Bowfishing on a Budget

With the old bow in your garage and $30 worth of equipment, you can be bowfishing for carp and gar by this afternoon

We’re standing on a railroad trestle 30 feet above a stagnant creek, and although we can’t hear a train coming, the ringing cicadas are admittedly overpowering most of the periphery noise. I can watch drops of sweat bead off my nose and fall to the water’s surface below.

The oxygen level gets low in many slow-moving southern creeks this time of year. Long dry spells and 95-degree heat for days on end does that. This is when you’ll see gar doing the most gulping. “They come to the surface and suck in air as a way of obtaining oxygen,” a buddy with a biology background once told me. “They’re a prehistoric fish, and one of the few capable of doing that. But when you see them doing that in a pool late in the summer, you know the oxygen level is low. There’s no use fishing for anything else at that point, because nothing else can live in water like that, and if it is still alive, it’s not active enough to bite.”

Tim and I aren’t worried about catching anything here on a rod and reel. We’re just standing on the bridge to make sure gar are surfacing before we climb down to the water’s edge and begin our evening of bowfishing. It doesn’t take long before two long-nosed gars, the biggest of which pushes 5 feet, snake their way upstream below us.

“I can hit that from here,” Tim says. I could too, with my deer-hunting compound and carbon arrow. But with a heavy fiberglass arrow, tied to line wrapped around an empty can of Maxwell House, flung from an antique 40-pound recurve? I have my doubts.

“I think we should get closer to them for a better shot,” I say. My Kodiak Magnum is deadly from a few feet. From here, I might as well be throwing the arrows. But Tim predictably ignores me and comes to full draw with his 70-pound compound. With a slap, line is wheeling off his reel in Slinky-like fashion. The creek erupts in thrashing and blood and mud, but the gar isn’t going anywhere.

“That settles that debate,” Tim says. “How do we get him?” After seeing that shot, I’m more than happy to climb through the poison ivy and wade into the water to retrieve the thrashing creature.

Whether it’s a 200-pound alligator gar in Texas, a flurry of jumping carp on the Illinois River or two rednecks shooting whatever rough fish they see in a stagnant creek, bowfishing is experiencing exponential popularity growth. Many bowhunters see it as a casual reason to keep a bow in hand year-round while other serious, tournament-level bowfishermen spend thousands of dollars on equipment to gain an edge. The sport is unique among bowhunting (and fishing) pursuits in that you can take it as seriously or casually as you desire and still have a great chance for success. If you’ve never tried it, the initial investment to shoot a few fish is pretty low.

Wading and stalking gar and carp in the spring and summer is one of the easiest ways to get into bowfishing. Night shooting from a boat can be the best, but you don’t have to own a boat or wait until the sun goes down to get a few shots. Polarized sunglasses and waders (or old tennis shoes and shorts if the water’s warm enough) are plenty of gear to put you in the fish, especially in the spring when they’re spawning in and around shallow vegetation.
 
Reels and Rigs

You’ll of course need a bow with the correct draw length. Bowfishing involves lots of mud, blood, water and scales and it’s rough on equipment. For that reason, most bowfishermen prefer to use “beater” bows that have long-since retired from deer hunting. I use the old recurve mentioned above as well as a retired compound with no sights or rest. Recurves have some advantages for fast, close-range snap shooting, but compounds with draw weights of 45 pounds or more definitely aid for longer or deeper shots. I prefer instinctive shooting straight off the shelf, but many bowfishermen use some type of roller rest and sight pins.

Besides the bow, you’ll need a bowfishing arrow and something to hold some line. Ready-to-use bowfishing kits with simple wind-on reels and a fish arrow can be purchased for less than $30. They work well and are virtually indestructible. For an even cheaper option (and the ultimate in redneckery), consider making your own reel from a coffee can. Simply drill a hole through the center of the bottom of the can and attach it to your bow’s stabilizer port with a nut and bolt, making sure to secure both sides of the can with washers. Save the lid to the coffee can and cut a small hole through the center of it. Thread the line through the lid and secure it to the bolt inside the can. Tie the line to your arrow, wrap it around the can and presto, you’re ready to shoot. At the end of the day, stash the line inside the coffee can and secure it with the lid to reduce tangling. 

Of course there are a variety of more refined bowfishing rigs on the market. Some of the most popular among serious bowfishermen, albeit among the most expensive, are the various AMS Retriever systems. I’ve also used bow-mounted reel seats for securing large spin-cast reels loaded with bowfishing line. They work well, too, and are definitely nice to have when the action is fast and furious.

The Arrow Setup

Most bowfishing arrows are made of heavyweight fiberglass, but several companies sell carbon bowfishing arrows as well. Point styles vary, but most sport two or more barbs that can be unscrewed or rotated for removal from a fish. Personally, I like the chisel-style Muzzy Gar Point for durability and penetration. Regardless of the arrow and tip you use, make sure it’s equipped with some sort of sliding system for the line. Never tie bowfishing line to the rear of the arrow. If the line gets tangled, the arrow will snap back. That’s dangerous enough by itself, but when the line is tied the rear of the arrow, it will almost certainly come straight back toward you—a sure-fire way to ruin the day. Many arrows come ready-made with a sliding sleeve or cable slide system for securing line. This way the line will slide to the front of the arrow when the bow is drawn, reducing the chances of a dangerous snap-back. These sliding systems are sold separately, too, and easy to install. 

Where to Go

Gar and carp move into the shallows of lakes and river backwaters during the late spring for spawning, and they’re likely to be found there throughout the warm-weather months. Bays in lakes that are grown up with willow bushes, reeds and lily pads are choice. A boat certainly helps for mobility, but you can often get closer shots at feeding or spawning fish by easing into the water and wading. Watch for tails protruding from the water’s surface and shaking vegetation as the fish snake about in the shallow water. Polarized sunglasses are a big help in revealing what’s under the surface. Learning to adjust your aim for the water’s refraction is an art form that must be learned with practice, but I’ve seen even novice archers pick it up after half a dozen shots.

Sidebar:

Deep-Fried Gar

When I stepped into my back yard one afternoon and found my buddy, Robey, knelt over a cutting board removing slabs of flesh from a massive long-nosed gar with an array of cutting instruments (including a saw and tin snips), I had my doubts. But with a beer in his hand and a twinkle in his eye, Robey proudly displayed two large, snow-white fillets he’d taken from the fish. Two hours later, the fillets were trimmed, cut into small chunks, rolled in seasoned batter and deep-fried. The meat was firm, mild and quite tasty—hey, it was deep fried.

Do I now eat every rough I shoot with my bow? No—but many waterways are inundated with rough fish (Asian carp have caused a near crisis in many waterways), and there’s no reason to apologize for shooting a few of them where legal. But, when I was a kid, I was taught to eat what I kill when possible. There is a stigma among some when it comes to eating rough fish—gar, carp and the like—but that fish is perfectly edible (excluding the eggs; gar eggs are poisonous), and indeed, pretty tasty when properly prepared.