bowhunterfrompast - Yep, I have a Pope and Young trash record, shot in 2006... Here's the story and picture:
"Ol Buck and I set Off on Safari and Buck Establishes a New Pope and Young Record..."
Knowing that I had an opportunity to take Buck to the North American Longbow Safari, June's "Buck Host", Jett, otherwise known as Kodiak Kid, expressed him to me so that I got him just before noon on June 28. I quickly tried him for poundage at my draw (50# @ 25") and tested him with a set of wood arrows that worked in my bows of similar weight. He shot fine and the next morning we were off to Brownsville, OR for the 24th Annual NALS.
It is my intention that Buck and I learn about bowfishing for carp together while he is here with me. To this end, I obtained a rubber backed detachable bowfishing real and a fiberglass fish arrow. On the way to Brownsville, I planned to stop and explore several sloughs along the Columbia River, where it was alleged that carp had been seen. Unfortunately, at no stop did we see any fish at all, let alone carp (the only fish you can bowfish for in WA). Hoping to make some use of the opportunity, and never having shot a fiberglass fish arrow before, I tried my hand at hitting various targets of opportunity in the water... floating leaves or whatever. I got the hang of it pretty quick, but I knew that parallax is a factor in fish shooting... they aren't where they look like they are. I noticed an oddly regular shape on the bottom of the slough I was shooting into. (Note: I had parked and walked down a steeply banked dike, then scrambled down the brambly side of it to get to the water.) This shape gradually resolved itself into a plastic highway cone, about 7 or 8 yards out and three feet or so deep. It had obviously been there a goodly while, as it was covered with muck and algae, the same as the rest of the bottom. The open end was toward me, so I decided to test my parallax perception by trying to put an arrow into the open end of the cone.
The experiment was a success! I put the arrow right into the cone. However, rather than just slithering along up to the point of the cone and stopping, the arrow went right through the side of the cone where it hit! Uh, oh! Now, to get the arrow back I had to hand over hand drag the cone, open end toward me like a sea drogue, up to the bank. Then, I had to unscrew the carp arrow head tip and flip the barbs over. Uh, oh again! Seems the tip on this brand new arrow didn't want to unscrew... no way was it going to work without pliers. So, I ended up dragging and carrying this ucky, slime covered object back up the brambly bank to get it to the van where there was a pair of pliers. Of course, I got dirt and slime all over me and my clothes.
Once back at the van, I decided that while it wasn't a carp, that cone was Buck's first deliberate "kill" this month, and by the Ghost of Howard Hill, it deserved to be recorded for posterity. So I posed Buck, in full fishing regalia, with the cone he "harvested". Now, it would be nice if the story ended there, but the truth is, even with the arrow tip loosened and the barbs reversed, I couldn't pull the arrow out of the cone! The plastic was just too tough. So, I ended up "field dressing" a highway cone... cutting a long slit in it to work the arrow point out through.
I am arbitrarily declaring, in honor of Buck's outstanding effort in nailing this thing, that he now undoubtedly holds the Pope and Young bowfishing record for a highway cone.
With highway cones being only slightly less edible than carp, we left the carcass behind and moved on to Brownsville and the North American Longbow Safari.
Topic: Trash Hunting! (Read 1571 times)
