Who loves bowfishing???

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HPIZZLE;2198853;2198853 said:
thats a lot of bowfin.do they bite more when there in mating "mode" like they are then, or what?
bowfin are in the shallows more and are a little more aggresive, and like snakeheads are very protectful of their young, that is probably your best chance to rod and reel them
 
wow, i was just searchin for bowfin today lol!!!!!

i wanna baby tho
 
KaraJo;2200289; said:
....not sure why they have such a bad reputation....it is such a waste when people just take them down and throw them on a pile to rot....whats the point?
They have a bad reputation because they are a very destructive invasive species. People kill them to try to cut down their populations to help out populations of native fish. I personally do feel a little bad killing carp, but I like knowing that there are fewer carp in our native waterways.
 
not sure why they have such a bad reputation....it is such a waste when people just take them down and throw them on a pile to rot...

If it was up to me I'd go back in time, find the guy who came up with the stupid idea of stocking these, kill him and throw him on a pile to rot.... These fish are incredibly destructive to the ecosystems they thrive in. I'm sorry but the concept of "catch and release" carp in my opinion is absurd.
 
haha that is going to get some uk people going, me personally, i love that carp are here, and infested in waters. as much as i love bass fishing, and fishing for all other species, i LOVE bowfishing. and without carp i wouldnt do it. as for the catch and release of carp, in the uk the carp is a prized fish. much like our trout and bass, which i catch and release. if i was in the uk i would probably do the same thing. the thought of bowfishing for rainbow trout makes me sick, some people feel the same way about carp, and i understand. but carp destroy out rainbow trout populations, if you can put that all together you can understand why we try to control them...it just so happens that it is a blast. and no matter how much we bowfish, we do not even come close to putting a dent in the carp population...
 
Looks like a blast! I want to start bowfishing for the Asian and bighead carp that are starting to invade my home river. Some guys down here have been shooting big head pushing 70lbs and nearly five feet long!

Dont worry about what the haters say, just kill all those stupid carp you can!
 
KaraJo;2200289; said:
If it weren't for carp...my dad wouldn't have a job. He is a professionaly guide, fly-fishing for carp. Catch and release always of course....not sure why they have such a bad reputation....it is such a waste when people just take them down and throw them on a pile to rot....whats the point? and what fun is bowfishing really? its not that hard. Now try taking a carp on a flyrod for a real challenge. Some of those carp you are killing are 20+ years old. Just like taking a smallmouth bass...its alright if you eat it, but people that limit out daily are taking fish that have just reached sexual maturity and killing them, so then there goes 5 fish that day that wont breed to reproduce more.

anyway, just trying to make people see both sides of things...as for me if oyu cant tell, I am Anti-bowfishing completely and dont see the point...


I'm keeping my mouth shut but thats because i'm from the UK and i love carp :D
 
Polypterus;2201534; said:
If it was up to me I'd go back in time, find the guy who came up with the stupid idea of stocking these, kill him and throw him on a pile to rot.... These fish are incredibly destructive to the ecosystems they thrive in. I'm sorry but the concept of "catch and release" carp in my opinion is absurd.
I agree, and they thrive in pretty much any aquatic ecosystem. They are ridiculously hardy. While I was electrofishing for my ichthyology class, we tossed the carp in a basket instead of the live well with the other species. Even then, some still survived until after we were finished and had weighed and measured all of the native species. I generally tried to make sure I missed the basket and put them up against the generator to give them a little extra shock. For some reason, the professor still made us release any that were still alive, but I tried to make that as few as possible ;)

I don't like seeing all those gar and bowfin killed though. They are really awesome fish. During ich., we only got one gar and one bowfin the whole time. The gar was a little young of the year longnose and I wish I could have taken him for my aquarium instead of putting him in a kill jar (there was an alumnus from my school there for a guest lecture who took a little pike we caught back to Michigan with him for his tank) and the bowfin was a big female and we packed her in a cooler and brought her back to a pond at the school's nature center.
 
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