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Took a break from turkeys so my son can hunt too. He is just a bit fidgety for turkeys with me but carp shooting is much more casual.

I wish my skills increased each year like his do! Amazing from last spring to this spring how much more maturity has occurred in him. He is drawing and shooting as good as many of my adult friends. He actually makes comments like let's make a bet for who shoots the biggest or the most fish.

Fortunately old age patience and experience gives me a Huge edge over carefree endless energy and enthusiasm. However I can see my days coming out ahead are numbered!

We did agree the bigger fish need two arrows, those close to 20 lbs or over we both get arrows into them to prevent pulling off.

Kids and bow fishing are a match made in heaven. Target rich, muddy slimy bloody it's the perfect little boy experience!!

Even large "little boys".

Sounds like a heap of fun, JJ. Cherish every minute, they grow up WAY too fast.

Ed

Just one of the slimy buggers we stuck this last week. I was not even sure if the smell of carp would ever come out of his cloths! I'm becoming a half way decent "mom" at laundry now........ finally!

He shot somewhere into the 20 fish range in 3 hours yesterday. Counting only the ones that did not pull off. With only a 30lb bow it takes a really good close hit to get them in.

Looks like he's having a GREAT time! It's a perfect way for a kid to spend the day.

Looks like he's having fun alright.
I just got an AMS compound for bowfishing last summer.
Been whacking sting rays and hardhead catfish in Choctawhatchee bay -but started out on carp in sw ohio.
Had a home made rig with a small zebco reel- hose clamped onto a bow bought after watching dukes of hazard.
Shot some big carp at an old railroad tressle and brought them into town to show some buddies -people were amazed back then with fish being taken w/a bow.
Bet your boy shows a lot of boys his age pictures of this kind of stuff via phones and stuff.
He'll never forget this stuff - adults in our age group rarely have pictures of this kind of stuff -your boy will love these pics. when he's your age.
Nice carp trophy - Taste horrible according to my Grand parents.
Mike

Mothers day carp shooting!


His biggest to date, just over 18 pounds

If ya'll are ever in TX during a period when our river is low and clear, give me a shout, ya'll can come with us on the airboat and shoot fish one night.

Jeff

We are anxious to shoot a gar someday.

I would fly down for that!

love bow fishing, can't wait until I have a son to take with me like you. Looks like he had a great time!

Bow fishing is such an underrated event.

It's target rich, day or night, cheap to do, no boat needed, and simple enough for even kids to be successful.

There is a fog that comes over you and blocks reasonable thought. My boat gets so full of blood, slime and scales when we have been shooting for a few hours.

Without exception every time I come back I look in that boat and wonder what was I thinking! It's a disaster. It's a fishing crime scene with carp DNA spattered all over everything.

I really need a wide johnboat sprayed with a bedliner that I can pressure wash out.

We don't run into large gar here that they do in many places. But we shoot a few a night needless to say.

If I ever figure out when/where to go for more/larger gar I'll shout.

You are welcome anytime it fits into your schedule and mine at the same time. I suspect I"ll never be without an airboat ever again. But it doesn't run all the time, at times its down for work...

In the meantime.... anytime you might get close to Austin, Houston, or San Antonio you are without 1-2 hours or so of me...

Jeff

PS first thing off the river we go up the ramp and at the end of it is a carwash! thats first stop.

a gar is a gar, size is cool, but just shooting a gar is gotta be a life's goal for me.

I have been shooting with a retriever for a long time now, but I have closed face spinners as well. I get in moods now and then that I really decide I like one more then the other or that one is simply better. But then I sway back and forth.

They are both great, and I really cannot seem to decide which is better. I really like the drag and the faster retrieve of the Muzzy spinner. But I like the dependability, and the long smooth shots the retriever makes too. I Usually prefer the Muzzy spinner, until a shot gets screwed up for some reason. Then I switch to the retriever and stay with it until I get into faster shooting needs.

I have read the debates on this over and over. I still cannot decide which is a better device. The retriever is not very likely gonna break, but that Muzzy is faster to shoot.

As far as points go, I am pretty happy with the sureshot, but the Garpoon is also a great point for bigger fish that tend to pull off. I've had only a couple spin loose the sureshot, and one was likely the biggest carp I've ever shot just last weekend.

I shoot an Oneida Osprey bow, Would not change that for anything. That all stainless hardware is great. All my buddies have totally rusted screws on their bows My sons, PSE Chaos is not rusted bad because we clean it up, but the Osprey is still like new. Except of course for the blood, slime, and misc, goo that gets splattered when boating a fish.

A car wash is an excellent idea, I usually use my pressure washer, but the car wash that close is worth using rather then pulling out a pressure washer at home

I"ve been bowfishing now for 5 years. Because of friends and nephews. And because I have the platform, the airboat.

I have enough river we could run up far enough to start after dark and get back to the ramp literally about daylight, though latest we've done has been 4am.

In all those years I do not own a bowfishing bow. Or arrows, or reels and I've shot at fish exactly 2 times so far with others bows. I end up driving all the time since airboats are really tricky/dangerous to manuever.

I would use a retriever I think, muzzy gar heads with replaceable tips due to rocks in the river. And a recurve as I like how they shoot.

But everyone has their own choice.

RE gar size... nephew has shot two that literally have been about twice or less the diameter of his arrow....and missed larger.

We have never boated one more than about 4 feet long. No clue on weight. We have stuck but had pull out 2 so far that appeared to my eye to be about 6 feet long.

Downriver from here, the direction we generally end up fishing on a long night, I have a picture of one from this spring, over 6 feet, and has to go I'd think over 100 pretty easy. If not over 150 so they are around.

But then I have so much going, and the boat burns so much fuel to make the runs, and the kids don't have tons of money to chip in( they are not kids per say... IE in the 20s and I keep telling em, I paid for the boat you can pay for the gas, grins) so we probably don't go more than 5-10 times a year.

Right now our water is too muddy. Should clear up again in 2-4 weeks.