Somewhere on the murky bottom of Lake Quinsigamond could lurk a monster feeding on whatever comes its way.
Until then, Shrewsbury’s Shane Felch will have to settle for the carp state record and continue the search for an even larger fish to legally shoot with his crossbow.
Yes, Felch captured it with a shot from his crossbow.
Felch’s latest fish story begins with a motorcycle accident several years ago, one that saw him recover but left him with lingering neck problems. An avid hunter and angler, the construction worker was unable after the crash to fully draw the string on a standard bow.
But the state’s Division of Fisheries and Wildlife offers a solution: If a doctor signs a form attesting to a permanent disability interfering with normal long bow use, residents can apply for special crossbow permits.
With a permit and other standard licenses, hunters can use a crossbow to both hunt in season and fish for certain species. State law allows carp, suckers and American eels to be taken with spears, bow and arrows, or lines and hooks.
Felch lives on Lake Quinsigamond’s shore, and learned about crossbow fishing after spotting a practitioner motoring by his backyard one night. After asking some questions and poking around the Internet, he bought the equipment and secured the permit.
“I just thought it was kind of a cool idea,” he said, during a recent visit to the town’s Oak Island boat ramp. “Just a little something different.”
He only began crossbow fishing within the past year — standing on the bow platform of his 14-foot flat-bottom boat and scanning nighttime waters illuminated by gas generator-powered spotlights. Early trips failed to yield any carp bigger than the 28-pounder he had landed the traditional way at an area pond.
But on a calm, clear night several weeks ago, Felch and two friends left his dock and hugged the lake’s shoreline with their electric trolling motor. When a large, skittish carp glowed fluorescent in the lights and darted across the bow about 15 feet away, he pulled the trigger and released a barbed arrow.
The arrow’s line remained slack, possibly indicating a miss. But as the line suddenly tightened, Felch handed the crossbow to one of his friends and held on tight as the pierced fish dragged the small boat, until Felch could eventually pull the carp in close. While he struggled to get the massive fish out of the water and over the gunwale, he couldn’t gauge the exact weight.
Somewhere on the murky bottom of Lake Quinsigamond could lurk a monster feeding on whatever comes its way.
Until then, Shrewsbury’s Shane Felch will have to settle for the carp state record and continue the search for an even larger fish to legally shoot with his crossbow.
Yes, Felch captured it with a shot from his crossbow.
Felch’s latest fish story begins with a motorcycle accident several years ago, one that saw him recover but left him with lingering neck problems. An avid hunter and angler, the construction worker was unable after the crash to fully draw the string on a standard bow.
But the state’s Division of Fisheries and Wildlife offers a solution: If a doctor signs a form attesting to a permanent disability interfering with normal long bow use, residents can apply for special crossbow permits.
With a permit and other standard licenses, hunters can use a crossbow to both hunt in season and fish for certain species. State law allows carp, suckers and American eels to be taken with spears, bow and arrows, or lines and hooks.
Felch lives on Lake Quinsigamond’s shore, and learned about crossbow fishing after spotting a practitioner motoring by his backyard one night. After asking some questions and poking around the Internet, he bought the equipment and secured the permit.
“I just thought it was kind of a cool idea,” he said, during a recent visit to the town’s Oak Island boat ramp. “Just a little something different.”
He only began crossbow fishing within the past year — standing on the bow platform of his 14-foot flat-bottom boat and scanning nighttime waters illuminated by gas generator-powered spotlights. Early trips failed to yield any carp bigger than the 28-pounder he had landed the traditional way at an area pond.
But on a calm, clear night several weeks ago, Felch and two friends left his dock and hugged the lake’s shoreline with their electric trolling motor. When a large, skittish carp glowed fluorescent in the lights and darted across the bow about 15 feet away, he pulled the trigger and released a barbed arrow.
The arrow’s line remained slack, possibly indicating a miss. But as the line suddenly tightened, Felch handed the crossbow to one of his friends and held on tight as the pierced fish dragged the small boat, until Felch could eventually pull the carp in close. While he struggled to get the massive fish out of the water and over the gunwale, he couldn’t gauge the exact weight.
That came the next day, when he and one of his friends took the carp from its iced spot on the porch and hauled it in a trash bag to MassWildlife headquarters in Westborough — the official weigh station for those wishing to pursue records and participate in the yearly state fishing awards program.
As news rippled through the offices, staff came rushing to witness the scale’s verdict: 46 pounds, 5 ounces, or a little over two pounds more than the previous state-record carp, caught in 1993 from the Connecticut River. Felch’s carp was also the heaviest freshwater fish of any species ever officially recorded in Massachusetts, and had a 28-inch girth.
“I think it was a shock to everybody,” said fisheries biologist Richard Hartley, who runs the state’s Sportfishing Awards program but had to settle for hearing about the visit afterward. “It’s not exaggerating to say it’s a once-in-a-lifetime fish.”
An often-overlooked sportfish and an opportunistic bottom-feeder, the common carp can live up to 20 years in the wild. But the top carp caught each year in Massachusetts usually weighs in at 30 pounds or so, Hartley said, calling the new record “insane” and a “big, fat cow.”
Of the nearly 900 carp claims filed since the sportfishing program’s inception in 1963, only 11 were taken with a traditional bow and arrow. None mentioned a crossbow, though 5,300 permits now exist.
“It’s incredibly rare,” Hartley said.
Trying to spot a giant fish rather than tossing out a line and hook is more akin to hunting, Felch said, and provides a different sort of boat-based thrill.
But some fishing blogs have leveled criticism, claiming the same fish had already been caught and released and that the state carp record should be broken down by equipment.
For one thing, anglers are less likely to lose giant carp with stronger, thicker line, which line-wary fish are more likely to spot when it sits in the water but not when it shoots down from above.
Crossbow fishing still takes skill, though, Felch argues. The water refracts the fish’s image — if the carp are even spotted amid the bubbles and stirred-up mud. No stranger to a bow, he estimates only 10 percent of his shots have been successful.
“It’s not like you just go out and shoot it,” Felch said, still enjoying his record. “I’ve been fishing and hunting a long time.”
In Wisconsin, the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame and Museum will not accept bow-fishing claims — with the record for Felch’s “mirror” variety of carp at 47 pounds. But Hartley and his office don’t have a problem with how the fishing is done as long as it’s legal, reporting a positive community response to the Shrewsbury news.
When he came to the Westborough office, Hartley told the staff he has seen even bigger carp and told the staff he would be back, with a 50-pounder, maybe even a 60- or 70-pound specimen. He ended up giving his catch to a friend-of-a-friend, an Albanian native who reportedly ate it.
Reports of even larger fish just around the bend are common at weigh-ins, Hartley said, but he acknowledged a truly monstrous common carp is possible. One state’s natural resources department cites a 83-pounder caught in Romania.
“I’ll get a bigger one,” Felch said. “I know I will.”
But his favored spots, as any angler knows, remain a closely guarded secret.
(Michael Morton can be reached at 508-626-4338 or mmorton@wickedlocal.com.)
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