We hit the grass carp motherload on Friday night.  Fishing with some friends, we took the airboat out somewhere in the state of North Carolina and absolutely found the grass carp.  The common carp and gar were sporadic at best, but every cove we cruised into had some big grass carp.  I stuck the first fish as it cruised out in front of the boat, but lost it when my buddy smacked a 54 pounder that was promptly double-teamed.  Good sign of things to come.

Next cove produced a few sightings before I again connected…this time a 67.8 pounder!  This size of fish was a state record just a few years ago.  I was stunned as I nearly doubled my previous personal best of 37 pounds.  Allan made a great follow-up shot to subdue the beast and the shouting started!

Next up, my other buddy whacked his first of the night.  This nice mid-40ish pounder.

We were picking up a few gar (shooting at lots, but hitting just a few) and a mirror carp was landed too.  We actually filleted one of the gar with pruning snips and I’ll let everyone know how they taste when my buddy lets me know.

The next cove was unbelievable.  12-15 grassies streaked past our boat before I nailed a 50 pounder at Mach1 and while I was fighting that one, my buddy was able to bust one that apparently missed the memo.  It was just sitting low in some weeds as the water was thrashing around it.  Mistake, another well-placed shot and fish #4 and #5 were in the boat.

After I lost another big grass carp, we were able to boat one more grass carp before we had to go.  Fortunately, no sooner did we leave the boat ramp, the bottom fell out!

All told, 6 grass carp that weighed 300 pounds collectively - a 50 pound average!  Big game bowfishing at its best!

Not sure if this was the last hurrah or not, but with dove and goose season coming in just a week and a half and archery season soon thereafter - I may have picked up my bowfishing tackle for the last time of the summer.

Andrew and I headed up to the Eno River yesterday to chase around some carp, but didn’t have to much luck.  Water was down a couple feet past normal and the fish were in such shallow water that we either couldn’t get to them or they had the water churned up into a chocolate milk concoction.

We did manage to connect on 4 common carp and miss twice that many, but there just wasn’t much action going on.  Andrew kept the trip exciting though with a 9.2 swan dive into the drink.  When he reached out to push off of a log that wasn’t there anymore, gravity took over, and well…you can see the result.

We did see a couple of neat things going up and down the river though… 1) Snakes were swimming all over the place, mostly northern watersnakes from what we could tell, 2) saw a prothonotary warbler - which is just a brilliant little songbird that looks like it belongs in a tropical jungle, 3) and we stumbled onto a Wildlife Resources Commission rocket net set-up.

The light strip on the sand is to the left of the box is corn and lures in whatever they are trying to catch…ducks, doves, wild turkeys?  When they are in range, a switch is triggered by the waiting processing team and the net is propelled by 3 rockets up and over the bait pile capturing the critters underneath.

A zoomed in view of the rockets sitting on top of the net box.  After the animals are captured, they can be banded, measured, sexed, aged, even relocated to areas being re-stocked.  Wild turkeys have historically been captured and relocated using this technique and are distributed as widely as they are today because of this great wildlife management technique.

Well, made it back on the water yesterday with buddy Andrew who has wrapped up his 6 month stint with the National Parks Service shooting wild pigs.  Decided to try the Eno River again and catch up with some common carp.  Unfortunately, the fishing was real slow.  The water was up significantly which also meant some muddy water.  We found a few fish here and there, but after 5 hours we probably only saw 100 fish or so.  The few we did get shots at seemed to be good at evading our arrows too.  I think we wound up with only 8 fish.  But, what is the old adage?  A bad day of bowfishing is better than a great day at work.  I think yesterday was no different.  Even saw a few deer crossing a shallow cove in the river to whet the appetite for September archery season. 

Well, Andrew and I burned up the trolling motor batteries yesterday chasing carp all up and down the Eno River.  Literally….smoke was rolling off the connections when we got back to the boat ramp, which by the way has been drastically improved for this year with the addition of a pier extending out beside the boat launch ramp…much easier!

Second carp of the trip…not sure why but this carp had more fight than any sub-10 pound carp we’ve ever arrowed…ripped all the line out of the bottle and put up quite a fight!

The carp were out in force thankfully and once we remembered how to shoot, we managed to put a little dent in the rough fish population.  We ended up with somewhere between 20-25 common carp and had several more pull off.  I made two of my best shots of the year with 15-20 yard Hail Mary’s connecting on a pair of 9-10 pounders.  Unfortunately, the big guys got away.  He ran into several pods of grassies in an undisclosed location, but each time they either suprised us as we were going after their lesser and much more common brethren (one threw water in the boat!) or we just couldn’t close those last couple of yards before they sank out of sight…some nice ones though! 

