hello all. A buddy and I are thinking about going bowfishing this spring. there are carp in Lakde Defenbaker in sask. Anyone have any experience/tips? Sounds like fun, and what's more natural than standing in a canoe with a bow in your hand?

the chef

I like the Muzzy Gar-point or Carp-point for bowfishing. Be careful of frontal shots on bigger fish. Those scales can be tough enough to deflect even a decent shot - I like to wait for broadside or quartering away shots to make sure the point can get into them. The best advice: have a fun! bowfishing is a hoot!

It"s great fun with a shotgun, but you do get very wet!
good shooting1

My suggestion is that if you haven't already got a reel to use make sure that you spent the little extra and get a retriever reel (the one that looks like somebody screwed a coke bottle to your bow) and not just the cheap spool type that bolts to the front of your bow. I use to us the spool type until I finally got tired of the line tangling up. When that happens there are two things that can result. Best case the line just breaks and you lose your arrow , worse case the arrow goes out and the line goes tight and turns into a rubber band then the arrow comes back to where it started and you have to do some fancy foot work to get out of the way. Either way the extra money is worth it to help prevent loss of arrows and loss of life. Also I think that Muzzy has the best point of all the ones that I have tried. They are by far the easiest to get back out.

"standing in a canoe" is the last thing I do before taking an unexpected dip in the lake. But, it is Fun.

quote:

Originally posted by brass thief:
It"s great fun with a shotgun, but you do get very wet!
good shooting1

IMHO your statement could be half the truth,the other is bout the retrival of the trophy with shotgun???

Bowfishing r a unique or it's own class archery.Only the bow r the same but the rest must be of bowfishing gear...for e.g the arrow..normal arrow r either carbon or aluminium but bowfishing only use fiberglass cos of it's weight & ability to impact on hard matter without breaking!Surf aroung in bowfishing web page u bound to find tons of info to start.Goodluck.

All I can say is be VERY careful Bowfishing. I know a lady that lost her husband to a bowfishing rig a few years back. This guy was no rookie, he lived and breathed the sport. He was going to tournaments all of the time and always practicing. She came home one day and he was not in the house but, she knew he was home. She found him stone dead in the back yard with an arrow sticking out of his eye socket. The reel got tangled and the line did not break, it sling-shotted the arrow right back into his eye/brain. They had two small children, it was a real bad deal to say the least.

I've heard several other stories about near misses(to themselves) while guys where bowfishing. I have a close friend that will only fish if he ties his string to the rear of the boat just in case it catches.

So... Be very careful if you take on this hobby.

Good Luck

Reloader

I have had a few arrows hit the end of a tangled string and come back, but I have not had many bounce off a fish they just stick in a little less far. I used to use a solid fiberglass arrow with a braded line. It was a lot of fun untill my bow-fishing buddy joined the NAVY I guess he liked the water more than I knew.