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.