# Carpin Again



## Riverrat77 (Sep 7, 2007)

Well, I had an unexpected chore handed to me (running the stepdaughter out to a friends camp by Grantsville Res) so I grabbed my bow, the dog and my quiver of arrows and headed out for some carpin again. Got ot to the spot to find really windy, murky water so the shots were mostly taken at shadows. I didn't shoot more than probably ten times at the first spot... just no good. Went for a drive along a creek and thought I'd stop to check it out since it was full of carp food (weeds). Sure enough, a pretty good sized carp lazily swam off when I approached. I nocked and arrow, and after a couple spooks, saw him resting under a wad of weeds. Held low, released and after the explosion of water, knew I'd hit him. He kinda flopped around and I placed a finisher right through his middle. Moved on up the creek spotted a couple under a willow bank and when they spooked, I shot one on the opposite side of the trees. It pinned it to the bank and my dog jumped in to help out. Anyway, got Buddy out of the way and shot the fish through the gill plate, dragged it up on the bank and took pictures. As I was walking along looking for more, I heard a kinda soft cawing sound. Oddly enough, it appeared to be coming from a wad of sticks in one of the taller willow trees. So... me being curious and sometimes foolhardy with my health, I managed to climb up high enough in this tree to get pictures of the three baby ravens in this nest while the parents circled above, clearly unhappy with my exploits. LOL.... That was actually the highlight of the trip... very cool thing to see. I went on down the road to another creek and since it was windy, the water had a glare on it and the fish were now "carplets" instead of big egg laden females, the shooting just got tougher. As it was, I managed three of the little fish and one that went about 13 inches or so. I was only packing field tips today so a couple of times, the fish got off before I or the dog could jump in and grab them. Oh well... it was still fun to get out and be outdoors with my Buddy. Here are some pictures.

Big dark carp









Lighter momma carp (filled with eggs that came out on my arrow)









my bow sight on a carp... kinda hard to see









Last decent carp









Ravens nest


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## Crash (Mar 20, 2008)

That looked like a lot of fun. Can't believe you were able to get that close to the ravens nest. The U.S. Ski team here at the olympic park get bombarded just for being 50 yds away. It is pretty funny to see the ravens chase after them when they are jumping.


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## hunterfisher (Sep 14, 2007)

Carp hunting is really fun. The only lake I have hit is deer creek.


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## Riverrat77 (Sep 7, 2007)

I need to figure a way to rig a line to my hunting arrows. I don't want to change my hunting setup just for carp. I'm thinking about tying on a length of decoy cord and then tying that to an old reel I've got or something to see if I can lay the reel on the ground, shoot the arrow and then wind the decoy cord back to me.... that'll allow me to take shots into deeper water too... and then the carp on Utah lake will really be in trouble. I guess I could go to fiberglass arrows.... but thats a lot of messing around with my setup that I'm trying to avoid.


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## HGD (Mar 5, 2008)

I saw a guy out at willard bay useing a zebco attached to his hunting bow, and arrows. I'd be careful with a light arrow any string might tangle and snap that arrow right back in your face. And that could lose ya an eye.


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## deadicated1 (Mar 17, 2008)

arent ravens just carp of the sky??? as long as you had your bow with ya...


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## Dr. Decoy (May 4, 2008)

You can buy a slide that will attach to your hunting arrows and that only thing that you will have to do to mess w/ you set up is take out your stabilizer and attach a reel. It is really easy. You can buy a pack of the slides at sporstmans or cabelas. They come in a pack of 3 or so. Just make sure the line and slide is in front of your rest so you dont have an arrow flip back.


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## FROGGER (Oct 1, 2007)

Sweet again, that looks like fun... thanks for the post


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## waltny (Sep 8, 2007)

You dont need a liscense for that in Utah do you?

Looks like a blast for sure, doubt I would even use those garbage fish for fertilizer.


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

Good job, RR. You're really "sticking it to them".


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## Riverrat77 (Sep 7, 2007)

waltny said:


> You dont need a liscense for that in Utah do you?
> 
> Looks like a blast for sure, doubt I would even use those garbage fish for fertilizer.


Not as far as I know... I would imagine it would be like hunting jacks or coyotes... non game animals that you don't need a license to harvest. If I could apply my new found and actually quite entertaining skills to Utah Lake, it could be a day long shoot fest while also helping out some of the other species in the lake. I'll have to look into getting some of those slides. There was a guy at the office the other day that was talking about having three or four coke bottles rigged up and he'd shoot three or four of the carp and then just go collect his bottles... sounds like jug fishing on a big lake or something. Loads of fun...

Dr Decoy, does not having that stabilizer mess with your shot at all or since you're shooting under 20 yards, does it really not matter much?


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