Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting Bow fishing at night with lights

I shoot instinctively, bare recurve and longbow.
In bowfishing, the shots are very close, but you need to develop an instinctive adjustment for the diffraction of the water. The fish is not where he appears to be, unless you are directly over him.

I've only shot at ones on the surface so far. So....if there's a carp ~ 10' in front of you 4' deep, would I be shooting under/over? How much at that distance?? Thanks.

Hey guys,

This sounds like fun to me. Can you use regular aluminum arrows or carbon arrows? Why or why not.
If I get the chance to go archery hunt carp, it will be in a river. The water is not over a couple feet deep, and the carp usually are in 12 to 18 iches of water.
What do you suggest?
I was also thinking of using a BIG open face with slatwater line or some gorrilla braid?

I have never done this before, so I have tons of questions. Thanks a ton JJ for the urge to do this.

Kique

Kique, Just like everything else you can get as fancy(and expensive) with bowfishing as you want. You can use regular arrows if you don't mind ruining (and losing) them after one shot, but they generally don't have the neccessary penetratrion (weight) for pulling line, travelling through water and then a fish. Rough fish, like carp gar, buffalo etc. are pretty well scaled and can get BIG. Reels especially made for bowfishing are available and big spincasters (like Zebco) are popular with guys who get lots of shots. They are also less of a problem with tangled lines. But an arrow attached to a rod and reel works just fine, we do it all the time here in South Texas where your next fish may be a 300 pounder and we're shooting from the bank.

Nebraska

You have to aim under the fish, about 4 inches per foot of depth, but that varies with the angle. Going around shooting sunken cans is good roving practice.

As for the arrow, you use a solid glass arrow with a screw off tip. It is connected to a hand reel on the bow, with 200 lb Dacron line that is thick enough for you to wind up by hand without cutting yourself. The fletching is a rubbery vane.

A web site I just found on bowfishing:
http://www.tipsforarchery.com/bow%20fishing/BowFishng%20Frequently%20Asked%20Questions.php