Wholesale Slaughter
- This topic has 6 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated Jul 31, 2006 at 8:06 pm by
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Sorry for the tone of this post, but I’m so mad I could just spit. >:(
I’ve been doing a lot of carp fishing this month, and I’d found a great little place where I’ve been consistently picking up some really nice fish. It’s a deep hole near a feeder stream, with flats on each side – large numbers of carp hang out in the deep hole and wander up on the flats to feed. Plus, it’s a long walk from any access points, so I usually don’t see many other people.
I only had a few hours to fish this morning, so I got up before daylight, threw on my backpack, and hiked in to my spot. As I rounded the bend in a heavy fog, just around sunup, I was surprised to hear voices, and I thought maybe somebody else might have found my spot. One of the local fly shops, Fly South, has a “carp tournament” going on right now, and I’d been thinking sooner or later one of the participants might track down my fishing place. No worries, I thought – the area is big enough for a few folks to share.
What I found was much worse. There were two guys in a flatbottom jon boat with a spotlight and bows, shooting carp right and left. They’d skewer a carp with an arrow, haul it in, and then throw it back into the river to die. I watched them shoot maybe six or seven while I was standing there. I wanted to find out how much damage they’d done, so I choked back my frustration and managed to ask in a friendly manner how they were doing. They told me they’d been bow fishing the river all night and they guessed they’d killed a couple hundred total.
I believe them – I could see about 20 dead or dying carp on the bottom of the hole, and I figure many more had probably drifted downstream with the current. A few more were swimming around with gaping wounds in their backs. Plus, I’m sure they’d hit other holes on the river through the night as well.
I know what they were doing was perfectly legal, but I’m still just sick about it. I probably wouldn’t even had minded much if they had killed fewer, or if they weren’t just wasting them. That’s a lot of fish that won’t be there for anyone else to enjoy any more.
God forbid that our wildife resources agencies take away some hillbilly’s god-given right to slaughter “disposable” wildife for entertainment, but is this really the way our resources should be managed? I’m not saying we have to illegalize bow fishing, but couldn’t we maybe have a limit on the number of fish killed per day, or a requirement that you have to keep the fish you kill instead of just tossing them back in the river? I guess I just don’t buy into the throw-away mentality behind the Tennessee Wildife Resources Agency’s “trash fish” management.
bd
I can see where TWRA is coming from; the carp is a “mistaken introduction” fish, an invasive non-native immigrant that outcompetes native fish.
I’d be in favor of bowfishing limits, liberal ones, for carp. 20 fish a day isn’t asking too much; there’s plenty of sporting opportunity in bowing twenty carp in an afternoon. I think fishermen should be required to take the carp with them too, rather than just letting them lie, both for counting purposes and to reduce the dead matter quotient in the rivers.
That sums it up quite nicely.
bd
So where all the species of carp present in North America introduced at some point or are there some that are considered native?
Though I didn’t make the distinction, the fish being killed were common carp and buffalo.
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