CT Bans bowfishing !!
Bowfishing
Trophy carp?!??!! W. T. F.
They’re rough fish.
Unreal
They actually have "Trophy Carp Waters" !!?? Wow!
And......mow and grow doesn't work eather!!!!! Lmao ,....yeah I know...
This fish was classified as an “invasive” with no limit. Somebody is messing around with trying to deny bow fishing.
Wow! Places usually have carp shoots because they are invasive and damaging.
Sounds like a joke about a month early.
1 Carp limit in the CT River? Theirs tons of carp in the CT River.
I used to shoot dozens of those things with a rifle when it was a kid.
I just got my "Earn a Carp" sticker for next season....I`m PUMPED!!! I`m just waiting for the next Civil War....I have given up on the stupidity in our country.
Wow, I wouldn't even bother to go out there! Of course I couldn't even live in that state...
For a minute, I actually thought it was April 1st.....
Ridiculous for sure...
What the hell are "trophy carp waters"? Carp get big everywhere!
Since we're not talking about cute, fuzzy animals here, I am amazed by this new regulation. Was there any explanation for why they felt this measure was even necessary? Size limits and quotas on rough fish....unbelievable!! What's next, a "Save the Cockroach" movement?....or maybe "Friends for Ticks"?
I don't see where bowfishing is mentioned at all.....as an accepted (or unaccepted) method of taking carp. It simply wasn't even addressed in the link. I don't have a Facebook account or I would have posted a comment....which is probably exactly what they anticipated.....the older fraction of the population that might enjoy bowfishing for carp more than the millennials, isn't as apt to have a Facebook account.....so less negative comments.
Great sport fish particularly big ones put a bonefish to shame.
Not sure what to say. This really takes the cake. Is this the most important problem that the state of CT is facing? Seems to me that there are too many legislators that have too much time on their hands. Maybe they ought to think about getting a real job because they apparently have solved all of the major ones.
Just practice catch and release what's the issue?
Carp angling is huge is the rest of the world. Some of that is trickling over from the EU. A buddy of mine in CT targets them and he gets some hammers. Often shared by international carp fishing pages.
Wait till they come out with the carp stamp.
Terry
So they didn't really ban it...........they just set a 5 per day limit?
"no fish over 26" What the heck! You need to measure it before you shoot it?
Man a semi-live carp shoot in Ct with these new rules might compete against the semi-live Deer hunts there for the most activity..... ;-)
On a serious note that sucks and is rediculous! Wonder if there was any lead up to this and why.
Wow, as a fly fishing nerd, I can see the rising appreciation of carp as a "game" fish. Wholly smokes do they pull line. Plus you have to fish them like a bonefish. It's tricky, and actually takes a lot of fly rodding skill to catch one.
I hope that growing trend is not behind the bowfishing ban though. I mean seriously. How many people even bowfish in CT. Just Pat and 2 other guys :) (I have no idea, I just can not imagine whatever the number is has any impact whatsoever on carp populations, which may be negative)...
That's a weird rule.
Pat - I didn't see where they mention no bow fishing. I'd also be interested in the Conservation council if you are looking for representation....
I imagine that the carp wounding rates will jump dramatically :)
Pretty soon you guys will have to get a mosquito stamp and you'll only be able to swat 5 per year!!
So if the limit is 1, can't you just play "catch and release" and take one home at the end of the day? Maybe after a summer of dead stinking carp littering the waters they would re-evaluate that stupid rule on an INVASIVE species. New level of dumb.
With rules like that, you're going to make NJ jealous.........
Holy Crap! That's dumbassery, even for Yankeeland!
Did Bowsite get bought out by CNN? Talk about dramatic/misleading headlines! A 5 fish limit is not exactly a ban.
On the other hand interesting stance on an invasive species. I can vouch that carp fishing is growing tremendously in popularity, we'll see this lobbied-for in other states to follow for sure.
Do they have studies to back that bowfishing has a material effect on the population? I can see the logic behind the "Trophy Carp Waters". Big carp put up a serious fight and poking a hole in one usually kills them I am pretty sure. If they have viable catch and release fishery it seems reasonable to me to limit bowhunting for them. It's not exactly groundbreaking precedent to manage an invasive species, here in PA brown and rainbow trout are both non-native/invasive depending which euphemism you prefer, and our state agency spends buku bucks stocking them for angler enjoyment. And no one is to say that a "rough" fish can't become a popular game fish over time. Truly I am torn, and I would like to see more statistics to back up that it isn't some group of a dozen carp anglers whining for the change as I don't like when a vocal minority gets their way, preferably this should all be managed with some semblance of statistical science, but I can see both sides of the issue.
