carptracker

Here is the MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU CAN DO TO PROTECT YOU AND YOUR BOAT AND YOUR PASSENGERS FROM FLYING CARP: Do something to protect your throttle mechanism. Especially if you are going to be jumping carp on purpose, eventually one of them is going to hit your throttle, especially if you have it on the gunwale in the back half of the boat, as most johnboats and river boats do.

When a carp hits the throttle mechanism from the side, it can break it off - but that is not the worst thing that can happen. If it hits the throttle from the back (happens even when you are moving forward) the boat will leap forward. If it hits it from the front, and it manages to bypass the lock in the middle, it will throw the boat in reverse from forward - bad on a lot of things, including the people in the boat who go over the bow (and who might get run over by the boat, which will still be moving forward).

We once were turning around in a small tributary of the Missouri, barely big enough to turn around in, and a carp hit the throttle. We were not trying to jump carp, but we ended up at a 45 degree angle up the side of a mud bank, clinging to the back of the boat. After a couple of times with the carp hitting the throttle, we'd had enough, and I mounted a 2X6 deflector. It protects the driver's hands from the fish when they hit the throttle too. Getting hit on the hand while driving can really hurt.

We actually have netting up that protects the driver, not just the throttle, but prior to putting up the 2X6, the fish were able to stretch the netting enough to hit the throttle anyway.[/align]