C&R Bowfishing?

[Skipper]

I would have a shot a catching a gar over 80 inches! I'm not even going to mess with it unless I can find a guide, but I'd bet I can get my father in law to split the costs.

[rgfixit]

Harvesting is harvesting.....killing is killing.

If you're any kind of sportsman, you harvest and use what you harvest. Otherwise, let it go.
RG

[brokenline]

well said rg!! any fish over 80" would make my season!

[panfishman13]

any fish over 15" would make my season
bowfishing is not a catch and release sport, it's exactly like its land-based counterpart, only you don't have to trudge 800 yards to get to what you shot
i don't know what was going through these guys' minds, apparently they thought that such a huge fish wouldn't be affected by a hole the size of a silver dollar. although if i was bowfishing for gar i definitely wouldn't shoot one that size, i don't know about you but my family couldn't finish that much fish before it went bad, i would try to go for the ones around 20" so as to have a fair amount of table-faring fish. of course like all you guys i would love to tangle with one of those at almost any time, but i wouldn't want it to fill up my three freezers plus the freezers of my friends and extended family and still have to sell it at the farmers market at 10 cents a pound.

[GasBlaster]

I think I saw the same show and was asking myself the same thing . How can they let those go after all that . The hits were right in the back and just behind the gills on the other .   I am not sure of the name of the show ,But the guy is one of the big fish hunter guys .  Was it hunting for the one    or something like that ?

[Keith Walters]

I saw that show too and didn't like it a bit!  Bow fishing is NOT a catch and release activity.  I don't have a problem with bow fishing, catch/release, or catch/eat.  But, I don't think it is proper to put a big gash in a fish and release it.  Here is a link to the show.  Scroll down to the episode 2 information.  (Trev Gowdy mosnter fish)

http://www.outdoorchannel.com/Shows/MonsterFish.aspx


Good Fishing,
Keith Walters (Nebraska)

[rgfixit]

http://www.outdoorchannel.com/Shows/MonsterFish.aspx

[Skipper]

I do not plan on harvesting any gar if I go, C&R hook and line or I want nothing to do with it. Could you even imagine the contaminants in the flesh of a predatory fish that is that large and old?! I am not much of a fish eater anyway. I maybe will smoke a dozen suckers and fry a limit or two of pannies in a year, but 90% percent of what I catch goes back unharmed. I don't see the sense in killing things to fill my freezer. I don't think I have ever eaten a bass, and pike only fry if the gills get torn up. Pike can taste fine.

The more I think of it, the more it irritates me! Even if the fish is fully capable of surviving such an assault, it shouldn't have to! To me it is a respect issue. You just don't go around shooting things and expecting them just to deal with it. Going out at night with spotlights is unethical in my book too. This dweeb had multiple generators powering the lights from the ball field out there.

How does a hack like this get a show? How did his producers think it was a good idea to show such an activity?

Harvesting is harvesting.....killing is killing.

If you're any kind of sportsman, you harvest and use what you harvest. Otherwise, let it go.
RG

You are totally right, sometimes there is no grey area. Slobs are slobs, even if they have an excuse.

[Stuck-on-Seven]

when we shoot the carp in the tournaments if we do decide to let them go they swim away like nothing ever happened.....i know that they still live as long as you dont shoot them through the gills or through the spine....but the ones we do keep get put into a huge dumptruck and i dont know what they do with them after that but i do know that alot of those shows give the fish to farmers for fertilizers in their fields....the carp population can definitely use some thinning anyways but i dont know about the gar i have never gone after those.

[BBK]

Speaking of this, I was fishing a smallmouth stream the other day and had 4, yes 4 carp come floating past me. All 4 of them had holes going through them from the back, and all 4 of them were coon food. If your going to shoot something and you know its going to die, at least take it home with you and do whatever you want with it. Dont throw it back in the lake/river/stream.

[camocrazy82]

Ok, Let me get this right. You shoot a fish. A legal species in Indiana or wherever. It isnt what YOU want so you put it back to be coon food. Why shoot? I dont bowfish because I dont want to put my fish in the garbage. I would like to bowfish but have yet to find a good enough recipe to do so.

