big ones swim so fast they rip themselves up and the arrow gets out. However, that carp looks to have a chunk of it missing and another area of it looks red or injured. I'm not so sure one arrow could have caused damage on 2 areas but then again who knows.
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