Carp Fishing with the Kids

Bill Kinney Photography

Carp fishing is a great sport, well, carp bow fishing to be more precise.  Most people don't prefer eating them, but it can be a ton of fun!  For one, they are big, and who doesn't like pulling in a big fighting fish? Secondly, they are everywhere in such abundance that people want them gone... Easy pickings!

So we decided to take up carp fishing.  If you live near water then you are more than likely to find carp, and that is exactly what we had. Even better, there was a small bridge going over a drainage canal to the lake and, let me tell you, there was an endless supply of carp to go after!

After discovering bow fishing a few months earlier we were hooked and had rigged up our bows with fishing reels and arrows. The bridge provided the perfect carp viewing (and hunting) platform, so I brought my daughter along and we impatiently watched the carp swim just out of our reach. She excitedly exclaimed every time she spotted one, "There's a carp Dad! Is it close enough? Can we get it?"

Not long after we got the opportunity as a carp swam a little too close to our side of the shore, and I took a shot. The arrow immediately disappeared along with the carp, a miss, but this only made us more eager to get one and try we did! When bow fishing at an angle the important thing to keep in mind is the way water refracts an image. What may look to be just below the surface is in reality a few feet or more underwater, just remember to aim low, cross your fingers, and that's how you'll get a fish.

An then we did! The carp sped off, but this time with the arrow in it, and the line began to unravel. Once the line was out I began to feel it pulling me...it was a big one! My daughter was as excited as could be and before the line had had a chance to really take off she'd grabbed it and was pulling with all her weight. The carp struggled away while swimming back and forth at the end of its line, and she continued to pull back just as hard slowly bringing it in.

Finally the carp slowed as it tired and she pulled it up to shore. It was big, especially for a little girl to be pulling in, and as we pulled it in she had the biggest smile and was so excited. "Dad we got it! Look how big it is! We got it!" Who cares that it was just a common carp and there were thousands more in the lake? Despite her hands bleeding from the rope burn that smile stayed on her face the rest of the day and the last thing she asked before bed was,"Dad, can we go again tomorrow?"