A Quickie About Asian Carp

I was getting ready for my guide trip this morning, which was absolutely amazing I have to say, and was watching the hunting channel. There is a reason I don't watch that channel much and today epitomizes why. It was on bow-fishing for Asian Carp. Let me just say that the proliferation of this species is about as detrimental to a fishery as any invasive species alive and these guys on Reel Shot Outdoors were touting it like it's the next great outdoor sport. The reality is there is now legislation being created to keep these carp out of the Great Lakes because of how damaging they are. It's like wild hogs in Texas. Outfitters actually imported Russian Bores because they could make money off them. (Everyone wants to shoot some exotic species of pig right?) Over half the lower 48 States have a problem with them and we can't contorl it. Now, you have these carp that these red-necks are marketing to make money off of and they claim that they are the one's trying to clean up the problem!

After watching the show I emailed them about how irresponsible I thought it was that they market these trips the way they did. I got a response right away saying that the reason they were doing this was to make the public aware and to thin out the population by hunting them...Really? You are shooting them with a f____ bow and arrow!!! I watched the show and you only hit about .5%!!! If you want to thin them out, use a shotgun!

Not once did I see or hear any information on this show about how detrimental these carp were or what the danger is in their spreading up the Mississippi. I never once saw any real education on how to control the spreading either. In Brandon Carter's response, I was told the act of guiding bow-hunting trips for these carp was to thin them out because the government wouldn't do anything. Let me remind you, YOU ARE SHOOTING THEM WITH A BOW OUT OF THE AIR! If you really want to have an impact let me suggest that you take the money you make on this particular episode and put it towards researching what we can do to eradicate this species; not promoting the interest in creating a sport around it so that any Tom, Dick or Harry could take some for themselves, stock them in their own pond in let's say, MONTANA, and guide their own trips. It's this kind of entrepreneuring vigour that will risk populating our own waters. Maybe you can air a new show educating everyone on the problem with Asian Carp and the progress you say are promoting...