Marker... Action! Carp Killed on Camera

This is a video of myself shooting a carp. Unlike my wife's video, The carp that I shot stayed on the camera. Also unlike my wife's carp, my carp was not as big as my wife's (Nearly four pounds shy of the mark, and nearly six inches less!), which is my curse for marrying someone who loves to do the things that I do. All well, it could be worse, she could hate my favorite hobby of bow fishing and not let me do it. Anyway, my video is a little long because I missed the first fish, but got the second. This is the only video that I have of myself, and I don't see many other videos emerging for one specific reason... I don't want to film others shooting carp because I want to shoot the carp. My wife feels the same way and so this will be among the rare videos of our successes. At least I wasn't filming the shot because I would have probably kept recording like last time and looked stupid in the process. Anyway enjoy the video.

This is Me

I realized after having this blog for a few months that I had no picture of myself on the blog. I had pictures of my wife, my Father-in-Law, and of carp before I had pictures of me! Good job Matt. Anyway, this future model for men everywhere in the bow fishing world is me. My stylists must have been on vacation that day. I decided to wear this outfit to bow fish, but I had good reason to wearing this incredibly mismatching outfit that would make everyone, including my wife, cringe upon sight. I had previously been fishing this similar spot with some hip boots on with Levis underneath when I discovered a hole with my foot. I instantly sank up to my waist in water, and no longer saw a need to have my hip boots on anymore that day. I was just as fortunate in forgetting to bring a spare change of clothes as well. Anyway, the next time I went I improvised by wearing some water shoes and swimming shorts. I also brought a change of clothes. This too was a mistake. The water is understandably gross (hence the change of clothes), but the part that sucked was my legs were open to the fish themselves. While I was walking I had fish run into my legs four times and it scared the daylights out of me every time. I had this happen when I was wearing hip boots too, but I was shielded a little from the impact due to the thickness of the rubber, that was not the case here. Regardless of the uncomfortable nature of the exposed legs I had my best shooting day ever. I shot and killed 19 carp during my six hour outing. I am hoping to beat that next year though. It's important to have goals in life, especially in bow fishing kills.

Limp Fish Handshakes Are Not the Same in Bow Fishing

In my opinion there is nothing more negative in the handshake arena than that of a limp fish handshake. It just feels wrong, and doesn't really make all that good of an impression. While overseas in Singapore I got more limp fish shakes than I would ever want to have for my entire life. Anyway, the same principle a limp fish being a negative does not apply when it concerns bow fishing. When my wife and I were out on on favorite spot to bow fish (Pelican Point is what we call the spot) I was not having much luck at shooting carp that day and it was a little frustrating, as all hunters can imagine. The Carp were easily spooked that day, and since we were on foot and not in a boat it made it difficult to sneak up on them. When it was mid day I saw one that had seen me, but was only turning around when I fired. I thought at first I had missed because there wasn't the usual frantic display of the carp jumping out of the water in surprise, but a small ripple. However, when I reeled in the fish I realize I had hit the fish... right in the head! I killed it instantly. No fight, no resistance, just a limp fish. Most may consider this to be a boring catch, just like most consider a limp handshake to be out of place, but I found this experience to be awesome. Not only did I hit the fish,but my aim was so good that I killed it on impact. I shot only a few fish that day but I had the bragging rights that my shots were lethal on impact. This definitely brightened my mood for the outing. Although it was difficult to remove the arrow due to the fact it did not go through all the way, and was logged in the skull of the carp.

What killed the Carp: the arrow or my foot?

This is an awesome video. Have you ever been filming something and then something unexpected happens? My response is to keep filming like an idiot and NOT realize that I am still filming!That is why this video is awesome. I was just excited that my wife shot one on camera. She is awesome at shooting carp in every situation, EXCEPT on camera. I have five different videos where she is perfectly lined up and misses, or something happens like the line breaks. I was honestly getting ready to give up filming her because she was feeling pressured to shoot, and I was feeling pressured to not shoot at all the fish I see swimming around me while I was filming my wife miss fish. So this was a milestone. That is why I am not ashamed to say that during the video (because you cannot tell) I am kicking the fish back onto shore. It was chaotic, and quite possibly the funniest thing you would see if you were driving by and happened to notice me and my wife kicking the water like it just insulted my mother! Needless to say we succeeded in getting the carp onto shore. That is why I wonder if the arrow killed the carp, or if it was my excessive kicking the hell out of that carp that killed it. Regardless, that carp had zero fight left in him and it was ready for the inevitable clubbing it would get from my mighty fish whacker. Enjoy the video, and let me know what you think of an Academy Award winning performance!

The Season is Coming to a Close

My father-in-law (Shane) and my wife (Lindsay) went out to Utah Lake last week and only managed to shoot four carp. This was one of the worst outings of the year and it can be attributed to the cold temperatures and low water due to lack of water this past year.
"I shot the carp and it just sat their and accepted the inevitable fact that he was screwed. There was no fight in him. I think it was due to the cold weather."
Too much walking and not enough carp killing is a good indication that carp season is over. It was sad to realize that I was going to have to hang up my gear until next May. What am I going to do with my time until then, fish with a pole? Boring. This was a good pic from that outing.

A Beatiful Team We Make

I would consider myself to be the luckiest man alive. The beautiful carp killing model you see in the main picture above and to the left is my wonderful wife Lindsay, who had just killed an 11 pound carp. While some women spend time with their men playing games or sports, mine goes hunting with me.

Why would you think that I am the luckiest man in the world? Not only does my wife cook wonderful meals, work hard at her job, and make me smile, but she is an avid hunter and fisher(wo)man.The only downside is she always outdoes me in fishing. She is usually the first to catch something on a reel, or a fly rod. She also gets the biggest and most aggressive fish in the water which is quite entertaining to watch when the fish start to pull her into the water. The same is true with bow fishing. She has beaten me with the largest fish every time this year when we have gone out to Utah Lake and bow fished. This picture is proof of that claim as it was two pounds larger than my biggest.

So for all you women and men out there this is a sport that benefits everyone.There are no limits in the sports capacity to have a lot of fun killing a carp. I mean come on, look at that smile!

Carp Killers of America

This is not the site for the weak in heart, or for the animal friendly individual. This is a site devoted to the utter destruction of Carp! Why kill a Carp? There are a number of reason these foul creatures should never be allowed to exist peaceably:

1. Carp are VERY ugly! If there were no halibut then Carp would stand supreme ruler as the ugliest fish in the world. 
2. Unlike the fine dining taste of halibut Carp taste terrible. If you like the taste of carp congratulations, you have poor tastes and you need to get out more. I grew up in the rural back country of Missouri and Virginia and they still had better tasting food than this!
3. Carp destroy every environment they touch. That's right environmentalist, carp kill ecosystems. Carp in Utah have gone so far as to drive fish like the June Sucker in Utah Lake onto the endangered species list. 
4. Carp smell worse than milk left out on the sidewalk after a week in August. I don't know what it is about being ugly and smelling worse than those who are beautiful, but it is true. No I will not be politically correct, people and fish smell worse when they are ugly. Trout, bass, catfish all smell fresh while their ugly counterpart carp stinks to high heaven.

Tune in tomorrow for more exciting reasons why you should stop what you are doing and kill a carp! Until then comment and let me know why YOU feel the need to kill carp.