Back in the day i used to do it all the time. I would shoot carp monster goldfish and snapping turtles. It was fun at the time but we kind of lost interest but it is definitely good pratice for instinctual shooting. Plus all the looks people would gives us were priceless
not trying to start sh1t with you so take this in stride but shooting snapping turtles is a real dick head thing to do and im pretty sure illegal
Thats actually false you can legally hunt snapping turtles as long as you have a hunting license there is no bag limit and its open season from jan. 1 to dec. 31. With a minimum carapace width of 6 inches
Not that i agree with it at all unless your gonna actually eat it then its a scumbag thing to do
But the fishing regs state Carp, eels and sucker only via bow..while the hunting season for turtles is as you specified. Depends on where and when I suppose...again I speak about the grey area of regulations concerning the "sport". I would not have near the issue with it if it was labeled hunting and regulated as such. Because let us be fair, it is far closer to hunting then fishing. Especially in a state where snagging fish is illegal, but you can still shoot them...
You're not raising anger my statements are generalized. 99% of bow "fishermen" do not eat what they shoot. You can claim otherwise but I have my doubts, simply because of the edibility of wild caught carp, specifically of any size. Small fish are not bad out of clean water, anything reaching 10 pounds plus out of most of the waters in the state..well does not taste very good...trust me.
However,as a general rule of thumb, the vast majority of bow "fishers" do not eat carp. They shoot them and toss them back in with massive holes in them..claiming that they are just feeding the turtles. Lol. Trust me again as I have had this conversation, many many times. The second best is using at fertilizer..sure sure.
Also you cannot shoot a bow by the road. You can hunt on land owned by someone else with permission, sure..however when you cruise on a boat, 15 feet from a lake side house you do not have permission to fire off shots toward the house, nor would the vast majority ask every owner on said lake. Also same as above, you cannot hunt in open water 15 feet, 25 feet or hell even 100 feet from someone's house or roads etc. Just because it is public water does not mean it is any different then land based rules.
The problem is that it is classified as "fishing" so none of the hunting regulations about discharging weapons count for the practice which is idiotic in my opinion. I have watched people discharge bows less then 5 feet from joggers on the tow path at River Bend Farm..if they were hunting that would be illegal.
I will stand corrected on the hunting distances as I am from the 150 off the road provision does not exsist for archery. Also I cannot find it on the MA website but if your waterfowl hunting do you still have to be 500 feet from a dwelling? were I am from the answer is no as long as the distance is over 1000 ft across the water.
Back in the day i used to do it all the time. I would shoot carp monster goldfish and snapping turtles. It was fun at the time but we kind of lost interest but it is definitely good pratice for instinctual shooting. Plus all the looks people would gives us were priceless
not trying to start sh1t with you so take this in stride but shooting snapping turtles is a real dick head thing to do and im pretty sure illegal
I would give the meat to my grandfather who in turn would make turtle soup, and it was 100% legal.
Also I did not realize posting what I did would create such controversy. If it makes anyone feel better I stopped shooting carp about 10 years ago as I realized it was wasteful as we could only sell a portion of the fish we shot.
stuff like this is always touchy.. as for what i said before about the turtles i guess as long as its legal (i didnt know it was) and the animal dosent go to waste then i suppose i could keep it to myself, i guess its cause im a turtle guy ive always loved turtles and had them as pets from a young age so i look at it like shooting at a dog or cat with a bow... im kind of against hunting in general though unless its to survive, i see how alot of people hunt and they go for limits every time, you see guys online posting pictures of like 15 friggin ducks they shot and posing like a bad ass but i dont see whats so fantastic about killing that many animals in a day? just because the state says thats your bag limit dosent mean you gotta go out and shoot a full limit every damn weekend. sorry im getting into a hippy rant here and im no hippy lol im a firearm enthusiast and i was a meat cutter for the better part of 6 years so im no stranger to blood i just like to admire nature for what it is then put it back which is why i love fishing
Also I did not realize posting what I did would create such controversy. If it makes anyone feel better I stopped shooting carp about 10 years ago as I realized it was wasteful as we could only sell a portion of the fish we shot.
I wouldn't say controversy as such, keep in mind I am not upset. People do what people do, if they do it responsibly, legally and respectfully I have no issue. The problem that I have, in this state at least, is that so many rules are ignored or not defined. When I have spoken with EP's about discharging of bows from a tow path within 50 feet of a dwelling, joggers etc..I was told that the rules are a grey area and to be fair they did not really know what to do about it.
That isn't right in my mind. I don't get why we have a sport that really has no guidelines and contradict6s other rules like the no snagging etc.
Combine that that our state fishing record is held by a carp shot via crossbow.. I mean c'mon, that isn't a fishing record.
To the OP, if your targeting another species in another state, so be it..I am simply giving my experience with this "sport" in this state.
There is already talk of Bowhunters in Uxbridge and Northbridge on the Blackstone, wityh NO luck thank god. Sorry Very touchie subject for most Carp fisherman, myself included. A camera shoots just as well most times.
Considering they are just shooting blind it is no wonder. It may well be the person I mentioned above. He and a few others tend to frequent that area.
As I stated the carp keep coming up because it is the predominate reason people bow "fish" in this state, considering you asked here and not say Louisiana this is the sort of replies you will get.
How can that be legal? I can't see how on earth they can be spotting carp in any section of the Blackstone? Every time I fish there, which is a lot, the water has the same clarity of chocolate milk. So basically they must be shooting blind into the river and hoping they hit a carp when in reality they could also accidentally be hitting other game fish such as bass or pike. I'd be making a call to the environmental police if I saw that.
State record carp came from bowhunting. I really don't see how that is a fishing record. That record should have a * next to it.
Maybe I'll dynamite fish A1/Stump and get all those 10lb bass for a state pin.
And to add insult to injury that fish was taken with a crossbow.
How can that be legal? I can't see how on earth they can be spotting carp in any section of the Blackstone? Every time I fish there, which is a lot, the water has the same clarity of chocolate milk. So basically they must be shooting blind into the river and hoping they hit a carp when in reality they could also accidentally be hitting other game fish such as bass or pike. I'd be making a call to the environmental police if I saw that.
I agree, problem is the EP's are limited and the regs on the "sport" are grey..every time I have called I tend o get, "well we don't really know what to do about that". Hence my frustration.