Long Lake carp killers

[Gisteppo]

To whomever was out bowfishing:

Thanks for spending the time to thin out the carp in the flats around Nine Mile. Its a good thing, as it reduces the turbidity of the water and keeps it in better shape for the other, more favorable species.

Oh, and about 50 are still floating dead out there.

Please, please, please. If you are going to kill carp, either take them to your garden, to the dump, or if you are going to leave them in the lake, at least throw them out into the main body of water. They will sink and decompose in the deeper water, but in the shallows they just get stuck in the pads and float up. They don't make it into the food chain, whereas if you drop them near a rocky shoreline, the crawfish will surge, and the bass will come to eat the craws.

E

[sickbayer]

i just dont get it with the crap harpooning.... bow and arrow or whatever... i come from the UK orginally and my uncle taught me how to fish for carp along with out other still water fish along our canals... they put up a superb fight most anglers i knew back then only ever used 2 to 4lb line and landed some pretty big fish 10lb and up... so i guess my question is why are they so hated here.

[Gisteppo]

We catch them as well, a few worms on the bottom seems to work. GREAT fighters, esp for their size. They are, however, invasive because of their numbers. No natural predation as we don't have large fish capable of eating them .

E

[Mossy]

I ran into the guys who were bowfishing when I was trying to take my boat out of the water. Seemed like they didn't know what they were doing in the first place. I circled for 5 minutes before the dock waiting for them to launch their boat. They had it a few feet before the waters edge and took their sweet time, pulling out their binos looking across the lake, talking to other boaters, and putting on their burkenstocks while 3 people were waiting to launch. Guess they figured out what was going on when I tied my boat up at the dock. Kind of a weird set up they had, 14-16 foot flat bottom with a a full 4x8 piece of plywood on the bow with a minnkota. Anyway, yes, way too many carp, couldn't believe it, haven't seen that many there this time of year.

[Gisteppo]

Man you shoulda stopped by the house, its not like its hard to find with Cloud Cap sitting on the dock with the sh*t boat. Just gotta get up to the houses inside the lilly pads.

E

[Anglinarcher]

i just dont get it with the crap harpooning.... bow and arrow or whatever... i come from the UK orginally and my uncle taught me how to fish for carp along with out other still water fish along our canals... they put up a superb fight most anglers i knew back then only ever used 2 to 4lb line and landed some pretty big fish 10lb and up... so i guess my question is why are they so hated here.

You ask a common question, and I don't really know how to explain it.

My daughter just came back from Poland, having spent 18 months there. They would kill to get a chance to eat our carp. But, then again, most, if not all, of Europe and Asia don't have anything that taste any better.

I guess that if Carp is all you have ever known, that is what you will like and fish for.

Personally, and this seems to be true for most Americans, we just don't like the muddy taste of these beast. It is not that we don't like foreign fish, after all, Bass are not native in the Pacific Northwest, but they are very sought after. Our beloved Brown Trout is either of German or Scotland (if I remember correctly) heritage, not native and not actually a trout but a char. Zander is one fish that we wish we had, but because F & Ws all around the country fear they will interbreed with Walleye, we don't get them.

Note also that, as has been pointed out, Carp destroy our native habitat. They root up the bottom, making the water far less then clean. They destroy nest, they destroy desirable vegetation, they crowd out our native and more desirable species, and they, well, stink.

Perhaps if more people ate carp in the US we would not hate them so bad. Perhaps you can give us recipes that will give us a reason to try one. And please, don't suggest the one I use - cook on a cedar plank, cook until almost black, toss carp in trash and eat plank.

[Gisteppo]

To any of the guys out on Sunday:

Thanks for your amiable approach. I was the feller that was out in the little sled (the venerable sh*t boat) asking everyone to take their carp out with them. Nobody seemed to be too upset about it, and it appears that maybe even most of you took your fish out to deeper water to toss them to the crawdaddies. We still have 40-50 fish floating in the lily pads, which is horrible smelling to say the least. I know some will get by, wounded to die another day, and some are just from guys unwilling to tie a stringer to their boat to retain their kill.

Picture in your head if I came to your house, shot a handful of muskrats/mice/rats/cats/dogs in your yard, and left them there to rot. I understand its your sport, but going that extra 5 minutes of your day to dispose of them in the deeper water where they don't get hung up in the lily pads prevents sportsman from losing an area due to the homeowners (boy there were some pissed off people in our neighborhood when they saw all the fish floating in the morning).

Again, if you cleaned up your fish and a few strays, many thanks.

E

[Gisteppo]

Just spent the afternoon scooping up hideously mangled, fly and maggot infested, atrocious smelling carp that people didn't take. 3 separate 33 gallon garbage cans full.

Thanks.

E

[Rollin with Rolland]

the people that left their carp...they must not be well versed in ethics. almost every true archer i know, knows ethics, and would not mercilessly kill and LEAVE IT BEHIND. that's why you have a bow...because you are not all about the easy kill. and, very few fisherpeople i have met have had that bad of ethics. i applaud you Gisteppo on your actions on Sunday. my guess is these people really need to be talked to, in a straight-forward manner, and educated on the overall ethics of fishing and hunting. you will always have your bad apples, but education is a tool...

by the way, i am embarrassed for these people, to think, you had to spend YOUR TIME to deal with their actions....(and i wish decomposing carp on NO ONE!!) you could have been fishing....

