Memorial Day at Carlyle Spillway

HNI_Christine · 06-01-2010, 08:48 PM

We made a 'quick' trip down to Carlyle and back on Monday. (6 hours of driving

)

Ryan met us down there. Our goal was to get some pics and video of Ryan and I shooting bigheads with our TNT bows.

There was only a 30% chance of rain when we left... so of course it started raining on us as soon as we got there. There was another bowfishing boat down there so we tried to stay out of their way while also staying in the center of the spillway because of all the shore fishermen. Including several guys that were blatantly snagging. I even saw a guy snag and keep a paddlefish.

Anyhow, we did see some bigheads but they really only came out when the sun was shining so we didn't get too many. They weren't really all that scared of the fan either but we did see more when we were just floating. There were also quite a few starving big mouth buffalo up.

We never took the video camera out because it was too cloudy and the water too choppy to see the fish in the water with the camera and because Ryan was having 'shooting issues' (also known as 'missing').

Eventually lightning chased us off the water but we did have a lot of fun. Towards the end Ryan started pulling the fish in.

Pictures..

Crowning of the Comeback King. (not to be confused with Champion of The World!)

Ryan forgets he's wearing a paper crown in public.

Team Extreme Backwater. ?

Team TNT

Giving fish away.
Two of the families that took fish came down from Elgin (where I lived for awhile). Small world.

A snagging hook stuck in one of the bigheads we shot. Note the attempt to make it into a legal lure.

i_bowfish93 · 06-01-2010, 09:17 PM

yeah we have tons of dumb peopel down here that try to snag at the river like that....they dotn relize that there are camera on top of the spillway...glad you guys had fun wish the weather woulda held out for ya

carpsniper · 06-02-2010, 04:22 AM

Wow. You left out a lot of the story...
...the anxious crowd waiting to get the buffalo.
...the kid who nearly got his hand bitten off by a bighead.
...Liz and Phil stopping by to say howdy.
...and the almost fight over a free buffalo.

It was an entertaining day.

deer_predator · 06-02-2010, 05:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by carpsniper

Wow. You left out a lot of the story...
...the anxious crowd waiting to get the buffalo.
...the kid who nearly got his hand bitten off by a bighead.
...Liz and Phil stopping by to say howdy.
...and the almost fight over a free buffalo.

It was an entertaining day.

Didn't hear about that one!!!!.... Please elaborate!!!

Johnny b · 06-02-2010, 05:45 AM

Christine dont forget to sent some picts to Jackie Taylor from the corps. jackie.taylor@usace.army.mil She loves to get pictures of what is going on down there...

slew rat · 06-02-2010, 07:26 AM

do any of you guys shoot carlyle spillway at night?

HNI_Christine · 06-02-2010, 10:01 AM

Usually, when we're down there, it's been daytime. Just the way the timing worked out. I think we have been out at night twice but both times it was cold and the fish weren't up. (tho' you could motor around and get the silvers jumping) The water is often really foamy were the bigheads seem to hang out. It's hard to use a spotlight on them with the foam.

slew rat · 06-02-2010, 10:59 AM

thanks for the info - didnt know if people on the bank complained about spotlights or if we wanted to shoot gar if the genny noise would be a problem. not use to shooting close to alot of people

HNI_Christine · 06-02-2010, 11:22 AM

We had a drunk guy yell at us about the lights the one time we were out there. In the state he was in, he would complain about anything so we just ignored him. (if you want to shoot gar, go into the backwater channel, hardly any people and it's full of gar)

We try to go there on weekdays/nights when it's less crowded. But even on Memorial Day, with the shoreline packed with people nobody was complaining while we shot fish. I think they were being entertained by us. We do try very hard to stay out of everybodies way. Which means sticking to the middle of the spillway up where everybody is fishing.

One time we there in the daytime... trying to stay in the middle but the shore fishermen would actually call us over. They'd point at a school right in front of them and yell "They're over here, come shoot them!"
That was cool.

slew rat · 06-02-2010, 11:59 AM

sounds good we are planning on coming up sat night - so if anyone wants to joins us -come on