It was good to get back on familiar waters with a bowfishing rig in hand on Saturday morning.  I met Andrew around 8:30 a.m. at Falls Lake and we headed to familiar fishing grounds armed with the 14- foot tin can of destruction.

After loading the boat in surprisingly low water conditions, we headed towards our honey hole.

Same site of the 2008 NC Grand Slam.

Fishing was slow to start and the water wasn’t helping.  If we were lucky enough to detect a carp’s presence, they would sink down below visibility (only about 6″ in places) and we were out of luck.

We finally managed to connect on several common carp, and luck was looking up.

A little while later, I was in the shooter’s position and focused on a potential grass carp when all of a sudden a gar surfaced within spitting distance of the boat.  That opportunity was lost at a needlenose, and we saw only 1 other gar – a lucky fish that narrowly missed both of our arrows at once.

After blowing out several grass carp, we capitalized on our first legitimate opportunity at a white carp.  Andrew draws back, gets a bead on a nice slab of huge scales, and BAM!  Fish on, FIGHT on!  It didn’t take too much boat maneuvering and I was in position for a finishing shot.  Money.

Andrew’s largest bowfishing catch ever is in the boat.  44 pound grass carp.

By this time, the common carp had declined to almost nil, but we still had plenty of shoreline left to cover before we arrived back at our boat launch.

Next opportunity found me at full draw.  Another big grass carp eased to the surface out from under a weed bed.  I got a passthrough and the carp sounded under the weed mat.  Fortunately, the shot held the fish until we could draw the carp to the surface with an oar, and Andrew plugged him in the coconut to seal the deal.

My grassie was within an inch or two of Andrew’s, but lacked the stomach.  It tipped scales at 36 pounds.

By trip’s end, we had only 7 fish in the boat, but Andrew’s biggest fish ever was most certainly the highlight.

Friend, GreenThumb (Allan) was also on the same body of water.  They had similar common carp luck and bounced a few grassies but never connected. However, they managed to arrow a gar or two and also tag a 10+ pound bowfin.

So, although, it took 2 separate boats to get all 4 species.  Our honeyhole once again proved that is a Grand Slam producer.

Wow, those words haven’t left my mouth in a loooonnnnngg time.

Whatever had the carp splashing about in the shallows of Lake Martin in Saturday wasn’t kicking yesterday, because we didn’t see a single fish in breeding mode on Tuesday.  A couple passer-byers got shot at, but they were so deep that a hit would have been a miracle.  I’m talking 6-8 feet down easily.

Fortunately, because I was fishing with a bass tournament angler, the day was easily salvaged chasing largemouth and spotted bass around the lakeshore.  Not with a bow of course…lol

It took me a long time to catch my first fish, but I finally connected with a nice largemouth, then another, and another.  All fish were caught on Senko baits rigged “wacky”.

Sorry Allan, I know you were hoping to hear the term “whacked” in regards to a big common carp getting the fiberglass coup de grace.

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A whole bunch of southern states start their spring turkey season this weekend.  Alabama’s will start on Monday, a day later than their normal start because of the 15th’s coincidence with Sunday.  As wet as the weather is going to be the next two and a half days, the birds should be ready to gobble by Monday morning when the weather breaks.  Best of luck to all you turkey hunters this weekend.

I won’t be getting out this weekend, but I do plan on bagging my first wild turkey in the spring of 2009.

Many folks, and even friends, don’t believe me when I tell them I have never killed a turkey. Probably because I haven’t hunted them except for a handful of times, but more likely because when I lived in North Carolina all the land that I hunted was south of Interstate 85 in Alamance County.  For whatever reason, those 8 lanes of traffic appeared to be an obstacle that the turkey reintroductions of northern Alamance and Caswell County never managed to cross in any sizeable numbers.  In all the years of hunting southern Alamance County, I only saw 4 or 5 turkeys – and all those sightings were in deer season.  I didn’t hunt them for the simple reason that there weren’t any to hunt on the land that we hunted.

The last 4 years, the reason I haven’t gotten into turkey hunting is because springtime is also the time to pull out the fiberglass arrows and go bowfishing.  So, whether you are planning on pulling back a bow to stick fish or centering up a Tru-Glo sight on a turkey wattle, be safe and have a great weekend!

Kentucky did a great job reintroducing elk, and hopefully I’ll be able to participate in one of their elk hunts with a little luck in coming years.

So heck, why shouldn’t Kentucky tackle one of the largest freshwater fishes next!  Kentucky Game and Fish is conducting a public survey right now on public approval of reintroduction efforts for the alligator gar in the sloughs of the Mississippi River and Lower Ohi0.

If you any interest in bowfishing, you know that alligator gar is one of the sport’s most heralded trophies.  If a population can be established, archers may be able to stop halfway to Texas in the near future and pursue the same enormous fish that prowls Texas and Louisiana waters now.  Gator gar are  a native predator in its ecosystem – a predator that biologists hope will get a handle on exotic carp species, like the Asian carp.

Head to the Kentucky Department of Game and Fish website to fill out the simple survey. I filled it out in less than 2 minutes earlier this afternoon.

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!