Bowfishing Ethics.
Bowfishing
Each year, I have at least two people contact me regarding all the dead trash fish around boat landings. What they are referring to is the fish that are bow shot, then just left at the landing. Between the dead and rotting fish and the buzzards, you can barely launch your boat.
I am lobbying my commission to not only make that illegal in addition to littering, but put one heck of a fine on it.
Guys, please have a little common courtesy. If you shoot one, leave it where you shot it. Everybody benefits and nobody cares how many you shoot. If it is a tournament of some kind, take them back out and leave them somewhere besides at the ramp.
I understand your concern but there is considerable after many of these big bass tournaments as well. After the last session I don't want the commission involved in anything but good luck. till then it will keep the turtles healthy.
Why not take them home and use them for fertilizer in the garden ?
Bowriters concern isn't with non-consumption of the fish....it's with the slobs leaving the dead ones piled around the boat ramp. Total inconsiderate jerks!
Why would anyone fill their boat with them only to dump them at the ramp?
I agree with you wholeheartedly bowriter. There's no possible excuse for dumping a whole load of fish anywhere they will be visible to the non-bowfishing public. Most tournaments I've participated in required the fish be discarded in a responsible fashion. And in fact, bass fishing tournaments penalize those who bring in dead fish. One bowfishing tournament I helped organize in Michigan required us to provide a roll-off dumpster (which in my opinion was a bit excessive, but it was their lake, so their rules).
Bowriter, 100% agree.
Tradman and Huntress, I've seen a roll off dumpster almost full to the top at bowfishing tournament.
Sounds like some good fertilizer for a food plot! I wonder if it would work to rotor til them in?
I gotta agree that's pretty dumb. (To leave the fish at the ramp)
It really is becoming a major problem here. In addition to launching boats, many bank anglers fish near these ramps due to parking access and amenities for the disabled. The smell is horrendous.
I'm glad to see the majority of you regard this seriously.
you will never lose money taking the under on the IQ level of some people. Why folks would do such a thing is incomprehensible as well as reprehensible.
The ones who leave the fish should be caught and fined and then forced to sit next to the okie for 8 hours. A bunch of inconsiderate aholes. At least bag them up and dump in the dumpster.
BowwriterX2,
A few people filleting catfish where they fish along the shore smell things up quickly, too.
Several years ago a Kansas bowhunting group shot a ton, literally, of gar. They took them away from the state park...but dumped them near a boat ramp at the upper end of the lake where some people liked to fish.
...and we don't have any buzzards in the U.S.
We have two kinds of vultures - those in the sky and those in Washington. :-)
Hey, here's an idea. Why don't you put as much effort into convictions and penalties of those that think the boat landing is a trash dump. Pizza boxes, soda and beer cans, styrofoam plates, fastfood bags, plastic utensils, unstrung spools of mono, dumping the ash tray, etc........
I would be that taking care of that first would take care of your dumping of fish dead fish issue.
;-)
I have to agree also. People that do that are the reason Laws have to be made to prevent it from happening again. If you are going to plan on bowfishing, plan on finding a proper place to dispose of your fish afterwards. In a ditch on the side of the public road is not a proper place either. If you do not want more laws being made, think before you act. Bob
Agree with you, it's ridiculous and lazy. Definitely a black eye for our lifestyle...
"......and we don't have any buzzards in the U.S."
Then how do you account for...
Mr. Buzzard is in the yard. Mr. Turtell is down by the well. etc.
Joey Ward-I agree to some extent. However, I have not seen that here to any great level and not to the extent I have seen it othe places. At many of the ramps, there is a regular trash pickup and trash cans conviently placed so it is not as bad as you might think. Certainly not nearly on par with the trash fish issue.
from first hand my co QQ Archery sell a support stick for the bowfishing folks i had a store owner in IL.refuse to carry the product because he did not want to attract anything to do with bowfishing folks for the very reason mention ,it was hard to believe,here in california i have seen many different organizations make out very well from the fresh fish ,from gardens to catfish bait ,a good oppertunity for some youngens to turn lemons into lemonade ,
I sell um to the Chinese take out YUM YUM
Many moons ago there was a "Mink" farm close to me who would pay for carp. They said the carp made the Mink hide shiny. They went away when the bunny huggers got thick out here over the spotted Owl fiasco.
When I was a teenager we did a lot of bowfishing. We never left the carp and such where we shot them, but because we were also trappers we'd take them home, cut them up and put the pieces in a big jar until all that was left was the oil and what was left of the bones. Did it stink? HELL YES! But it was also the best 'coon bait that you could imagine.
We'd also bury some of the remains in the garden for fertilizer. My best friend's grandmother was a Russian immigrant farm girl who was in their garden all day/everyday, and she'd shoot us if she knew we left any carp on the river bank!
My hunting mentors were the kind of people who wasted nothing and they instilled that in us.
The ones who leave the fish should be caught and fined and then forced to sit next to the okie for 8 hours. A bunch of inconsiderate aholes. At least bag them up and dump in the dumpster.
What's that suppose to mean pete?
"....many bank anglers fish near these ramps due to parking access and amenities for the disabled. The smell is horrendous."
Well just because they can't afford a boat doesn't mean that they lack in personal hygene. That's quite a jump there bowriter! I'm sure many have said the same about you after a week in bow camp....
Woods Walker, Now that's funny!
I tend to eat everything I shoot, but agree trash-fish shouldn't be thrown out at the landing.
Had some smoked carp at bear tracks camp last week, very tasty. Should be no reason to waste those fish.
I lived in China from 2011-2013. This was the menu at a "mom & pop' restaurant - note the selection in the middle
First you have to make sure it is the bowfishers that are doing all the dumping, a reservoir that I blowfish at the fishermen that don't like people using bows to shoot fish so when the catch a carp shad sucker or a game that the killed from being hooked to deep they take a screw diver and stab them and leave them on the bank and blame bowfishers
Dale T, bighead is great eating fish. Very white, mild tasting.
Last couple of tournaments I had anything to do with, an organic farmer took the fish and buried them in his compost pile.
As far as roto tilling them into my own garden, the really big heads are hard to break up and take considerable time.
Ever since I started limiting my shots to mature 4.5 year old fish dumping the harvest has not been a problem.
DaleT- was that a noun or an adjective on that menu? :)
DaleT,
I'm curious why they'd have a translation from the Chinese words to English when the translation is "Hongfen Teppanyaki." That doesn't seem any more English than the square words below it.
I just Googled "Hongfen Teppanyaki."
Apparently it's dolphin penis.
I gotta ask. Did you ever try it?
Oh, wow.
I missed the "crap," and noticed the penis.
That's incredibly embarrassing.
