What is your set up?

[Robin@AimLow]

After seeing DH72 get rigged, and giving JB some ribbing over his reel choice, I thought it would be cool to hear (or read) who is using what for bowfishing. Include your boat, if you have one, also. Pix would be cool to.

[sharps4590]

my only "boat" is an Old Towne, 169 Discovery canoe and I can do anything out of it I want....but I'm pretty easy to please and prefer things simple. My bowfishing rig is a very old, circa early 60's, Ben Pearson, Cougar recurve with a taped on hand reel and a solid glass arrow. Fast as lightening to shoot on fish and kills all of 'em dead.

Vic

[JBMan]

here now, that cats ass reel has brought in many 3 and 4 long gar, whats been your problems with em. sure beats the hell out of winding all that line on the bell shot after shot.

[Robin@AimLow]

OK, I will go along with liking them compared to a hand wrap reel. The line retrieval of those things is just such a pain in the but, not to mention all the times you loose line out of the jug. To me, for the little fish you are talking about (and really, any fish we have here in MO), I just really like a Zebco.

[coyotewhacker]

My primary bowfishing setup is a really old, round wheel Cabela's compound ($10.75 on eBay) set up with a nylon wheel arrow rest and a Retriever reel with the optional single pin sight. I took out the factory line and replaced it with 200# FastFlyte line. Unless the alligator gar move north, that should handle the carp, gar, and buffalo we have in southwest Missouri. Arrows are all budget type fiberglass cut to 30", with Bohning heads. All my shafts are equipped with safety slides....the cabling just had too much stuff dangling around to catch on something else.
My "carp boat" is a 16' Buffalo brand canoe with a Royalex hull...quieter than aluminum and virtually indestructible in normal use. Since I graduated first in my class at the School for the Terminally Spastic, I have ordered a set of outriggers from Cabela's to keep the canoe steady when I stand up to shoot. Deliver is scheduled for tomorrow some time. My full time fishing partner has a flat bottom aluminum super jon that has a huge platform up front, and he has volunteered to man the boat controls if I want to hunt fish out of that one on some of the bigger waters.
Oh yeah...arrows...I do have one Muzzy carbon fiber shaft fishing arrow, but the safety slides I have are one size too small, so I won't be using it until I can get a larger safety slide for it. It won't be much longer until the spring spawning run for gar starts on the Pomme de Terre River. I live not far from a "low water crossing" where a bow fisherman can stand on top of a large culvert and wait for the gar to swim by.....should be a ton of fun. The locals go out and try to snag them with big treble hooks, but the bow should be a lot more efficient. If that Retriever reel doesn't work as well as I hope, I also have a regular reel seat with a 17" glass rod and a big Synergy reel spooled with 130 lb Black Diamond braid line that can be put on the bow in just a couple of minutes. The Retriever is mounted on a dovetail, so it come off instantly.

[Robin@AimLow]

You may have trouble with that 200 lb in the Retriever. It wants to cut into the rubber rollers leaving grooves.

[coyotewhacker]

I wondered about that when I saw the small diameter, but the rollers are fairly cheap to replace, so I will try this and see how it works...if it eats the roller too quickly, I will go back to the larger diameter line, or switch over to the 400# FastFlite....that factory line that came with the Retriever just balled up too much to give me a feeling of confidence, even after it had been wet down with a couple of practice shots.

[Robin@AimLow]

Ditch the factory stuff and go with 350 or 400 fast flite.

[coyotewhacker]

Sounds like a plan. I see it on eBay all the time, so will go for a spool of the 400#. Never can tell when I might get back down to Louisiana where the gator gar grow real big.

[JBMan]

not only that, but the line is heavy enough that you can pull your arrow out of a bush, if you happen to miss like mostly do.

[Tigerhaze]

I have had my setup for several years but have just recently started using it more and more. I have shot mayvbe a dozen fish over the years with it, but am now getitng serious about using it more often. It helps keep me in practice, although I have a seperate bow for hunting.

I use an older PSE Polaris with 65% let-off wheels. I have the Bohning Bowfishing reel and the Mariner bowfishing rest. I curreently use solid fiberglass arrows with the river fish (two barb) points. I have a 14' flastbottom jon I shoot out of on rivers, and a friend of mine has a 20' pontoon boat for lakes that I shoot off of.

Now that I am shooting more often, I can tell that I want to get a retriever reel. That handwinding gets old quick. I am looking for suggestions on improving the rest of my setup. One thing I would like to know is what kind of sights (if any) you use on your bows. I have my deerhunting sights with a zero peep and it just isn't suited for bowfishing. Do you guys use sights at all or a single pin? Do you use a peep system or shoot instinctively? I have found lately I am shooting instinctively and ignoring the sights. I can definitely see that for closup fishing off a boat, but one fun spot of mine is an old iron bridge about 30 feet above the river and 20 to 30 feet out from it.

Also, how do you guys attached the arrow to the line? I saw the discussion on safety sleeves-do they also attach the arrow? I have been direct tying the arrow but the line frays after a couple of shots.

Finally what type of points do you use?

I know a lot of questions but I am trying to learn more and get better at this sport.

[sharps4590]

55 lb. Ben Pearson, Cougar with a tape on reel....fast, accurate and deadly!

Vic

[Robin@AimLow]

Tie to the back with a overhand knot to make a loop. The loop goes thru the hole and over the nock. Makes easy removal without untying the knot. Use fast flite and your line won't fray. Shoot intstinctive. You will be suprised how fast you will become accurate. How are you gonna lift a fish 30 feet up to the bridge? I still rec'd the Zebco over a Retriever. I used my Retriever in TX for a day and a half cussing the whole time and finally put it away for the rest of the trip. I use Muzzy points only. They sell most brands of points and I have access to all of them. I have tried them all and the Muzzy is still the only one in my boat.

All of our equipment (and why we use it) will be detailed in our video coming out this winter.

[Tigerhaze]

Hey Robin-


Thanks for the advice.

I was out of arrows for this weekend, so I went to the local bowshop and they had a pretty good selection of bowfishing supplies. They had both the Retriever and the Zebco 808 Bowfisher for a decent price. I'm glad you weighed in on that. The other neat thing about the Zebco is they have a detachable rod for the stabilizer hole so you can fight the fish with rod and reel instead of winding from the bow.

As for the bridge, you can walk the fish over to the bank where someone else can grab it for you. There are usually spectators anyhow.

Looking forward to seeing the video.

[swmoDukR]

Just go into it this year and I'm hooked. Still getting the hang of shot placement with the angles and no sights but it's getting their.



Using a old Bear Whitetail Hunter that was given to me when my Father-in-law passed away, the retriever reel, Mechanical release, and fiberglass arrows w/ Muzzy heads with the slides. Just stand on the front nose cap of my 16ft aluminum semi-v which puts me up pretty high. Used the hand winder drum style one time and threw that thing away after a buddy was shooting 3-4 times to my 1. Here's one with my son and dawg that I shot yesterday.