[A9]

Just spent the afternoon scooping up hideously mangled, fly and maggot infested, atrocious smelling carp that people didn't take. 3 separate 33 gallon garbage cans full.

Thanks.

E

Thanks for doing the good deed. I'm nowhere near that lake, but I can appreciate a fisherman doing some extra work to make any lake better than it was previously.

Hope you get some good fish karma in return Gisteppo...

=d>

[Anglinarcher]

Just spent the afternoon scooping up hideously mangled, fly and maggot infested, atrocious smelling carp that people didn't take. 3 separate 33 gallon garbage cans full.

Thanks.

E

I wonder how many guys were out there.

I always leave my carp that I shoot, but I always open the body cavity to stop the air bag from floating, and dump them in deep water, away from residences and docks.

Carp are not hard to shoot, so I doubt that it was a true "archer" that killed them; probably some kids with new bows.

You are a good man Gisteppo, I wish I had come out Saturday, I could have talked to them myself.

[EastsideRedneck]

I guess that if Carp is all you have ever known, that is what you will like and fish for.

Personally, and this seems to be true for most Americans, we just don't like the muddy taste of these beast...

...Perhaps if more people ate carp in the US we would not hate them so bad. Perhaps you can give us recipes that will give us a reason to try one. And please, don't suggest the one I use - cook on a cedar plank, cook until almost black, toss carp in trash and eat plank.

More people eat carp in this country than they realize. That fast food fish sandwich you ate the other day- it was carp. If a company/restraunt serves a flakey whitefish that isn't specified as catfish, halibut, perch, or whatever you are more than likely eating carp.

[Gisteppo]

Actually even belly-bagging the fish isn't sufficient in shallow water.

Even if the intestines, belly cavity, and buoyancy sacks are cut, the fish will still float up because of a phenomenon called third spacing. Most of the time third spacing is the collection of fluid between the vasculature and the cells, not in them, but in the surrounding space. In decomposition, this space fills with gasses, which then cause the smelly bastards to float up.

Take it from me, I was just out "collecting" again. A few were COVERED in maggots, but in general they still smelled hideous.

If you are going to shoot and leave, still eviscerate the abdomen, but drop them in deep moving water. This will transport them to common collection points where the crawdaddies hang out. Stuck in a warm stagnant pool with lily pads, they will float and decompose.

E

[Anglinarcher]

I guess that if Carp is all you have ever known, that is what you will like and fish for.

Personally, and this seems to be true for most Americans, we just don't like the muddy taste of these beast...

...Perhaps if more people ate carp in the US we would not hate them so bad. Perhaps you can give us recipes that will give us a reason to try one. And please, don't suggest the one I use - cook on a cedar plank, cook until almost black, toss carp in trash and eat plank.

More people eat carp in this country than they realize. That fast food fish sandwich you ate the other day- it was carp. If a company/restraunt serves a flakey whitefish that isn't specified as catfish, halibut, perch, or whatever you are more than likely eating carp.

Which, buy the way, is why you will never, and have not in a long time, seen me eating a fast food fish sandwich. (LOL)

I once lived along Utah Lake near Provo Utah. There was a commerical opperation there that netted the fish all night, then placed them in pens at the mouth of the Provo River (clean cold water from the Mountains). The rotated the fish for one week and shipped them off to a processor.

I suppose that if I could catch my carp, place them in a clean, cold, mountain spring, water source for one week before I ate them, I might, and I wish to repeat, might just try them.

[Anglinarcher]

Actually even belly-bagging the fish isn't sufficient in shallow water.

Even if the intestines, belly cavity, and buoyancy sacks are cut, the fish will still float up because of a phenomenon called third spacing. Most of the time third spacing is the collection of fluid between the vasculature and the cells, not in them, but in the surrounding space. In decomposition, this space fills with gasses, which then cause the smelly bastards to float up.

Take it from me, I was just out "collecting" again. A few were COVERED in maggots, but in general they still smelled hideous.

If you are going to shoot and leave, still eviscerate the abdomen, but drop them in deep moving water. This will transport them to common collection points where the crawdaddies hang out. Stuck in a warm stagnant pool with lily pads, they will float and decompose.

E

Thus the reason I don't deposit them in shallow water. In deep cold water the decomposition is slowed to a point that "third spacing" does not take place, the gasses diffuse through the tissues faster than they can accumulate. When that deep water also includes rocks, than my bass are being chumed in by Craw Daddys.

Wait, is that legal to fish over dead carp?:-$

[lskiles]

Take it from me, I was just out "collecting" again. A few were COVERED in maggots, but in general they still smelled hideous.
E

I think you are missing the "Big Picture" here, E.

This is an opportunity for an extra income for you.

Gisteppo's Maggot Farms
The best carp-fed maggots in the Northwest.
Garranteed fresh!

[Gisteppo]

Good point Lew

E