[Drifter_016]

I don't agree with this practice at all!!!! You don't go out and shoot holes through anything living just for the H3LL of it!!! 
This type of thing makes all sportsmen look like Knuckle Dragging Neanderthals!!!!
While we are on the subject of questionable fishing practices, I have another that I don't agree with.
That is the practice of snagging fish. I know in certain instances there are regs permitting the snagging of certain fish species, but I don't think it is sporting at all. Some snagging fisheries that come to mind are paddlefish fisheries in the central US and some of the ocean and terminal salmon fisheries in Alaska.
I think if the fish can't be caught in a sporting manner it should be left alone.
Thanks for putting up with my rant.
We now return you to our regularly scheduled rant.   

[Stuck-on-Seven]

like i said the most people will take the fish and give them to a farmer or put them in your garden for fertilizer...there is not enough people who fish for carp and keep them so we have no other means of controlling the population....these fish would get overpopulated very very quickly if left unmanaged....here are some quick facts to help support my statement...

a typical adult fish can lay 300,000 eggs in a single spawning. Although carp typically spawn in the Spring, in response to rising water temperatures and rain fall, carp can spawn multiple times in a season.

Common carp were brought to the United States in 1831. In the late 1800s they were distributed widely throughout the country by the government as a foodfish. However, common carp are no longer prized as a foodfish in the United States. As in Australia, their introduction has been shown to have negative environmental consequences and they are usually considered to be invasive species. Millions of dollars are spent annually by natural resource agencies to control common carp populations in the United States.

Due to their fecundity and their feeding habit of grubbing through bottom sediments for food they are notorious for altering their environment. In feeding, they may destroy, uproot and disturb submerged vegetation causing serious damage to native duck and fish populations.

So why not go out and have a fun time shooting some carp if you havent tried it its loads and loads of fun keep the fish put em in your garden for fertilizer and do your part in controlling the population

[Skipper]

Some snagging fisheries that come to mind are paddlefish fisheries in the central US and some of the ocean and terminal salmon fisheries in Alaska.
I think if the fish can't be caught in a sporting manner it should be left alone.

Can a paddlefish even be caught on hook and line? I thought they filter fed on plankton and other tiny wigglers. Paddlefish is nearly extinct here in MN, so the season is permanently closed. They can still be found in some of our strong deep rivers like the Mississippi and St. Croix, but that is about it.

I think that bowfishing is more than ethical, it is wanton waste that irritates me!

Seven, killing a dump truck load of overpopulated invasive carp and properly disposing of them is a fishery management practice here in MN. If it is a choice between heavy bowfishing and a chemical kill of the whole lake, no one is going complain. Myself and others are bothered by the guys who kill for fun and leave floaters to stink up the place. If you shoot, take it with you. If you don't want to take it with you, don't shoot. Just because it swims away does not mean it wont be dead in a few hours. If there is already a dump truck, why not just put them in it?

A big carp can make as much stink as a dead horse.

[AD]

That is the practice of snagging fish. I know in certain instances there are regs permitting the snagging of certain fish species, but I don't think it is sporting at all. Some snagging fisheries that come to mind are paddlefish fisheries in the central US and some of the ocean and terminal salmon fisheries in Alaska.
I think if the fish can't be caught in a sporting manner it should be left alone.

Some of those snagging sites in Alaska are first opened up to legal fishing, and after a certain time it will be opened to snagging.    There are some sites that salmon are stocked and return to that they cannot spawn on, one place that comes to mind is on the Homer Spit in Homer Alaska.   They are going to die, so why not get some use out of them, and feed the local residents and get some tourism money off of it?      The snagging of paddle fish is closely monitored and has a short season with specific slot limits.    Along with limits to the size of a snagging hook and etc....     
     Those fish above are put to use as food, while it may not be true fishing it is legal and the fish are not wasted.   
      I have no problem with bow fishing (although I would think that bow fishing on Alligator gar needs a little tighter management.....)    My problem is when people just toss the fish back over the side.....   It looks bad to the public to see dead carp that people have been "slaughtering".    In a time when a good public image is a must for fisherman C&R bow fishing can make us all look bad.   
     Thinking about it, yes the carp or fish may swim away but you poked a hole into them that is susceptible to infections and disease, and blood loss.      It would be interesting to see a fisheries biologist do a radio telemetry study on fish that were shot bow fishing to track moralities and such.