carp fishing the santa monica mountains

Snake Charmer

Happiness is a warm gut pile
Oct 13, 2011
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San Diego
www.highonkennels.com
Hey folks, I am working with a conservation organization up in the Santa Monica mountains (Calabasas /Malibu area), they're mission is to restore the habitat and remove invasive species. Currently they are removing carp from the streams up there and are looking for some bow fishers that would like to assist in the removal process. you will have access to public and private land with the intent that you would bow fish the carp. The mission is to remove them all. Please PM me if you are interested in getting some string time and I'll set you up with the folks that can guide you onto the fishing sites (no charge of course) as you are assisting in the rehab of the habitat.
 
I called the lady at the conservancy but she was disappointed that I had never actually bowfished before. So if any of you experienced guys decide to go let me know as I would like to tag along as the newbie.
 
I got in contact with the lady putting this all together. We went out to check it out yesterday. There is about a 1.5 mile stretch of Malibu Creek where they have been rod/reel or fly fishing. My bro and I brought our bows to give a "demo" of how bowfishing works. The creek bottom is VERY overgrown and I should have brought a machete. Lots of Poison Oak and Stinging Nettles. I dont mind the PO cuz I'm pretty resistant to it, but the SN is a B*tch in shorts. There is sort of a trail to follow the creek, but most of the time you are better off walking in the water. There are only 3 spots on the creek where the water pools up enough for the carp to hang out. There are definitely not as many carp as they make it sound like. Saw probably 15 carp total and was able to shoot 2. We were there from 7am - about 2pm. Not really worth my time.
I wish them the best in their eradication program, but they are not going to make any kind of impact unless they do something drastically different.
Lots of LMB, Blue Gill, and Crawfish if you are into that though. They want them all out of there as well. They did well with a wooly bugger on the BG's, saw some LMB up to about 14" long. If you got some Crawfish Traps, you could fill them in no time if you want to know which pools held the most of them.
 
Great first post DD...thank you for coming over to check us out. And welcome to SCH.
 
Thanks for the report. Sounds like a long day.


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Lungpopper said:
Thanks for the post and info DD. Were the fish pretty spooky or were you able to get close to them?

Yes and No. After my first shot/miss a few more (6 or 7) came out of the weeds and seemed like they were curious about the commotion. Then I shot one and they disappeared.
The LMB were not too spooky and would have been good fishing if I brought a rod/reel.
Might have better luck on the carp with a rod/reel as well. Dough balls or night crawlers should do it.
 

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