muddywatersbowfishing
05-06-2009, 09:35 PM
Took long time clients Ryan and Nate out on the BEP for a very late night of bowfishing. The carp are stacked in the bays in search of warm water which made for a great night of shooting. Talked to a couple guys before sun down who reported catching a hand full of Northerns, one of which was 44". I headed out to the bay they reported catching fish and saw dozens of fish, one of which was a huge northern. I'm betting it was the same fish due to a torn up mouth. We saw gills, crappies, northern and of course carp. Drove around some of the drop offs and did see many fish on the sonar suspended in about 18-24ft. The water still appears to be about 3 feet low. The stench of rotting fish was still noticable in many of the bays but what was most disappointing was to see literally thousands of dead fish on the bottom. Their rotting white flesh was pretty easy to see under the lights. Most appeared to be suckers, carp and crappies. It's hard to say how things are going to play out for this body of water but one thing is for sure, the invasive carp are doing quite well and will provide fantastic bowfishing action. Further reports suggest only a few boats were on the water over the weekend so it'll be hard to really get an idea of how bad the kill was until people start exploring again. Give the BEP a shot and see what you run into.