In This Issue: plus: - Primitive Archer Online

Photos by
Kali McKinney
A Off-SeasonCarp
nyone who has ever been bowfishing
or who has followed it
knows that the best time to hunt
invasive carp is in the spring. This is when
they are the easiest to find and shoot as
they make their way into the shallows to
spawn. There is no shortage of videos
available showing just how successful a
spring bow-fishing excursion can be, as
literally boat loads of carp are off loaded at
the end of the day.
Unfortunately, just like the rut of the
white-tail deer, the carp spawn seems to
end too suddenly, and most hunters either
put their bows away and grab a fishing
pole or find a 3D shoot to fill their time
until fall arrives. The carp, like other fish,
prefer deeper and cooler water as the full
heat of summer arrives, and the accepted
wisdom is that they are too difficult to find
to make bow-fishing for them worth the
effort. This is not necessarily true,
however, and if you do a little homework
you may not have to lay your bow aside.
The assumption that carp will
eventually move into deeper water after
the spawn is based on their ability to do so.
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www.PrimitiveArcher.com Volume 21 Issue 1
But what if they sometimes don’t have that
option? What if because of their
unfortunate location they are physically
unable to move into deeper water and can
do nothing except swim in shallower
water? It would follow that they could
then be hunted using a bow and arrow. In
fact, because of this captivity in shallow
water, you can even leave the boat at home
and pull on your favorite wading shoes!
No doubt you are now asking yourself
where is this magical land of shallow
swimming carp? Finding the answer
requires a little homework, the use of
satellite maps found on the internet, and a
little summer exploration on your part.
Focus on rivers and tributaries that are too
shallow for boats to navigate. An obvious
A sit-on-top kayak provides a
shooting platform and allows
you to cover more water than
when wading.
B y T i m L e w i s
point to begin is with any river near you
that passes through a hydro-power plant,
because these rivers are typically shallow
on the downstream side of the plant and
can often be waded easily. This is
particularly true when the water is being
diverted in order to generate electricity.
The sudden diversion of water leaves carp
trapped in the deepest pools that they can
find and wondering what happened to
their river.
Other areas of possibility are rivers or
tributaries with sections of calm water
with shallow ‘riffles’ at the top and the
bottom of that same area. This structure
leaves the fish trapped in the center with
no way to make it to the deeper parts of
the river. In most cases, fish can be easily