The Fine Art Of Stalking the Wild Carp

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One exception to the strategy I've described: In a narrow fingerlet of a cove, 200 feet or less in width, a pair of hunters would do best to enter i,vm opposite sides of the mouth and stay on their respective banks as they work toward. the tip of the inlet.

VISIBILITY PROBLEMS

The hardest part of hunting fish—aside from being patient—is the difficulty of seeing into the water. If the sky is overcast, the reflection's of the clouds may be brighter than the light coming out of the water. On a windy day, the ripples on the surface will diffuse light transmission and increase glare. Thus it's best to hunt on a calm, clear day after a period of weather that has been warm enough to heat the shallow waters.

To shoot at even a clearly visible fish only eight inches under the surface—the maximum depth I'd recommend attempting—you must compensate for the refraction of light at the water's surface. (See Fig. 2.) The best solution is to try only for shallow-swirpming carp when possible. Later in the season-—when you're more experienced and the fish are swimming deeper—you can experiment with "longer" shots.

Carp, -as I've already mentioned, often muddy the water with their feeding. If that's the case, stalk to within eight feet of your quarry, and hold your bow at the ready until you can see the fish clearly. To shoot blindly, by guess, is to invite a miss or—worse yet—a strike that wounds the prey but doesn't secure it. Either will cause enough disturbance to scare away all nearby carp.

HOW TO BAG YOUR CATCH

When you have a carp on the line, it's important to bag the catch with as little disturbance as possible. You must guard against scaring other fish, of course, and you also have to other fish, of course, and you also have to worry about losing your prey or your arrow.

My procedure is to grab the outflowing line with one hand while holding the bowstring with my teeth to free the other. Then—moving my feet as little as possible—I pull the carp close, grip the arrow, and push its point into the lake bottom so the fish can't slip off.

With the fish pinned down this way, I haul in the catch bag that's tied to my waist. The sack's mouth is opened with the help of a couple of the fingers on the arrow-holding ham Then one hand slips under the carp and lifts the lower portion of the shaft, while the other manipulates the mouth of the bas and the arrow's opposite end. Somehow the struggling skewered creature is raised and its head stuffed into the sack opening. Finally it's safe to reach in, unscrew the arrow, point, pull out the shaft, and let the catch fall into the bag Even as I pull the drawstring I'm looking for my next target . . . and sometimes shoot before I've even respooled my line.

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