Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting NE carp starting to spawn.

Took a buddy out in my canoe today and he arrowed 4 carp. I'll post the pics later. They were starting to spawn pretty hard in the shallow bays but we also saw a ton of large ones just starting to stage "near" the bays. I shot a bunch of times, most of which were easy surface shots but I just couldn't stop shooting over their backs!! Frustrating to say the least. That was my first official outing and surprisingly, the canoe worked very well for slippin' up on the fish.

My two main lessons today were:

1) Hold low.

2) Beware of carp eggs (real PITA to clean up)!!

Carp eggs are very sticky so they can stay in the rocks when they are dropped in a river. They stick to them very well until they hatch.

Yeah I can relate to the hold low, wait til you try shooting them 3-4 feet deep! The term hold low is way understated!

However in crystal clear water watching your arrow slide down and through a fish and then seeing her dash away with the line peeling off is incredible. It's the best of bowfishing in the deeper clear open water. Very hard to land them as the arrows are running out of steam at that distance and depth, They don't usually shoot through even with 65-70 pounds of draw weight. It's the most awsome of all bowfishing in clear deeper water.

We saw plenty of big fish at the depth of 3-4 feet but in the canoe (kneeling on a cushion) it was almost impossible to get into shooting position for a shot because they were practically under the boat by the time we'd spot 'em. A set-up like yours would have been an entirely different story. You could'a been whackin' the hell out of them where we were fishing today!! Oh well, gotta make due with what I have. It was a blast though and we're going to do it again. It was painful watching all those big fish swim right by the boat. So much so that I'm kicking around rigging-up an elevated seat to clamp on in front. Being that we're in a canoe, it'd either be a lethal combo or an strong entry for the Darwin award.... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Well here was my first canoe used for carp shooting. The beauty was getting into really shallow tight spots and being able to wrestle the boat out of the bad spots.


I'll point out some of the "custom" features!

8" sealed PVC pontoons
A 4 foot square base platform
a 2 foot square elevated platform
aluminum t handle "balance bar"
8 foot long paddle/push pole (leaning against "T" handle)
electric trolling motor
Rubbermaid 40 gallon Collection barrel for dead carp.

Over all an excellent rig for a single shooter. I killed many thouands of pounds of carp with this rig. I would fill four of those plastic 40 gallon drums in less then 2 days time. I was using them for bear bait when it was legal to bait bears. When full it took to people to budge those drums out of the canoe! With the Pontoons floatation and balance was superb. The trolling motor could make that canoe get up and go too!

JJ � Very nice!! I�ve looked at pontoons but didn�t give them much consideration due to the cost (from places like Cabela�s) but those PVC pontoons look great. How did you attach those to the platform and could you adjust them for height? Also, did you have that platform permanently mounted?

If I do something like that, I�d like to make the platform easily removable so I can still transport the canoe on top of my Tacoma. The wheels are definitely spinnin��.. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

I was bummed that I forgot to bring the camera in the boat because there were alot of photo ops but never the less, here's the end result....

Didn't realize that GSP's were such good pointers now did ya.... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I made the platform to use wing nuts and bolts connected to the aluminum edge of the canoe. The I used the 5/8" threaded rod through the tops of the PVC and through a section of 2X4 inside the pipe. I angle cut the edges to match the interior curve of the pipe. Everything inside was glued tightly. Then the Threaded rod comes up through the edge of the plywood again with wingnuts to adjust the depth. The whole works would go on an off in just a few minutes.........Oh yeah I capped the ends and sealed them with standard PVC glue, but I used marine silicone around the threaded rod entry. I tapped the pipe and threaded the rods in to make it a tight fit without sealant but as an engineer by education I had to 100% seal that possible entry, just my over-build personality I guess. The tops of the pipe are never covered with water anyhow. The canoe with those 5 foot long 8" dia. pipes was amazingly stable to stand up on. It hardly rocked. If I had it to do over I might go with 3 foot sections of 10" pipe to make transport a little easier. I also found that keeping the front depth adjustment of the pontoons shorter then the rear made the boat handle better with the electric motor. Adjustment was easy with the wingnuts above and below the plywood. The motor was a 17 pound thrust minkota that canoe would get with the program and the battery would last a whole weekend.

I shot many carp that pulled that canoe a long way, more the 30 yards, the water reisitance was minimal.

Thanks for the specs and thanks again for the info!

What part of Nebraska? I will be getting geared up for Desoto Bend and a few sand pits if all goes well. Last year I shot three or four grass carp that average 25lbs with the biggest being near 30! It is addictive. Esox357

I usually fish the dam sites around Omaha. How's the action up at DeSoto?

Greetings, I was really disappointed in Desoto this year. It is really a hit or miss lake. We went out Thursday around 4:00 p.m. and didn't see a thing other than turtles. Had a guy tell me during last week that he shot four buffalo and 20 common carp in the morning so maybe they are more active then. We went towards the river on private piece of land near Fort Calhoun and shot 7 gar and 1 grass carp that was 19-20 pounds. Didn't have a scale but it measured around 32 inches. I think I will stick with Carter Lake this year but it is tough bowfishing due to visibility factor. The Lake also has the Toxic Algae warning on it already. One other thing is with all the rain we have had, Carter Lake is very shallow this year. You can see where the water line was last year compared to this year, almost four plus feet down. Good Luck on bowfishing. Esox357