Pat, I wonder if so few people bowfish up here, that they literally forgot it when considering this? Given there are about 8zillion carp, it seems odd...
Catch and release permits substantial flexibility under a 1 fish limit.
OK, so first off... it's Fake News. I get why Pat's upset, and I don't disagree with him that it's verging on the absurd, but bowfishing simply has NOT been banned.
It's just that if you're in an area with size restrictions, you need to be able to judge size pretty well.
Before you shoot.
Should be no limit nor season on neither rough fish nor invasive species, such as gar, shad, carp, buffalo, sucker, bowfin, drum.
There are plenty of other native species and sport species for the fly-fishing elite to target.
Is this another leg pull ?
Wonder what your DNR, will think if Conn. should get an infestation / population of Asian Carp ? Will they have creel and size limits on those carp also ?
This just sounds to ridiculous to be true.
GF- the thread title isn't entirely true and what you said isn't exactly true either. You must be able to judge size and in a huge percentage of the state, you are limited to 1 fish. That's 5-10 minutes of fishing. Even a 5 fish limit is maybe an hour of fishing. You'll see 100 a night easy. People have 1000's of dollars invested in boats, lights, gear. Who is going to trailer a boat to go out for 5 minutes? I can if the "fishery" needed regulations, which I don't believe it did. This is ridiculously extreme. Everyone will just stop bowfishing.... or have them all shake off while "trying" to get them in the boat. That just sucks. I know areas where guys fill the boat, every week, all summer, year after year in the same spots and still see 100+ fish a night. Most states encourage harvesting them and still have huge populations
Pat I'm thinking I'm going to just flatten the barbs on my arrows and still stay out all night !!!!
A few years back I was Wels Catfishing in Spain. My outfitter was a Britt and just about fell out of the boat when I told him we shoot carp with a bow and arrow. Carp are trophy fish in the EU and from what I saw gets as much attention as bass angling does here.
"the thread title isn't entirely true and what you said isn't exactly true either."
What part of what I said isn't "True"???
Leaving aside how I, you, Pat or anyone else might feel about it, it is still Legal to shoot carp. Whether an individual will feel that the effort involved is justified or not is a separate issue.
Gotta say, though....
I understand carp-fishing. My brother and I were specializing in big carp 40 years ago, just because they were the biggest fish we could get to on a bike. But it has not come to my attention that there are any waters in this state or any other where carp occur in limited numbers... They're not always easy to catch, but it hasn't ever been due to scarcity....
But just out of curiosity....
What do you do with 100 dead carp?
One thing about carp... they accumulate a lot of crap that you wouldn't want to eat. Any state where they have any fish-consumption advisories out, you will find carp at or near the top of the Do Not Eat list. Damn things are practically Toxic Waste.
Not sure how you would dispose of them safely, but I suppose if you let the carp population explode, you could round them all up and end up removing a vast quantity of hazardous chemicals from a waterway.
Of course, you wouldn't want to eat any predatory fish from those waters, but you probably don't anyway....
My carp fishing shirt would have patches from Green Giant, Wheaties and Stay Puft.
Look on the bright side of living there. I don’t know what it is but look for it Massachusetts is no better
GF- on your post you simply stated there were size restrictions. That's tough but the "creel limit" is much more damning for the sport.
I never said I shot 100 a night, just that you would see 100 a night. I often use the ones I shoot for trapping. I used to bury them near fruit trees too. I work with a couple of guys who eat some and some I just put in my big compost where all other animal remains go.
I get Carp fishing. I have friends who do it. It just isn't right that something like this gets psssed with (from what I can tell) no studies or public comments. This is one of the primary ways to get kids and new people interested in hunting. There isn't any other activity out there that offers such a fun laid back, group Bowhunting acvtivity with readily available spots and appropriate for all age groups. You are correct in it's not banned and it's up to the individual to determine if the effort is worth it. That's like saying we won't ban snow goose hunting, we know you have $1000's invested in equipment..... but you can only shoot one snow goose and it has to have a wingspan under 50". Nobody is going to invest the time setting up huge spreads to shoot a single bird that has to have a certain physical size.
I have never shot a carp smaller than 26”.
On the topic of carp - this is a menu on wall of mom & pop restaurant in China: (a couple of items were "lost in translation")
Bighead carp grow huge but don't fight that well kind of like a buffalo or flathead. Common carp over 20 lbs are a blast they can strip 200 yards of line in a few seconds. Great sport fish. And ive caught tons of salmon, steelhead and muskies in my life. Try fishing for them! Thats why they are so prized in Europe.
Wow all this talk about carp brings back memories of carp baseball when I was a kid.
The whole time I was in the league I never did see a homerun hit.
Sure they were fun to catch. We used to throw big daredevils and snag them as well. Hook a 20 lber by the tail fin and the fight was insane.
