Bowfishing

I vote NO.

ORIGINAL: takeagillpill

come on everybody lets get a push for a Bowfishing section of the forum!

Sounds like a good plan to me.

shooting carp,big dip in. this is starting to become the best chat ever.
you definately know what's up.

the only bad thing about talking bowfishing now, is the long wait till spring. maybe tomarrow i"ll go out and clean the boat up and work on the lights. ha ha.

I'm a beginner with bowfishing. I'm in.

i use an old pse set at 50lbs,ams retriever,whisker biscuit rest,muzzy arrows with carp tip, usually take recurve as back up or for snap shooting. some nice new models are out like compounds with no letoff so they can be used for snap shooting. i found that those hand wrap reels have too much drag for me.the ams wave rest is also a good option. won some gear at the last shoot and tried out that rest, not bad.

You called?
 
If you can get some of your bowfisherman friends too clean up their act on the lakes some, I might not have as much as a problem

*Listens to the sound of people digging their "sport" into it's grave*

this is the bowfishing forum. and no i dont think you have to chew to bowfish? do you have to chew to do any activity? i mean besides eating. and i posted that as a response to mm about bowfisherman cleaning up their act. bowfishing is what it is, there is no candy coating it. actually bowfisherman dont leave anything behind more than i can say for some anglers who leave worm cups, hook packages, drink bottles, jerky wrappers, thrown all over the shore. carp are a introduced, sh1t eating, non-edible, waste of water space. people who enjoy catching other gamefish such as walleye, crappie, perch, northern, muskie, cats, trout, bass, etc. should actually thank us for what we do. carp eat ALL other fish's eggs and spawn. 

Ok this is why no one ever can just let things go. I fish for carp and obviously when guys say bad stuff I defend my sport and when people say bad about bfishing you will defend yourself as well. We have threads like this once every few months so here goes.

Littering is going to happen no matter what you fish for and how you fish so don't act like all bf don't litter. We have guys here who leave fish in the trash cans or floating in the water. Not saying you do but it happens and is annoying when you have dead fish rotting on the banks.

You are correct carp were introduced but as a food source and by the government some 150 years ago. Carp are edible but have many bones but most anglers choose not to eat them.Its funny you say not edible because on a cooking show in new york they just had them as a delicasy charging a lot of money for them prepared by a top chef so they can't be all that bad.

As far as chit eating they are a bottom feeder just like a catfish so they eat basically the same things but carp are more powerful so you will see them eat crayfish and freshwater clams whereas catfish can't break those down.

Carp are a gamefish in PA in case you did not notice. They do not eat eggs like you are saying. There are many myths out there about carp and its one of those things people think if you say it enough it becomes true and it does not. Carp are not predatory so any fish you have on a bed will chase it off. Even though they are a big fish they spook easy and will not start a confrontation with other fish.

I will agree that some lakes are overpopulated and that has to do with a lot of manmade problems. When too many guys take out the predatory fish then less carp are eaten during the spawn so more survive and grow.Now if you fish a good well managed lake that has the normal supply of carp you will find it larger bass and pike as they are a great food source for them.All the big bass lakes I fish are also good carp lakes as well.

One thing I never understood and bf can never grasp is the biology behind killing big fish. You realize when you shoot a big fish the biomass is replaced by smaller fish right?So when you shoot a 30lb carp you may get 3 10 lbers in its place and thats how the population overcrowding starts. Also most practice bowfishing to sharpen there aim for deer hunting and whatnot so I also never figured out why shoot the biggest when the smallest would be more of a challenge. I know when I shot bow when I was younger when I practiced it was not for larger targets because that defeats the purpose of practicing.

On a final note you can find bad things about any specie of fish if you look hard enough and one thing that most people fail to see is carp even though introduced have been in the waters longer than most smallmouth and many other species that have also been introduced after them. The only reason they are called invasive is a lot of guys don't fish for them so they have not had the "accepted status" so to speak.

Here ya go,its a diner but a lot of guys eat it since they know how to prepare it correctly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bFCbifraN0&feature=player_embedded I will see if I can find the expensively cooked ones.

You have to realize also that there are many different strains of common carp as well.That will alter the taste and also the natural food supply for them will change the taste too. If you taste any fish not just carp from different waters they can alter in taste depending on what the diet was of the fish.Some are more subtle taste differences while others are more noticeable.

ALso forgot to mention your older carp may contain heavy metals from being a bottom feeder and years of eating add up.I would imagine a lot of the ones they were eating were younger as there is less likelyhood of this.

i posted that as a response to mm about bowfisherman cleaning up their act. bowfishing is what it is, there is no candy coating it. actually bowfisherman dont leave anything behind more than i can say for some anglers who leave worm cups, hook packages, drink bottles, jerky wrappers, thrown all over the shore.  

 
Your response kinda proves my point duUD , like said above that didn't help your sport at all to "disgust a family" and that came from another bowfisherman yet too LMFAO!  As for the garbage thing..Some of you seem to like to leave your shot fish on the shore at times, nothing like the smell of a rotting carp in 85 degree weather for the people fishing from shore.
 
 

As far as chit eating they are a bottom feeder just like a catfish so they eat basically the same things but carp are more powerful so you will see them eat crayfish and freshwater clams whereas catfish can't break those down.

 
Cats especially bigger ones can crush crayfish and mussels with no problem and they both feed throughout the water column even though they feed more on the floor
 

 

Aahhhhh, these kinda threads are always entertaining.

What else can be typed that ain't already been typed on this topic and the war of words on the fishing forums over the years.
There's plenty of mis-truths out there about common carp that many people like to accept as fact.  Carp are at times made the scapegoat that cause an unbalanced fishery, when actually they are a symptom of a much larger problem.

Sometimes some bfers posts things (even if posted in jest) and act in ways that aren't exactly favorable to their sport.
A specific separate bowfishing section here on this forum might help to prevent these kind of threads...............or maybe not.  One way to find out I guess..................
As has been pointed out, there are some bowfishing specific forums out there including this one as previously mentioned: http://bow.fishingcountry.com/bfcforums/
I came across this thread too-------I guess fish can be shot thru the ice:
http://forums.bowcountry.com/bcforums/showthread.php?t=34979

you have to read the WHOLE post, that guy was freakin out because people were fishing (you know with a pole) he said "poor fish" this guy was PETA whack-job so i embellished the act. and like buck said most people wont except it, i dont feel that i should have to look around and make sure i dont "offend" anyone while i enjoy my sport.