Carp Killing (6/14 or 6/15)

With the ocean screwed up for another weekend I wanted to go diving in one of the valley district lakes and whack some carp with the speargun. Company anyone?

-Brian G

I've been ab diving and spearfishing for 20+ years in some really crappy conditions, but fresh water lakes freak me out, I don't understand it but there it is.

However if you go I'd like to see the report,

Have fun,

dale

I've been ab diving and spearfishing for 20+ years in some really crappy conditions, but fresh water lakes freak me out, I don't understand it but there it is.

However if you go I'd like to see the report,

Have fun,

dale

Creapshow 2 : The Raft



20 years later and this little movie flick is still stuck in my head everytime I swim in freshwater.  Saltwater is so much comfortable. 

-Brian G

Yep, that must be it, something stuck in the back of my mind from all those hokey horror movies I watched as a kid....

Must be fun whacking those big carps... But are you going to eat them? They have a muddy taste and lots of small bones...

I've never shot them before by spear. I have seen schools that are massive at some of the valley lakes. Won't eat them but some of my neighbors said they will try them. They sell'm at some stores so I figure some people like them.

-Brian G

Brian,

When they drained of a good portion of Anderson reservoir (San Jose) a few years back you could see schools of carp in the shallows. and some of them went well over 5 lbs...But they are mud suckers, so the taste is really, really bad....

Happy Hunting!!

Rich

Creapshow 2 : The Raft


20 years later and this little movie flick is still stuck in my head everytime I swim in freshwater.  Saltwater is so much comfortable. 

-Brian G

That was the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen!! 

-FF

Carp can be brined and smoked, helps out and picking bones out of firm smoked meat is better than some other ways of cooking it.  Hate bones in fish thats drowned in messy sauces or soups....

I'm going to be spearing some carp in the stanislaus river tomorrow, I checked the regs and appearantly there is no limit on them because they fall under 'other' species?  The fish in the river might be suckers instead of carp, but they're both legal spear targets, won't know until I get a good look at one.  Kayaked on the river last weekend and we saw a couple dozen fish from the kayak, should be able to find many more swimming around.

If anyone else wants to come (short notice) we'll be at the knights ferry put-in around 11am.  There's a little class 2 rapids at the top, then it's flat after that.

P-spark
running knights ferry to orange blossom? always a great drift day.
I used to keep my gear stowed until I was past "russian rapid". It is very deceiving, especially at bigger flows. its twisted me over a few times ,when my approach was lazy, and the hard left at the bottom is a tough spot to recover gear. a great stretch of river Id like to run again but im trapped at work.  looking forward to this report.

Yeah, we did it a week ago and it was pretty good.  On the weekends there tons of rafters so fishing could be problematic, weekdays we should have the river to ourselves with the only drawback being the lack of bikinis.

The tuolumne river just south of there is similar only more wild and no rafters.  It's too low right now to run it, but it's similar when they're letting water out.  There are more strainer hazards on the tuolumne because the rafting companies don't groom the brush on the banks.  There's one spot in particular where it makes a sharp turn and some overhanging brush tends to catch you, it's only knee deep there though.  The tuolumne is also faster than the stanislous at the same flow, but it's all relatively laminar flow in a channel, not rapids.

It was a pretty good trip, shot 4 suckers and saw hundreds more (literally, schools of 1-6 every 30 feet) also missed at least 10 shots.  Probably my worst ever accuracy score with the speargun, not sure why though they are kind of thin with big scales, I may have gotten lots of glancing hits.  I think a trident point would be more effective on them than a rock point.  Also saw a couple trout and about 4 stripers in the 10lb class.  I almost whacked a striper (lined up then saw stripes) because they were schooling with some of the suckers and the vis in that pool was a little low ~8'.  Most places the vis was 15-20 feet.  Oh and the water was mendocino cold.  I only had a 5mm farmer john and wasn't able to stay in the water very long.  It was fun to let the current carry me downstream to the fish though.
When I was a kid my dad used to spear and net suckers on the shore of lake superior, I'll find out how he cooked them and report back if they're good.  Supposed to be pretty bony...  I know they're often pickled to dissolve the smaller bones.

There were a lot of large crayfish down there too, if one had a game bag to put them in you could catch 20 with thumb sized tails.

Wow, you had all the fun!!!
Cool and clear fresh water creek... spearfishing... and you are the top predator without worrying anything bigger... Sweet!   

  As a kid, me & dad used to bow fish carp at the Los Banos wildlife refuge.  Our archery club then,used to hold "Carp shoots" there get we'd get a pot going for biggest fish, heaviest string, or most fish etc...and we have had as many as 25 guys/kids walking in the muck and sticking fish arrows into huge 15-20lbs carp all day long!   Kinda hard to shoot a carp while its between your legs though. 
  The open waters there were only 3' at most and we could walk/wade across and shoot fish everywhere!
We used 1/4" rope for the fish stringers, and at the end of the shoot, drag the stringer back to take chances at winning the "pot"   There was always someone around eyeballing the fish so not all of them went to feed the coyotes at night.