Connecticut and California both start with a "C". I wonder if there are other similarities that are on the horizon?
"Connecticut and California both start with a "C". I wonder if there are other similarities that are on the horizon?"
The "C" states are California, Connecticut.....oh, and Colorado - which appears to be the state that leads the union in glass houses per capita.
Stop carping and do something about it!
What would one expect from a liberal society that promotes illegal alien rights over those of the tax-paying citizen. Now they hold the invasive carp in higher esteem than the original gamefish. Par for the course.
Carp are an invasive species.
But to some folks, they are “Dreamer fish”.
I got this off a bowfishing site. Is this true?
"I think they are following vt . vt just put a limit of 5 gar and 5 bowfin for bowfishing"
I just checked and VT did limit the number of gar, bowfin and mullet to 5 each but Carp are still unlimited.
I'm loving me some specially cooked skin of the pig's knuckle. mmmmm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SSS,.....shoot sink and shut up.
t-roy your meme actually says "carp day" "carpe" is "grab", "catch" or "sieze" "diem " is "day"
Unfortunately.... in most states the newer game managers are very liberal( tree hugger liberal ) and idealistic in their approach to game management. Human hunters are their last priority, some do not even like hunting and fishing for sport. Expect more ridiculousness.
Hot and Sour Bighead crap? Yummy!! SD study found somewhere between 50 and 60 TONS of carp per acre in lake Brant. If Connecticut has even a fraction of that in their lakes they may want to rethink the new limit.
Carpe carpe didn’t have as nice of a ring to it, fuzzy. ;-)
Does anyone that writes legislation, educate themselves before making these laws? How can a state regulate an invasive species? They are THE NUMBER ONE, MOST DESTRUCTIVE fish in connecticut. THE WHOLE POINT TO TARGETING CARP IS TO ELIMINATE THEM FROM THE ECOSYSTEM. Now you want us to play catch and release with an invasive species which we just stuck an arrow into? For what? So that they can suffer if they aren’t the right size? Read and re-read what I just wrote and tell me if anything that is being proposed makes any sense. THE ONLY REGULATION THAT SHOULD BE ON NON NATIVE FISH IS “SEEK AND DESTROY”. Anyone who catche these fish should by law destroy them onsite. Look at what happened with the Asian carp Out west. They’re ecosystem is being completely devastated by invasive Asian carp. Do you you want connecticut to deal with the same issues? If not then I highly suggest that the legislators in CT bring in consultants and read these comments before the damage is irreversible.
That is the stupidist fish regulation ive ever heard of. For anywhere. Its like having a limit on starlings. Who's running these state organizations nowdays panyway. I will post comments on that site, don't worry. That is just plain outrageous. This country is going to hell fast at the hands of fools. I'm seriously damn glad I'm old.
A limit on carp = more crap.
After reading this I see why the new regs went in, slob greedy Bowfishermen, social media pics of dumpsters full of dead fish, Musky floaters and dead dumps in public places and the comments like shot and toss them back comments, its also why Texas is meeting this month to talk about stopping shooting Alligator gar, the chit hit the fan when the guy broke the state record and they age it at like 70 years old, the general public went nuts, common carp angling like it or not is becoming bigger than Bowfishing here, and if it even gets a sniff of what its like overseas it will dwarf even bass fishing here, all the states are ramping back how many fish you can shoot, you knew that would happen when more people bowfished, sooner or later it had to happen, back in the day guys stringered bass 20 at a time google old B.A.S.S photos, I read in some places so many fish had been being shot it has hurt the gamefish populations with malnourished bass and walleyes showing up in creel surveys, it seems that baby bass munch bigtime on baby carp and get fat on them with less baby carp seems they eat other things not as high in fats/calories, and walleyes eat each other when not enough baby carp are around, who knew? so if anyone wants to keep flaming anglers, keep on because you ruin it for everyone
I needed a good laugh this morning. Thanks Billy, that got the job done.
Pat, any help coming from C.B.A. to attend the meeting with you? G-MAN.
Soooo, what happened here at the meeting?
