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These pools of water hold fish and
can easily be hunted by wading.
of the riffle, where the water begins to
calm. They also like to sit in the quiet and
often shallow pools next to fast moving
water where they don’t have to fight the
current but are close enough to the dinner
table that they can swing out and grab a
bite when the urge strikes them. Though
difficult to see through, don’t rule out the
faster water as carp are extremely strong
and seem to find it a minor inconvenience
to swim up and down stream in fast
moving eddies and currents.
The best days for bow fishing late
season carp are cloudless, sunny days
preceded by periods of little rain. This
makes the water clear and the sun
penetrates even the deepest of small pools
ensuring that, if nothing else, you’ll at least
be able to make out large shadows as they
glide past you. I have found very few
things as exciting as shooting at one of
these ‘shadows’ and, upon connecting,
reeling it in to see how big or how small
my prize is.
As stated, I have used any bow I can get
my hands on for this sport and have used
everything from the kind of commercial
bow fishing reels that you see on television
to winding up the string in my cargo
pocket and allowing it to feed out as I
shoot. It is really a matter of how much
equipment you want to buy or what your
imagination can concoct. Of course, Fred
Bear simply tied his fiberglass arrow to a
line coming from a fishing rod and reel;
when he got a hit, he would drop the bow
and grab the fishing rod in order to reel in
his prey.
A kayak or a canoe can expose you to
many more fish simply because you can
move around easily and are elevated over
the water. The river I hunt can easily be
waded across as the water is not higher
than my waist. However, I often take my
kayak because I can stand up on it and use
it for a shooting platform. A canoe might
work even better since I suspect that when
the fish spot me they are actually looking
at my legs.
Another tactic is to wade out to any
rock protruding from the surface of the
water, stand on it, and wait for the fish to
swim past you (sounds like ambushing
deer, strangely enough!). If you are
fortunate to find an area with several large