OutdoorMissouri.com

yep, just got a report by one of my good buddies, sounds like soon, the diversion channel's gonna bust the bank, leaving all sorts of good "trash" to mop up. lubin up the bowstrings if'n you know what i mean

JBMan...if I may ask, what type of bowfishing rig do you use, and do you have a full blown Bowfishing boat? I am in the process of rigging out a 16' canoe with outrigger pontoons to get into the really shallow areas of the lakes, but we don't have much in the way of river bowfishing, at least that I am aware of. The Pomme de Terre has some huntable gar up to maybe 3', but the lake has some terrific buffalo and carp. Was just wondering how you go after them.

Pomme has a ton of gar over 3 feet right up to 5 foot. I personnally know of two that were over 60 inches. There are literally hundreds over 50 inches taken every year.

WOW! That's some great news. Most of the gar I have seen was while bass fishing up in the river above the McCracken bridge. Are these bigger gar in the lake? I live not too far from one of the low water bridges over the river just northeast of Bolivar, and when the gar migrate upstream, a lot of folks come down to snag them....I think that standing on the top of the large culverts and shooting down just a few feet would be pretty productive. I've already been over and done some test shooting to make sure nothing snags or hangs up. The bridge is locally called "The Lynn Creek Bridge", and is one of the last "low water" bridges left around here. The county is gradually replacing them with more modern structures. It's basically nothing more than three six foot culverts laid down in the river with concrete poured over the culverts to make a roadway. But the gar congregate in the deeper pool downstream from the culverts and make excellent targets. If anybody wants to come by and join me for some shooting, just drop me a note.
Coyotewhacker.

sorry about the delay.... college.... nuff said... anyway, coyotewhacker my bowfishing rig consists of a dinosaur pearson compound bow. i believe it is set at 55 lb. pull, the arrows are your bread and butter fiberglass with the economy river points on them. my reel is the retriever reel spooled with 25 yards of 400 lb fast flight. (the cats meow, if you know what i mean) as far as a boat goes, i have a 14 john boat that i occasionally use. i personally prefer to stalk the flood waters. or the backs of coves. my family also has a 18 ft cajun spree fishing boat. i believe that wednesday or thursday, we might go crappie fishing up at lake kinkaid over in FIP land. i usually take a bow along looking for carp as we scour the bank. but i try to keep my gear simple.

Just about a month ago, i came into a possesion of a free hoyt/pearson bow with nothing wrong except for some chipping paint. it is basically the ancestor of the hoyt raider. i beileve that i will deck it out for bowfishing. the pull might be a little short, but i'll see about fixing that .
anyway, where is pomme de terre? bein down here in the southeast portion of the state if you know what i mean.

Thanks for the info. Fully understand about college. Did that myself a "few" years ago. I live north of Springfield between Bolivar and Buffalo, right in the middle of some pretty fair lakes. Stockton is some 30 miles west, Pomme de Terre is 12 miles directly north of me, Truman is just a few miles up from the Pomme de Terre Dam, with tiny little Fellows Lake about 25 miles south of me. They all have some good populations of big carp and Pomme has some real big gar. This will be my first year to bowfish after putting an old Bear recurve away when I moved from Florida. I've got that old Cabela's compound set at 50 lb and it shoots real nice. It has a Retriever reel on it, complete with the factory dovetail mount and a factory pin sight. That's set at 10 yards, and most shots will be less than that. I glued up another pair of glass arrows this morning with safety slides, as opposed to a cable system. There's something about the cables that is just too "busy", and is one more thing to get caught on something. Also have an older setup for a recurve that consists of a reel seat, a 17" heavy fiberglass rod, and a Shakespeare Synergy reel loaded with 200# Fast Flite. The bow for that will probably be a little Black Widow takedown unless I can find a lighter set of limbs for a Hoyt Hunt Master that came off eBay....60 lbs on a recurve is out of the question for me to draw and shoot. Both the recurves are beautiful bows, and I would really prefer to keep the Black Widow off the water.
Good luck to you in your fish hunting. We should be starting up here in another three or four weeks.
CW

i have been to stockton! and yes mucho carp in those waters. i guess its the cold water... only way to explain the sheer numbers and size of the carp over their. I tried stalking them but the clear water just doesn't cater to that. The best i did over there was a two day trip/family reunion, just had to take the bow along, snuck up on a carp running around 25 lbs. drew back, and away he sped off towards the clear blue deep.

Is Stockton any colder than our other lakes? Believe me, Truman, Mark Twain, LOZ, Smithville, Wappapello, and most others all are full of carp. Smithville has the most I have seen, but 6 lbs is the biggest. Wappapello has a fair number, but can reach around 30 lbs. Truman is absolutely full of them and average around 8 lbs, but can get near 20 lbs.

If you ask me, a Retriever is the cat's ass. I hate those things! Only use them out of sheer necessity down in TX when going after giants with a jug rig.