As a fisheries biologist from NY State, who moved to Montana to study at Montana State U., worked (and fished) on several Montana rivers after that, including fly fishing for CARP of all things on the Bighorn Reservoir (fun but we killed 'em), and then went to Washington and Oregon to work fisheries for USFWS and Army COE on the Columbia and Snake, and numerous tribs with salmon, steelhead, and sturgeon, and now back in NY working for Air Force in wildlife and environmental field, I want to say that I am appalled that any state would be this ignorant to impose such laws. It is an embarrassment to themselves and the true fish and wildlife managers of CT, a slap in the face to all fisheries agencies country-wide, and a did-service to all native fish in this country. Connecticut just made a laughing stock out of themselves in the eyes of true sportsmen and women, and to habitat managers everywhere who are working tirelessly to improve the quality of and restore native habitats and fish/wildlife populations. Talk about a truly STUPID action! And Thujujud, I can see your point, but you are comparing apples and oranges. Alligator gar are NATIVE FISH TOTHE US! Not the same issue whatsoever. Carp are trash fish and belong on the bank or in the ground, not in US waters! We SHOULD make known dead carp being tossed ashore and in dumpsters as an example for all to follow - all who know and care anything about native fish and habitat quality. Too bad if the 'bunnyhuggers' and PC sympathizers don't like hearing about and seeing pics of dead fish. True, I agree, don't litter the waters with dead carp, but definitely make it know they should be KILLED - ALL OF THEM! Being from NY, with Cuomo as Gov., I'd expect this place to do the same. In which case, I'd quickly move back out west in a heartbeat. I am getting closer to that anyway. Living adjacent to CT with laws being enacted like that is an embarrassment and far too close to home for me. There, print that anywhere and everywhere you can, PAT!
BTW, Billy, after I read your entire post (which was after I wrote mine), I got a good bely laugh too. Walleyes and bass don't need carp to grow and live on. What do ya thing they did before carp were intro'd here? They live on panfish. Don't need no stinking carp here for any reason. And for what its worth, carp are not native to Europe either . they came from Asia and now they are everywhere because people put them their for their own selfish reasons with no consideration for the environment. They put them there for income money and entertainment. That's the only reason they are becoming accepted here. At the expense of the environment they are being protected so some 'elitist' can pay to catch and fight them on a fly. Are you kidding me? And as for brown and rainbow trout in eastern waters? Get them out too, and make room to restore native brook trout to eastern waters. Browns and rainbows outcompete brookies, and can tolerate water with poorer quality. Improve the water quality, and restore brookies. These non-natives were brought here for the same dam rason Carp are being protected now. For money and sport. Who ever considers natives for the sole reason of restoring habitats to their original condition now? Very rarely if ever is it for the sake of the habitat alone. Its always for some humans' gain.
Thanks for the reply Pat. I bowfish a lot here in Okla. and just can't imagine this happening to anyone. Good luck to everyone in CT with getting thing back to the way it was.
Pat good luck. It used to be illegal in MN to throw carp back. That law has since been change but they are listed as an invasive species. Here's a link to the MN DNR highlighting the problems carp cause.
And so it continues. Another shot at sportsman.
TrapperKayak no offence but common carp are from eastern Europe (notably the Danube and Volga Rivers) so eurasian...the mental image of China as asian when according to the experts they are not true asian carp like bighead and silver carp as an example, if we scream native to loud we will end up shooting ourselves in the foot and loose some great oppertunities
Where was the B.A.A. when this was happening?
I don't think that the BAA has much of a presence in New England in general.
They're sure fun to shoot and the seagulls and pelicans are my best friends when I'm walking the shore line. I've had pelicans come within 10 feet of me begging to have me let the flopping carp loose.
You can see the one over my right shoulder just waiting for the main course to be delivered, ha.
If you had white fillets like walleye, crappie, bass or pike available, why on Gods green earth would you choose to eat brown, oily carp meat?
www.bowfishingassociation.com
Carp meat is neither brown nor oily. Bigger ones have a bloody area along the nerve line as do many fish including bigger walleye. They are very bony and require specific filet techniques. Widely eaten in many parts of the country. In western illinois carp and buffalo are often sold as "fresh river fish". The lateral line darker area can be easily removed during the filleting process.
Here's a couple photos from a carp cleaning video........yeah, looks pretty brown or orange to me. Out of a fillet that will dull your knife going thru bones and scales......you get one small, thin piece of boneless meat that is directly over the rib cage in the bottom right of photo two.......rest is riddled with bones and/or blood line that the video producer acknowledged tastes terrible............that majority fillet orange/brown with the red meat and blood line piece in photo 3 is inedible.....the waste portion
Glad I now know how to clean one but probably won't eat unless I'm starving or stranded on an island:)
Carp make good bait on jug lines. Caught a lot of bluecats on it. When soaked in the water the fillets are white. Never cleaned one to eat.
Ive eaten a lot of carp and buffalo which are usually scored every half inch so any small bones cook up. That picture is misleading and has a much darker cast and a much larger blood line than what i see usually. Most larger fish have this blood along their lateral line. You just cut it off and score it. White bass and the drum species also have a lot of red. Carp cooks white like pike do despite the fact raw pike meat is yellow They are a bit stronger flavored fish but so are redfish. Fillets look like this.
