Bowfishing the Illinois River for Flying Carp on a Portabote

What can I say? My brother and I experienced the trip of a lifetime. We experienced Bowfishing Nirvana. Make no mistake, bowfishing for asian carp in the Illinois River will never be forgotten. We had a GREAT time.

Just imagine a river 200-300 yards wide, and then imagine carp filling that width for as far as the eye can see above and below that point in the river. And friends, this is not contrived. This is REALITY. We floated a 3-4 mile stretch of river that was FULL of carp!!! We were in awe....

They were running into the boat by the hundreds. I can't tell you how many we shot, let alone how many I hit with the out board motor prop. Granted, we were never hit by any of these flying carp, but you always knew that they were there. Also, they didn't jump like in other videos, but rather they were just rolling on the surface (by the thousands.) Please note in the video this behavior. Look close, and you will see it......this behavior (spawning???) stretched for miles and miles....

The highlights included my brother tagging multiple doubles. I tagged a 30 pound plus bighead carp. We shot more silver carp, but they averaged between 10-15 pounds. The biggest silver was 18 pounds.

We shot about 50-60 fish in 3 hours. This equates to hundreds of pounds. We were exhausted, but extremely satisfied.

A special thanks to the President of the Illinois Bowfishing Association. YOUR INTEL WAS AWESOME.

Dave and Sully, I know you couldn't make it for legit reasons. Don't worry guys; I will be back for this trip later in the summer. This is something to experience. And I will personally show you this honey hole....

The Show Always Goes On!!!

bitter

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Illinois
• River
• Flying
• Asian
• Silver
• Bighead
• Carp
• Bowfishing
• Starved
• Rock
• State
• Park
• Portabote

[IMDEISSEL]

I can't wait to do this!

[bitterangst]

well, how about this weekend??? you need to attend the annual opener and the refresher course. the opener is in APRIL and the refresher course is in MAY. this year you are invited to BOWFISHING NIRVANA EXPO AS WELL. hold your pants on, ITS ON!!! sucker and steel are winding down, and now it is time to turn to CARP!!!

[Trashfished]

@bitterangst How early in the spring can you bowfish these?

[bitterangst]

dude,

since i live far away from this honey hole, i dont know when exactly this spawning run occurs. on the first day in JUNE 2008, we hit the run in full stride. last year, we missed it completely during the first week of JUNE.

we are currently in the process of fine tuning how to time this spawning run. if you time it right, you will have the time of your life.

bitter

[HawgNSonsTV2]

Your Livin the Dream...Come join Our Groups!

[bitterangst]

i went to your website. it looks like you are living the dream too. for some reason, your catches are alot better looking.

bitter

[pumpkinking9e]

Thank you for doing the America and my country (Canada) a huge favor. We need to eradicate these fish somehow, before they pollute our prime sport fishing grounds. Before Asian carp, these rivers were much nicer, and held buckets of native sportfish.

Please, don't let a single fish live.......I have nothing against the fish in their native habitat, but they are on our turf and have to be killed.

I'd imagine these taste quite a bit better than "common Carp". White flaky meat, like Catfish mayb?

[smoothsalin]

Does anyone know where abouts on the Illinois River these carp can be found? Also if there is a certain time of yr that they jump or do they jump year around? I have a boat and bow and would like to give this a shot. Any info would be appreciated...thanks

[BRICHARDSON85]

they only jump out of the water if your boat is reved up very high it scares them

[catfishhunter2010]

do u charter if so how much and can i

[tagurite]

Awesome! Several thousands more to go. Take all your friends & family!

[Trashfished]

Me and my 2 nephews and a bud are goin to Henry Il. Sat. for an 8 hour bowfisng asian carp hunt. cant wait!!

[HawgNSonsTV2]

lol...thanks buddy....for checking us out!