Fern Ridge bowfishing

[Fisher.King]

My first trip I stuck carp on was terrible to be honest, it was hot and I was in pants. The first carp I hit was fun and all but the day just sucked for some reason. And to add to the misery I had to drag my carp on a string behind me because I forgot my bucket (there was 34 pounds worth, 6 fish), so they weren't picture-worthy at the end of the trip ...

But this time was perfect! I sat in only 2 places the whole time and relaxed just watching everyone else mostly, people were catching lots of carp on rods. A dude saw I was bowfishing and decided to throw a bunch of bread in the water without asking me (I think it's illegal, chumming?) But I couldn't help it when that first fish stuck his nose at me from 10 feet out reaching for the bread. I moved to the Long Tom for the rest of the time and listened to music, popping 4 more carp that floated by. One of them must have had a guardian angel or something because it shook the arrow somehow (even though it was literally a 4 foot shot with a brand new tip from the package.) I guess some of them are freakin robots or something... An epic day

I also domed a bullfrog, instant death, from about 8 feet. Beautiful shot that nobody else got to see (yes it's legal to take frogs with a bow, I'm not that dumb )

Also a question on the legality of what that guy did. I've seen other people tossing corn in the water at Fern Ridge to chum the carp, and I know that many states and countries allow it. But is it legal in Oregon to chum carp?

EDIT: I forgot to add that they were all headshots... Successful success is a success <3

 

[Drew9870]

:lol: Nice to meet you Fisher King. Chumming is illegal, I just thought that sandwich was disgusting and out of reaction I threw it .

Get yourself a little Jon Boat and the possibilities will be endless, I just wouldn't recommend bowhunting within city limits.

If you actually have a use for those fish, I wouldn't mind sparing a couple, if you actually enjoy them, consider making a sport out of them so they don't thin out, the area we fished is a mudpit, so it is not like we are saving some pristine environment by slaughtering a few :lol:, just something to consider.

 

[TTFishon]

Nice!!! Sounds like a fun day to me.

 

[RunWithSasquatch]

Bad ass, congrats on your harvest!

 

[skunk]

Good work, I really doubt thinning them out will ever be a possibility. Water rabbits is what they are.

 

[Fisher.King]

Do you not go out there much Drew? Just while I sit there I'll see 3-4 slide down into the pool from the dam, and I don't stay all day. Catch and release is good to practice with any fish, but one of only a few exceptions (at least here in the US) is common carp. I grew up on a construction workers salary, we ate deer and fish for most meals because we couldn't afford much more. I've been going to Fern Ridge and the surrounding area almost all my life with my dad so I'm not just exaggerating when I say the amount of all the fish in Kirk Park have declined drastically in the past 10 years, with the carp population blossoming. I met you and your friends and you were all very nice guys, but I have to disagree with you on this one point, I will never slow down when it comes to carp in my backyard.

When a carp feeds it doesn't digest its food all the way releasing nutrients into the water for more algae to grow. They eat the eggs from other fish nests, probably even their own species. They stir up the muck and release gas pockets that I'm sure isn't good for the water (been there when it happens .) And like skunk said, they are absolutely EVERYWHERE. I've seen them in the Amazon all the way up at Pearl and West 18th street. If it was legal in town I'd be shooting the Willamette and Amazon daily.

Again, you seemed like a really nice guy but I'm sorry I have to disagree with you just on this topic.

 

[Drew9870]

Like I said, just something to consider, I don't expect one to live up to anothers standards. At the rate you were catching them, I guess you really don't stand a chance of putting a dent in the population, not saying anything about the skills involved but the water is just so stirred up that it takes one coming to the very surface and staying there for atleast a good 4 seconds, which doesn't happen very much in that pond, especially according to how many fish are in there (surprising).

I must say I respected that you have a use for them, had you told me you only huck them back in the water or in the bushes, I wouldn't have exchanged many more words .

You really do seem to be pretty ethical when it comes to angling, but I will have to say catch and release is always good practice, no exceptions, but if a person wants to believe they are doing the environment a favor, there is nothing bad about that either.

