Bowfishing the Illinois River for Flying Carp on a Portabote


What can I say? My brother and I experienced the trip of a lifetime. We experienced Bowfishing Nirvana. Make no mistake, bowfishing for asian carp in the Illinois River will never be forgotten. We had a GREAT time.Just imagine a river 200-300 yards wide, and then imagine carp filling that width for as far as the eye can see above and below that point in the river. And friends, this is not contrived. This is REALITY. We floated a 3-4 mile stretch of river that was FULL of carp!!! We were in awe....

They were running into the boat by the hundreds. I can't tell you how many we shot, let alone how many I hit with the out board motor prop. Granted, we were never hit by any of these flying carp, but you always knew that they were there. Also, they didn't jump like in other videos, but rather they were justrolling on the surface (by the thousands.) Please note in the video this behavior. Look close, and you will see it......this behavior (spawning???) stretched for miles and miles....

The highlights included my brother tagging multiple doubles. I tagged a 30 pound plus bighead carp. We shot more silver carp, but they averaged between 10-15 pounds. The biggest silver was 18 pounds.

We shot about 50-60 fish in 3 hours. This equates to hundreds of pounds. We were exhausted, but extremely satisfied.

A special thanks to the President of the Illinois Bowfishing Association. YOUR INTEL WAS AWESOME.

Dave and Sully, I know you couldn't make it for legit reasons. Don't worry guys; I will be back for this trip later in the summer. This is something to experience. And I will personally show you this honey hole....

The Show Always Goes On!!!

bitter







Channel: Sports
Uploaded: June 9, 2008 at 7:24 am
Author: bitterangst

Length: 00:04:04
Rating: 4.07
Views: 4477

Tags: Asian Bowfishing Rock Bighead State Flying Illinois Silver Park Carp Portabote Starved River

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Video Comments:
bitterangst (October 5, 2008 at 1:49 am)
just doing my part as an american and an ally to canada.the fish is tastey.

bitter
pumpkinking9e (October 5, 2008 at 1:41 am)
Thank you for doing the America and my country (Canada) a huge favor. We need to eradicate these fish somehow, before they pollute our prime sport fishing grounds. Before Asian carp, these rivers were much nicer, and held buckets of native sportfish.

Please, don't let a single fish live.......I have nothing against the fish in their native habitat, but they are on our turf and have to be killed.

I'd imagine these taste quite a bit better than "common Carp". White flaky meat, like Catfish mayb?
muskieman451 (September 30, 2008 at 12:15 am)
oh ive fished there with my dad before
bitterangst (September 30, 2008 at 12:04 am)
we are fishing the illinois river located at starved rock state park.

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