2022 CARP SAFARI HIGHLIGHTS

In many Central and Eastern European countries, the main meal served at the dinner table on Christmas Day is not turkey or ham or elk backstrap, but carp! A fish that’s readily available, relatively inexpensive and abundant in that part of the world could explain why it’s so popular, at least for one meal a year.

In the Czech Republic and Slovakia, ponds full of carp remain those two countries’ most common fish species for aquaculture.

Christmas Carp? A few days before Christmas every year per tradition, families purchase the carp alive from a local fish market. The carp are then brought home and placed in the family bathtub. Letting them swim around in clean freshwater apparently cleans out the fish and perhaps rids them of that “carp flavor”. This tradition could make those pre-Christmas showers exciting! After digging a little deeper into this Eastern European traditional phenomenon, I discovered that most families purchase dead “pre cleansed” fish from the markets as well so the bathtub trick must be for the hardcore carp lovers only.

At this year’s Carp Safari I was privileged to place several bites of the fore mentioned fish into my mouth. I also chewed up the bites and swallowed completely minus a few bones—not too bad actually. EJ Young, a returning Carp Safari Connoisseur, offered me up his finest pan-fried carp backstrap and I couldn’t refuse (because I had expressed my excitement over the phone a few hours earlier). All those carp I’ve skewered with arrows over the last 30 years and I finally ate a couple bites, it really wasn’t too bad. Thanks EJ!

Similarly, to EJ’s technique, the carp on the dinner tables of Slovakia and Czech Republic are served breaded and fried along with other dishes like cabbage soups and potato salads. In Poland, carp is only one part of an extensive 12 course meal and often comes with dumplings or pierogi. In Hungary, it may often be cooked directly in a fish soup. All of that sounds delicious except for the carp part.

This Year’s Carp Safari had its ups and downs, the weather, the lake levels, the campsite availability etc... But the carp turned on the spawn on the day of the shoot and just like I predicted, less lake water with the same number of fish equals a target rich environment. We had a good number of late registrations and overall, we came close to 80 shooters.

We had several boat shooting teams rally back and forth to the weigh in multiple times to lessen the weight in their vessels. Surprisingly, the winning team stuffed 212 slime missiles on their boat and no doubt that boat will never be the same. A few youth shooters were getting after it too. The shooting from the shore near the boat ramp was great as the reservoir level rose slightly all weekend.

Carp Kind Landon Vincent

Carp Princess “A” Allegrucci

Biggest Fish Youth Mitchell LaPage

Here are a few statistics from Saturday’s weigh in:

1137 carp counted 212 most team fish arrowed 56 most arrowed by individual shooter 12lb 4oz biggest fish weighed 2lb 2oz smallest fish weighed 23 most fish arrowed by a youth 10lb 2oz biggest fish arrowed by a youth 3lb 1oz smallest fish arrowed by a youth

Awards went to:

2022 Carp King Landon Vincent 2022 Carp Princess “A” Allegrucci

Biggest Fish- Shane Lembcke Smallest Fish- Jay Searles Most Fish by Individual-Mike Prescott Most Fish by a Team- Team Searles Most Fish by a Youth- Sawyer Licht Biggest Fish Youth- Mitchell LaPage Smallest Fish Youth-Mitchell LaPage

At the end of the weigh many fish were deposited into the big dumpster!

I want to thank a few sponsors that stepped up big time and donated awesome prizes and giveaways.

Muzzy, AMS Bowfishing, MegaMouth Bowfishing. Please look into their products when looking to upgrade your gear, those donations were very generous considering the Carp Safari is such a small event. *We want to continue to keep the Carp Safari a family friendly fun shoot, a great way to see all of you and rid Canyon Ferry of a couple thousand invasive species. An open water fishing derby permit is obtained each year and our conduct is reviewed upon receiving the permit. In order to continue the event every year we must dispose of all fish in dumpsters or in deep water. I received some negative feedback from the Bureau of Reclamation and although scavengers do an amazing job gobbling up all of those dead fish, FWP regulations require any fish or entrails be disposed of either of those two ways.

Thank you to all of you who braved the weather and low water to do a little bow fishing with the MBA!

And a big thank you goes out to all the volunteers, camp hosts and the folks and the Bureau of Reclamation that helped make the 19th annual Carp Safari a success.

Pictured are winners of the Awards

A few rhyming words from Kevin…

Everything seems to be chaotic these days The floods, the Covid, out-of-staters all stayed But one thing we count on and one thing we know When lake levels are down, carp got nowhere to go

Like I said before I ain’t no mathematician We can summon lake levels up but we ain’t no magician If lake levels are low and forecast is for rain You gonna stay at home sit inside, no that’s lame!

We’re gonna pack up the tent, the camper, the van We’re gonna pack up the coolers with cold drinks and some spam We’re gonna sharpen our broadheads and screw on our reels We’re gonna head to the Carp Safari, yeah that’s the deal!