I will, however tell you, a rod, line, hook, and reel will put more fish in your freezer, and I would not mind sharing techniques I have learned over many years, I was just dinking around with my float rod when you saw me , I landed over twenty during the Country Fair on a Trout rod, biggest was the first one caught, 12lb.

P.S. +1 Rep, you have a way more open mind than any other person I have heard of that bow hunts Carp.

 

[flymann]

very well said indeed. I look forward to reading about your future bowfishing adventures! thanks for sharing.

 

[Fisher.King]

...
I will, however tell you, a rod, line, hook, and reel will put more fish in your freezer, and I would not mind sharing techniques I have learned over many years, I was just dinking around with my float rod when you saw me , I landed over twenty during the Country Fair on a Trout rod, biggest was the first one caught, 12lb.

P.S. +1 Rep, you have a way more open mind than any other person I have heard of that bow hunts Carp.

I can't disagree with you there, at least while pitting a bow vs a rod in Oregon. The amount of carp seen to # taken per trip for me is way higher while using a rod. I took 14 from Alton Baker when I was about 15 years old. We froze them and the next weekend went crabbing in Florence at the mouth of the Siuslaw, all 5 of us in the boat got our 12 crabs before the day was done. It was the best crabbing anyone in our family had ever done , and it was all on my carp. So I guess these fish are quite useful after all, as crab bait :dance:.

If you search bowfishing in the southern states and the east side of the dust bowl though, there's absolutely no contest when it comes to bow vs rod. In Missouri the limit of carp taken per day is 50, and I've seen a video of a bowfishing boat coming back with four 55 gallon drums overflowing with common, grass, silver and buffalo carp, and they go out several times a month and get the same results. The level of the US's carp infestation is so high it would scare me if they were predators. Not only because there would be no other species left, but because we would all be seeing carp meat at our local grocers meat counter :lol:.

EDIT: I also forgot to mention in my private message to you drew that at both locations there is small watercraft access (no dock or boat ramp, but you could easily fit a pontoon float or a canoe in. No motors allowed.)

 

[Drew9870]

Alright, so I came up with an idea, and it is quite the sin coming from me :lol:. Maybe, just maybe, if I see you out there again Fisher King, I might have to hand you my rod while I try to stick one (what do you think?), only because this is an overpopulated area. If you hadn't noticed, that 12.5ft float rod I used is an absolute noodle, I was using 15lb Powerpro with a 6lb leader nail knotted directly to the braid, for Carp that size I usually prefer 4lb (even up to 16lbs lol), but the rod is so long with so much bend that it can be hard to tell how much pressure is on the fish.

If you had saw me the first and second time out there, you probably would've thought I had no idea what I was doing :lol:, I hate to say this out in public :redface:, but I was using my fly rod with 8lb Copolymer to a 4lb Flouro tippet, the part I want to leave out is that I was using a size 14 treble with a breadball on my fly rod :lol:, I landed somewhere around 10-12 of them on the fly rod during my first two days out there, talk about a sore wrist (not joking), each fish ran me for atleast 7 minutes, besides the smallest one I ever caught in my life, which was 4 inches long and 3 inches from belly to back, I thought it was a Bluegill lacking color from all the sediment, but once it came out of the water I thought it was a Bream from Europe, then I realized it was a Carp that hadn't got its color yet (quite silvery), thought I had one of those annoying Catfish, it is always a pleasure to catch an itty bitty Carp because around Salem, a Carp under 10lbs isn't all that common.

 

[Fish-N-Chips]

Always wanted to do some archery on some fish. Nice Job!!

 

[Fisher.King]

I don't mind if any OFFers use my bow if you see me out bowfishing. Just say you know me from oregon fishing forum and you want to try out bowfishing . You don't need a special license or anything for it (regular fishing license required), but you'll have to be able to fully draw a bow with a 30 inch draw length with a wrist-strap trigger release (adds about 2-3 inches). And preferably not be a felon since it is still considered a weapon :lol:. I was actually planning on getting this kit to try bowfishing with a recurve, which means I will soon have 2 bowfishing setups. I know that kit isn't a bowfishing kit, but I'd rather buy a regular archery kit to have on the side for the winter and then buy a 15$ bowfishing spool.