This guy was the unfortunate victim of a 3,2,1 countdown in which both arrows actually met their target…OUCH!

Anyways, great trip and I don’t think I’m showing any signs of fecal coliform contamination yet, so I guess the trip could be considered a success!

Well, recent warnings and beach closings are enough to keep me out of my usual bowfishing spots right now in Falls Lake; however, not enough to keep me out of the water entirely.  Andrew rolled in from the mountains for an extended weekend so we are headed to the Eno River tomorrow morning to see what we can find.  We’ll head downriver towards the flats at Knapp of Reeds and see what we see.  The possibility exists for another NC Slam - bowfin, common, grass, and gar - so we’ll see what happens.  My goal for tomorrow is to shoot a nice gar - the 50+ incher that Andrew missed 2 years ago should be getting close to record status, so I’d be content with that one I guess.  Stay posted and you’ll find out exactly what we lay eyes and arrows on!

Saturday, I headed out to my favorite wading spot for carp.  I was a little leary of going bowfishing because of the wind and rain we had Friday night, but decided it was better than staying at home.  Boy am I glad that I went.  First, I dropped off the backside of the road and headed up the creek away from the main lake.  I tagged these 12 common carp in about an hour back there.

After hitting the major weed beds, I crossed back over the road and headed out towards the main lake. 

The fish were everywhere.  I started off with a nice male bowfin…undoubtedly the prettiest spot I’ve ever seen on his tail.

I would add another bowfin before my afternoon was over.  It was just a matter of going from one tail to another and muddy spot to muddy spot, I guess the thick weeds helped filter out the water because I was kind of shocked how clear the water was in some places.  I actually shot some of the biggest common carp I’ve ever gotten out of the lake.  3 were in the 8-10 pound range (double the size of 99.9% of all other carp I’ve ever shot there). 

This one in particular was pushing 10 lbs. and I made a hail-mary shot as he was facing me….lips exposed!  I wound up with 30 fish on the flip side of the bridge to equal 42 for the day.

A great 3 hour trip with 42 fish total… 40 common carp and 2 bowfin!  My best solo shoot of the year so far!

The fishing was rough this weekend to say the least.  The first 2 hours or so were rained out by a pretty substantial thunderstorm that ushered in a cold front…not good for fishing!  We got on the water about 7:30 and ran to the south end of Jordan Lake looking for fish.  There were plenty of promising grass beds, but we never did find fish in them with any consistency.  Between us not having a good shooting night, very few fish (and I mean like 35 or so total fish sightings for 5 hours), and tough water conditions, we only put 4 in the boat by 1:00 a.m.  I did miss a big bowfin that cruised off a submerged island and in hindsight, it was probably big enough to eclipse the 9 lb. bowfin that took the biggest of that species…DOH!!

By the time I got in bed, it was 2:15 a.m. and the alarm rang at 6:00 a.m. to head back down the road to Jordan Lake.  No sooner had we gotten on the lake, I shoot at a nice common carp and Allan whacks a couple of his own.  Then, everything shut down.  I’m pretty sure we didn’t see more than 20 fish until noon when we quit.  There was one bright spot though…  As we were cruising through some pretty heavy vegetation, we spotted a couple of common carp but they spotted us at the same instant and promptly shot off towards safer water.  Then, unbelievably, a grass carp just cruises in oblivious to the whole situation.  He saw Allan draw back his bow, but made a futile escape attempt as Allan judged the proper lead and stuck him towards his tail.  Fight ON!  It only took a minute to get him corralled and I added a finisher to be safe.  Up until 4:30 or so (tourney ended at 5:00 p.m.), the 26 pound grass carp was the frontrunner in the big fish pot, but someone found a 38 pounder to bump Allan back to runner-up with less than hour to go.

Allan finished in 5th place or so with his common carp total weight and I came in 7th place.  There were about 26 total guys in the tournament and nobody really got on top of fish to any degree.  Tough shooting, but what can you do?!?!

All in all though, hmm…what is the old adage???  A bad day of fishing is better than a good day at work!!!  Always holds true and this weekend was no exception.

