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Any bow fishers out there have any advise for a beginer?

I will be bow hunting Northern Pike this summer with my 45lb Seneca Compound, with a Retriever reel/spool. Should be fun. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

I think the most valuable lesson I have ever learned while bowfishing is NEVER EVER tie the line to the back of the arrow. It is just a matter of time until you have it inside your bow arm when you release. The Hematoma you get will be unbelievable. How do I know this? Yeah..........you guessed it!

If you have the line tied to the front of the arrow your accuracy will suffer a lot. Hmmmmm Where to tie it then?

You need to tie a large split ring, like those used for keys on a key chain. Tie it to a line of which the other end is attatched to the the tip of the arrow. The split ring must be over the arrow so it will slide up and down the shaft. The line must be just short enough to prevent it from coming off the knock end of the shaft. Use a very large snap swivel or tie direct from the split ring to the line on your retriever.

This is far more difficult to write then to show you!

Now when you draw the arrow back the split ring will move to the front of the arrow. The line will never wrap around your arm. When you shoot the arrow, it will shoot through the split ring until the line on the arrow tip runs out and then it will pull line from the retriever. This way it is secured at the tip but pulls from the back.

If this is not clear enough to understand I will take a digital photo for you.

Muzzy makes equipment for bow fishing...You can see one of the owners along with Michael Waddell(from Realtree) bowfishing for grass karp on the Road Trips season #1 DVD/video.

Mike

Got a couple of arrows from cabelas with the wire leader running from tip to nock. Got that prt down. What I seam to have the most difficulty is with aiming and the refrection of the water. Should have been a little more specific. Anyway, is there some sort of formula to determining Point of impact vs point of aim at a given depth?

Thanks for the responces.

Most shots will likely be in Feet rather then yards. I set up my bow to shoot right on the money at 30 feet or ten yards. At this distance shoot at a 2" circle and make sure your arrows are hitting right below it. Nearly touching it. Put another way, set the sight pin 3" lower then your POI at 30 feet. That is good for fish from 1 to 2 feet deep or less. Deeper then that is really hard unless you're very close. If a fin is out of the water you will have to aim a bit higher or right at the fin is how I do it. The further away you are the more water you have to shoot through, it's difficult unless shooting a very heavy draw weight bow.

The refraction is a problem so just shoot lower then you think you need to. If you set up the way I have described you're gonna be real close if not perfect. I have done this for a very long time and have done it this way since I figured it out 20 plus years ago.

It works so well that I typically nail fish from the first shot on. There is no warmup or practice to get it right while on the water.

I have killed thousands and thousands of fish with a bow. We didn't have to have stings attached to the arrows until last year. I used old steel braud heads, which worked wonderful. Now that the state (Utah) requires a string attached to the arrow, it isn't much fun. That sting gets wrapped around everything, your arm, your rest, your fingers....uggg!! I haven't been since they changed the regs. There are funner things to do, other than fighting with a string. I would recommend a recurve bow over a compound for bow fishing. They are quicker to get into action and less fuss. Flinch