The Carp Hole

Well hopefully you read yesterdays post and knew we were going fishing in some spot off 69 way south.

Well we found a honey pot of sorts.

Except ours looked like this.

So after work I went home to find Jon laying in a chair on the deck waiting for me. We loaded up the truck with our fish blasting gear I changed into shorts and my sandals and away we went. (I just realized I wore the same shorts as when we took out the bronco motor, took out the van motor, changed oil in 4 cars and went for a swim in the creek, and they have not been washed yet) We decided on a pit stop at Flo’s and Smokestack so we got some beer and enjoyed Flos for a bit. We never got hungry enough to wonder next door for some BBQ but we were pretty thirsty. My favorite part was the very pregnant girl that came in drank a Bush NA, smoked a cigaret and left.

Well around 6 we left too and headed south and west. It was a long ways out and once we passed mile marker 114 we started scanning the side of the highway. Then Jon spotted a tiny creek. You can see it in the background of the above picture. Then I spotted about half a dozen buzzards on the ground and several more in the sky and nearby trees. We headed toward the water and they took off and we could see this.

All those white things are large floating dead carp. The buzzards were eating them up and dragging them on shore. When we got closer we found heads and spines picked clean all over the ground.

Ohh and lots of bird poop. However the hole was not all dried up and we could probably see 20-30 or more fish swimming around mostly in the middle on the top. At first we thought maybe there were too many fish in a small hole and this was causing a lack of food and air to support the population.

And it is very possible that is what was causing some of the death but I think other bowfisherman were shooting them as well many seemed to have holes in them. The holes could have come from the birds and turtles but I know at least one other guy knows about this carp pit. Ohh and before you comment about the sewage pouring out of this pipe it was just runoff from the other side of the highway.

So with the buzzards gone and our very own shooting range we got to work. On my second or third shot my string broke and my arrow sank to the bottom without blasting any fish. Jon had a better time but one his first shots hit a rock and bent the arrow tip and made it crooked and dull. We took turns with his bow and injured arrow.

We both had confirmed hits on several fish but the crummy arrow would not go through them at first. Then Jon got this guy right in the back.

It was really cool. He did not put up much of a fight though and then spent the rest of the evening laying on his back on the top of the water occasionally twitching.

So then I took the rig and shot for a while. We had a new shot every couple seconds and just worked our way around and around the hole shooting at the carp. Finaly I got an arrow through one. It looked like it went right through his chin and I pulled him up. He tore off the arrow though right when I got him to the surface. This fish had put up a good fight and drug my arrow around for a while.

I took a few more shots then gave Jon a shot and he got another one that was a bit more lively then the first. Jon’s second one was really small too and slashed around. I shot a second one that was also kinda small and he popped off the arrow but not until I had him up. He landed on the edge of the water and was stuck in some rocks so I poked him with the arrow to see how hard we had to hit them for the arrows to stick because we probably hit like 10 fish over the whole evening that did not get the dull arrow to stick in them.

After this shot I got up the nerve to get in the stagnant stinky water and try to recover my arrow. I striped down to just my boxers and got a big stick to assist me in keeping my balance.

(just like this but smelly)

Jon keept shooting and eventually hit a 3rd fish. The bottom was just lots of loose big rocks and very hard to navigate in. I got up to my stomach and was probing around with my stick. I was on the top of a ledge and the water dropped off a lot beyond that. I thought I felt something loose like an arrow with my stick and worked at it for a while. I was really hesitant to get my head in the water and really against opening my eyes under water to look around. There was a lot of nasty rotten fish in this small hole and we had seen buzzards eating out of it. I eventually worked the object i was probing up to the surface and found a roll of barb wire.

That was it for me I gave up and climbed out. I shoot a few more times and so did Jon. Neither of us had much luck as a storm had rolled in and the drops on the water made it very hard to see the fish. The rain picked up so I changed back into my shorts and shirt and we headed out. Once we got turned around it started pouring down rain and the wind picked up. We had gotten out just in time. The hole felt a bit like cheating but it was challenging to us and great practice. We plan to try to go shoot again before the hole dries up or all the fish die. We will take a few extra arrows so more then 5 fish get a good blasting.