Well, I haven’t been out bowfishing (or anything else outdoors for about 2 weeks now) since Andrew completed the NC Grand Slam, but I’ve got Friday night to look forward to now. The North Carolina Bowhunters Association is putting on a bowfishing tourney at Lake Jordan.  Awards will be given for Big 5 Common Carp and biggest fish (grass carp, common carp, bowfin, and gar each).  I’m really looking forward to getting out since I’ve been going through pretty severe withdrawals dealing with the end of semester stuff and just not having the time to get out.  I also got my Sully’s Bowfishing order in the mail the other day - some new arrows and extra fish points, also going to try out the uni-nock adapter for fishing arrows…no more busted nocks and useless arrows hopefully.  If you live handy to the Piedmont of NC and want more information for the tournament, just check out the provided link, hope to see you there!

Well, Friday’s predictions came true on Saturday with a trip to my super top secret bowfishing honey hole in North Carolina’s Piedmont.  Using the trusty jonboat, we toted a trolling motor, 2 batteries and oars to pole our way through shallow weeds and timber.

The first fish to jump in the boat was this hefty longnose gar.  We weren’t 100 yards from our secret put-in when a ball of gar erupted to the surface and Andrew snap shot the biggest in the group.  Almost 50 inches long and 16″ girth, a great fish to start off the day and actually Andrew’s first longnose of his bowfishing career!  25% completed.

The trip down the lake to our honey hole is about 2 miles and we picked up about 5 common carp on the way.  50% completed!  No sooner had we shot 1 or 2 more common carp in the shallow standing timber of our honeyhole, than Andrew draws back on fish species #3, a NICE bowfin in the 8 lb. range.  He stunned her with a well-placed to the noggin’.  75% completed.

Few more common carp and we were finally back to our grass carp hotspot, and they didn’t disappoint.  I would say we conservatively stalked 10 grassies in an hour, but the water was real clear and getting close enough for a shot was tough.  After Andrew missed a couple lengthy shots, I connected on our 3rd big game stalk and landed the biggest grassie of the day…this 30+ pounder.

After a couple more blown stalks, Andrew pegged this one cruising through some submerged weeds.  It looked like Andrew just finished the job that something else had started…tail ripped to shreds and a missing eye.

A great redemption shot and just like…the NC Bowfishing Grand Slam was complete.  We weren’t done yet though, Andrew missed one more grassie and I connected on one last grass carp before we got turned towards home a little early because of a thunderstorm.

On the way back, we hugged the shoreline and cruised through some standing timber where we picked up another gar and couple more commons and saw way more needlenoses that we either missed or couldn’t get shots at as they zoomed past the front of our boat in muddy water.

What a day though, 13 commons, 1 bowfin, 2 gar, and 3 grass carp.  To top it all, Andrew becomes the first bowfishermen I’ve ever had the pleasure of hunting with that completed the NC Grand Slam!  Congrats and can’t wait until you get in town again to bust out the bows again!

Don’t kn0w what it is, but if dogwoods are blooming you can bet the carp are in full gear.  Boy, are they!?!?!  I cut out a couple hours early from the office yesterday (once again on a Thursday, definitely is my ‘rec’ day) and headed up to the lake.  Water levels have come down a little since last Thursday, but there was still plenty of water to fish in.  I started getting into fish as soon as my waders were knee deep and I was in the fish until I left a couple of hours later.

I actually passed on a lot of smaller carp today, hoping to shoot some commons pushing towards that 10 lb. mark (and maybe if I could get lucky a 14 lber. - my goal for the year).  Didn’t quite reach the decade mark, but shot a few that were in the 8 lb. range, certainly much better than average carp for the lake I was fishing.  I got into a few bowfin, but they were small males - no citation sized bowfin to be found.  I think the females must have dumped their eggs and headed back out to safer waters.

I ended the day with 24 common carp.  I think I had 3 pull off in the first 15 minutes, but none after that.  Guess I was just getting dialed in.  I’ll leave you with my favorite shot of the day.

A carp and his buddy were sucking something off the water surface, lips exposed, and when he lowered his lips to get a drink of water, I cut loose from about 12 yards away.  Assassination shot!

I cannot wait until tomorrow…weather permitting, Andrew and I will be fishing the day away on a trolling motor only impoundment…rarely gets bowfished and has some great grass carp action, tons of common carp of course, a few bowfin and even some good-sized needlenoses!  Check back after the weekend to see if we pull off the North Carolina Grand Slam of Bowfishing!