Riley Farden of New Plymouth, Idaho recently arrowed the biggest carp of his life. On Sunday, June 8, Farden decided to go fishing on the Snake River, which straddles the Oregon-Idaho border. He grew up bow hunting and fishing and later found that bow fishing was a good way to combine his two passions. Farden’s wife was bass fishing with conventional gear on the outing.
“We went to one of my normal spots, made a couple of passes through, and I shot a handful of normal-sized common carp,” Farden tells Field & Stream. “I wasn’t having the greatest day as the carp were a little inactive. We were making one final passthrough, and I looked down and saw this giant body and knew it was a carp from the scales.”
Farden connected on the shot, hitting the carp right in the mid-section. “The next thing I know, it was stripping line out of my hands and burning my palms,” says Farden.
The fight took about ten minutes and was especially difficult as bow fishing is done without a rod and reel to leverage power during a fight. Instead, Farden had to strip the fish in by hand. Eventually, he got the carp boatside and hoisted it aboard. Farden typically shoots common carp, but this was his first grass carp—and it was giant.
“I was pretty jazzed about it,” says Farden. “I knew it was a potential state record.”
Farden was right. He put the fish on ice and rushed to the Idaho Fish and Game office in Boise. But the grass carp maxed out the scale, which was only accurate up to fifty pounds. Farden then got the fish weighed on a certified scale at a nearby Department of Agriculture office.
The fish came in at a whopping 67.654 pounds, smashing the previous archery record of 39.5 pounds. The fish also topped the conventional gear record, a 46.7 pounder caught on the same waterway. Farden’s carp was 49 inches long and had a girth of 32.75 inches. It was officially confirmed as a state record for the archery category.
Grass carp is a non-native species that is naturally occurring in Idaho and other parts of the U.S. The species, originally from Asia, was imported for aquaculture and phytoplankton control, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The invasive species is known to negatively impact aquatic ecosystems due to direct and indirect impacts.
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Though invasive, carp have become popular targets for conventional and archery anglers alike. “I’m just going to keep shooting carp and doing it for fun,” says Farden. “I don’t anticipate shooting a bigger carp than that one in my lifetime.”
