Bowfishing!!!

FishJ3

New member
So, I don't know about anyone else, but I'm looking forward to warmer weather so I can start doing some bowfishing. Last summer was the first time that I had really tried it, and it was a blast!
 
Thats almost the same rush you get when you take a coyote with your bow. The good thing about bows is they are 24/7 weapons and the "bullets" are reusable. I don't have alot of places here to bowfish but its up on the top of the list. Good luck to you!!
 
Amen to that been doing it for about 5 years I love it and can't wait for the warm weather to get out and brain drain some carp
 
I love bowfishing. It's fun for the whole family. My wife loves it too. I've been shooting in tournies for 4-5 years now.

Thanks to the help of "Bowfishers of Nebraska", Nebraska just legalized bowfishing at night under nonbattery operated lights....such as a generator. Once last year I went to Iowa and Bowfished at night, with a genny. The shooting was awesome. Even under a loud genny the fish didn't spook too bad.

Once you start to shoot off of a boat with a platform, you'll never want to shoot off the bank again.
 
Yeah, one of these days I'd like to get a big flat-bottom and rig it up. It would be pretty fun to customize a boat just the way I want it, a big deck with storage where I can keep the lights and generator when I want to go during the day or just go fishing, and have mounted brackets so all I have to do is pull the lights out and i'm ready for the night run!
 
I love bowfishin its definately at the top of my list of favorite things to do.Me and a buddy of mine went bowfishin alot for about 3 summers in a row.We only shot gar and carp but the best we've ever done was 71 fish in one day.We just walked along the bank and occasionally got down into the water in the shallow parts of the creek and killed quite a few fish doin it that way.The water aint deep enough for a boat or nothin where we bowfish but I bet its fun shootin them from a boat too.
 
We don't have lots of big fish here but when the local reservoir floods up into the sage flats we go kill the carp when they spawn. We go out for hours nearly every day and it's a blast!
 
I have been bowfishing since I was in high school. Everyone thought I was crazy for walking through the cattails with all the snakes. The lake about 10 miles from where I grew up had tilapia in it. That is some of the best eating around. Our freezer would be full for the year of fish. I would average about 20 just about everytime I went out. Since they shut down the power plant at that lake, they have all died off (they need water that is 58, or close to that, degrees or higher to live). Now I have to drive about an hour to shoot them. But I still go and shoot carp, gar, and buffalo when ever I get the chance. It is definatly a lot of fun. What are some of the rigs everyone uses...I know I have a couple of bows set up for bowfishig...a old compound bow that I got from a garage sale for 10 bucks with a zebco 888 on it, and a PSE coyote 55lb draw, that has a AMS reel on it. I also have a martin jaguar 50 lb draw that is ready to take the reel from the PSE, so I can just set the PSE up for hunting.
 
I have my 15 year old hoyt with the limbs set as low as it will go still shoots like a dream. It does its part sometimes I have trouble doing mine
 
My go to bow is an Onieda Osprey set at 43# with a Muzzy spinner. My back up is a 50# PSE Kingfisher with a Muzzy spinner.

My sons bow will be a 40# Martin Rebel with a spinner. (wifes old bow)

My wifes new bow is a 40# Mathews Mission, with a spinner of course!
 
I use a 50# PSE Coyote and my brother just got a PSE Kingfisher over the summer. I love the coyote. I would like to get an AMS rig on it. I started out with an old Zebco fishing reel, but this year I put a big, cheap, spinning reel on it with 200# bowfishing line.
 
Oneida osprey @ 55Lbs for gator gar, Set up with Zebco 808 real that I do some modifications to. Use 200lb fast flight on it. Bear 44mag recurve@ 50 lbs set up with a retriever for shooting in the heavy mesquites or when shooting rollers in stained water. Recurve with 400lb fast flight. When I lived back in the south and alligator gar weren’t on the menu I shot a 40 lb Oneida. Love to bowfish just don't get to do much of it here in the desert. Try to take a few trips each summer to find some gar.

drscott
 
Oh yes, I just got ate up with bowfishing for the first time last summer as well. I can't wait to get back out on the lake! I had such a blast the first time, the second time I had my own rig setup and ready to go! I'm using my old hunting rig which was a PSE Team Fitzgerald and set it up with a AMS retriever kit and muzzy fingerless glove guards. There is nothing like shooting a huge bighead carp and fighting him in the boat!
 
I used to love to bowfish as much as anything. Averaged 4-6 nights a week all spring & summer for several years. Hard to believe, but I've pretty much burned out on night fishing. Still like to chase the big gar in the daytime though.
 
we do bowfish Texas gator gar and spoonies in oklahoma and catfish in kansas.[beeep] as long as u have open water its time to bowfish
 
wanting to start bowfishing. have licking river 4 miles from my house that has some pretty big carp we used to spear on the riffles and wading the shallows would love to have small flat bottom to use.
 
I just came bakc from buggs island, kerr resevoir down next to clarksvillle va.. we chased long nose gar around slinging arrows at em. Man was it a good time, we caught them in the spawn and ended up killing 17 gar and several carp. I got a bunch of pictures if somone can tell me how to upload em..
 
We used to shoot gaston/buggs a lot about 5 or 6 years ago then there was a group who started guiding on those two and several other lakes in north Carolina. Boy did the numbers of big fish and just the amount of fish go down when that happend. There still plenty of shooting to do but not anywhere near what it used to be. Our personal bests are. 48" gar, 43lbs grass carp, never weighed a common, and shot a couple really nice bowfin too. Mainly shooting from the dam to about 3 miles below it. Never did make it up around clarksville its was too far to tow the boat when kerr dam was only 1 hour away
 
Oh yeah??? We went to longwood is were we went bowfishing, but buffalo landing to catfish near the rivers, we didnt have any luck. But yeah we got a 48" gar we werent after many carp because ther were so many gar.. we seen a boat load missed a bunch lol.. but had a d*** good time. We didnt make it to gaston i heard they had alligator gar down ther, we shot the long nose!
 
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