I also know 3 places now where carp show their faces 100% of the time within range of a bow at Fern Ridge, so getting a newbie a carp won't be a problem. I had a question about a 4th location, however.

On one of my trips out to Fern Ridge I saw some guys bowfishing (and vandalizing *cough*) at the small pool below the dam. When I approached them one started a conversation with me about bowfishing and informed me that shooting a bow while standing up close to the dam is illegal and has a 4000$ fine. Does anyone know if angling that close to a dam is illegal? Or was this guy just being a river troll ...

 

[Drew9870]

Maybe the government is sensitive with all the terrorism..... Thanks a lot Bin Laden. (quote from The Hangover)

:lol:

 

[TTFishon]

I'd call the county Sheriff and ask them. Also, I think it actually is legal for a felon to hunt with a bow.

 

[psguardian]

I'd call the county Sheriff and ask them. Also, I think it actually is legal for a felon to hunt with a bow.

I ran into a bow hunter during deer season, he got the archery outfit BECAUSE he's a felon & nolonger allowed to have things that go bang!

~psguardian

 

[Fisher.King]

I don't have a pressure cooker . I really want to try it smoked but guess what else I don't have .

 

[Drew9870]

I really want to try it smoked but guess what else I don't have .

A Carp pipe?

 

[john montana]

Very well said....:clap::clap::clap:

Granted, well said and a far cry from the kind of rhetoric and vitriol I am used to reading with regard to common carp, but unfortunately it isn't very accurate. Fish eggs represent an unbelievably small part of a carp's diet...so small that the thought of carp having an impact on another species due to "eating their eggs" is crazy. Carp are far more likely to eat insects, crayfish, and plant matter...Fish eggs is most likely more useless anecdotal evidence from someone who once saw a carp eat a panfish nest...I have seen that, but I also just saw a video of a trout eating a huge "rattlesnake" fly and I am reasonably certain we don't need to worry about trout decimating the rattlesnake population. The habitat degradation can be (and might be in fern ridge, I don't know the area) an issue. Carp actually can be linked to a lack of vegetation and algae (not a propagation) because they can stir up enough sediment to block sunlight from reaching the bottom. Overpopulation can be issue in soft bottomed lakes with no predators (birds or fish).

I am with drew with regard to having a use for the fish. I applaud you big time there...I have zero issue with people killing carp, the population is healthy and harvesting won't hurt at all, but I hate to see dead fish piled up on the bank. Smells, wrecks my day and others and in general makes me sad at the wanton waste. I for one appreciate you handling you kill with some dignity.

 

[john montana]

I know most of you consider me a "carp apologist" (heck, I run a freaking carp blog!) but just to be clear I think carp have no business in OR waters. Unfortunately that was decided for us in the late 1800s when they built a carp hatchery in troutdale because carp was such a sought after food fish...the hatchery flooded, and carp are in the Columbia and Willamette systems to stay. If we could get the carp and bass etc out I would donate cash money to the cause. It ain't happening though, and I just like to point out what a missed resource is right in front of us, and yes, what a great gamefish carp truly are.

With that disclaimer, one more thought on the declining fishing conditions in your area. What is more likely?

One...carp are voraciously eating eggs and simultaneously exploding in population while eliminating other species...

Or two...we humans have continued to destroy our air, land and in the process, water...resulting in less favorable conditions for relatively fragile species such as trout and bass and paving the way for the imcredibly robust (biologically speaking) carp.

In effect, our own damage has created environments where we give carp (who can tolerate insane amounts of pollutants and live in a massive temperature range) a huge vacuum in which to step in and thrive. When I hear of a decline of a fishery and subsequent increase in carp population I always think we tend to put the cart before the horse. In most cases the blame lies with us...the carp are just filling a gap we created.

Again, I don't mean to sound like a carp apologist...I know more about carp than most and I understand the issues they can create but there is usually more to the story. And if someone comes up with a plan to rid OR waters of carp and bass...count me in.