Okay fiends and neighbors, poison squirrels...

I took a midweek bowfishing excursion into Central Illinois.
It was a great little trip.
I was a bit worried it wasn't going to go well at first when I got stuck in lots of traffic on I-55 around Joliet. It took me an hour to go 5 miles. [:'(]

I met up with my buddy Kendall and we got out onto Evergreen Lake in Bloomington a little after midnight. The fish weren't out in big numbers, but we had plenty shots. Because both Kendall and I are such accomplished archers we were trying to impress each other with how closely we could miss a fish. As in "Did you see that shot? Just an inch over that carp." [8D]

We did mess up a few times and actually hit the fish. But only about 8 times.

We had gone all over the lake and were pretty far from the ramp when the motor died. We ran out of gas. Right at that time tho' a giant lightning bolt appeared. We turned the genny off and put the troller on full speed which, with the wind, made us go along at about 2mph. Obviously, we made it back without getting fried but the lightning did make the trip that much more exciting.


Okay.... enough of Evergreen... on to Peoria.

The picturesque Peoria Dam.




Unfortunately, it looks better than it smells. I'm not sure if it's from the dam or the locks or people snagging... but there are dead fish everywhere... and it's very aromatic. :shock:



There were plenty of bigheads out there though. Most were rolling, kind of like gar. Those were very, very difficult to get a shot at. There were bunches of them right at the dam... but you aren't supposed to get closer than 150' to the dam... and it's dangerous to get much closer than that anyhow.

Still, due to our exceptional shooting skills... we managed to get some bigheads.

Kendall with his first ever bighead carp.



Me with my bighead, and my first Asian carp.



Kendall's brother John was there too. He got several silver carp simply by driving his boat around. When he got close to the lock, the fish were popping out of the water like fireworks.

Resting between silver carp runs...



Between the strength of the fish, the current and the trick of getting wrapped up in the troller.. we only managed to boat four fish. But they were definitely a lot of fun.

The one Kendall is holding was the biggest of the day. (~20lbs... it's bigger than it looks in that photo) It was strong enough to actually pull us towards the dam. We saw much bigger fish there. When these things grow to 30-40lbs.. they're going to be scary.