Bow Fishing Lake Anna Virginia 5-5-12

[6pt-sika]

Had a new experience this morning !

I went bow fishing for carp with a friend and his son this morning !
Getting up at 5:30AM to go deer hunting or even mountain stream trout fishing has always been fairly easy for me . But before I went to bed I was thinking it might be a tad on the difficult side to get up for a warm weather fishing event !
But I woke up about 3 minutes before the alarm was supposed to go off at 5:30AM and was prepared when my friends arrived to pick me up . They had a large Old Towne cannoe in the back of the truck along with two compound bows and a recirve all nicely set up for bow fishing .

After about a 20 minute drive to the lake we launched the cannoe took a couple practice shots each and went out into the long cove !









After coming out of the cove we eased out into the main part of the lake but over some flats and sandbars that had 12-30 inches of water .

They had placed me in the front since this was my first trip . After awhile we started seeing them rise a bit and I noticed one about half submerged on a flat . They eased the boat up to about 10-12 meters of the carp and I let fly for the first time ever !

Lo and behold I hit the darn thing !









I take no claim to skill at shooting a bow anymore , It's been maybe 5 years since I truely shot a bow with any great authority so I pretty much think this one was a defenite matter of PURE LUCK . However as I've heard a number of folks say over the years I'd rather be lucky then skilled !

[6pt-sika]

Doesn't leave a fellow any room for improvement when they hit the very first one !
Needless to say I missed my next two shots .
My friends son shot 3 or 4 times but he didn't have any luck . I kept trying to trade with my friend and man the oars but he said he was fine watching us shoot and he didn't take a shot .

Couple more pics that I took while we were going around !

[6pt-sika]

This bow fishing thing was kinda neat I thought . Think if I get another offer I'll take them up on it again !

[pokey]

I'd rather be lucky then skilled !

any day of the week, brother.

[shawn_c992001]

I bowfish a lot on the New River for carp and suckers. It's loads of fun!

[6pt-sika]

I bowfish a lot on the New River for carp and suckers. It's loads of fun!

Dunno if I wanna float the New River but I wouldn't mind bungee jumping off the New River Gorge Bridge on I-64 on the 4th of July once

[Rusty]

Just once?

Better thee than me.

I've been to the bottom of the bridge and looked up to the top. No thanks!

[hightime]

Looks like a good time. Nothing more fun than hunting fish.
I hate waiting for them to bite.

Owen

[geobru]

When I was a teenager and into college, I shot a lot of carp.. It was great fun. My biggest fish that I landed was 20 pounds. I think the only reason I landed that fish is because I hit it right in the spine and it was DRT.

[rjohns94]

Very kewl. I use bow fishing as a warm up for fall hunting. Great fun. Good for you

[Blaine]

Smallish carp, cleaned properly and smoked are very good.

[6pt-sika]

Smallish carp, cleaned properly and smoked are very good.

I'm not a big fish eater . Deep fried crappie fillets are good , tuna steaks are good , grilled striper is decent , trout stuffed with crabmeat is excellent (mainly because of the crab meat) and of course I like sushi . But the thought of eating carp just kinda doesn't sound like something I wanna try

[Hobie]

Looks like fun.

[shawn_c992001]

I pretty much grew up on the New River, my grand parents had a house in Hinton right beside the Museum. I have caught more fish out of that river than I can count. Probably the best small mouth fishing in the state! I still hunt it for waterfowl and fish it heavily.

There is no way I would jump off the Gorge bridge. I think it was last year or the possibly the year before the way a guy killed base jumping, or nearly killed???

[marlinman93]

We used to do a lot o bowfishing for carp when I was young. In the spring when the waters were high the carp around here would swim up the flooded ruts of old roads and we waded the roads to shoot them. Got some really large ones on occasion that went over 20 lbs.