bowfishing pratice?

Red Hawk · 06-12-2004, 02:38 AM

I was just curious what would be the best way to pratice bowfishing other then standing at the water and shooting at fish lol. Tie an can down in water and try that way or what?

coyote caller · 06-12-2004, 07:14 AM

Truthfully, I never practiced shooting rough fish. Just go out and shoot. Learn to compensate for your shots, with the water refaction most of the time will be high. So lower your shots, sure you're going to miss a few, but then again when shooting carp, most will be splashing around the shallows in the cattails or reeds. And you don't have to worry about the water refractions. We go out on night shoots a lot for gar and bowfin, and thats where you'll need to learn how to compensate for your shots. Good Luck, And have fun!

Bulzeye · 06-18-2004, 11:34 AM

The best practice is shooting at submerged objects, but you run teh risk of losing an arrow to something solid, like a log.

I also practice occassionally in my basement with a fish arrow that had the barb broken off.
I shoot it at about 6 to 8 yards in to a foam target.
I have a cardboard cutout of a fish taped to the front of it, complete with an eye and gill line.
It doesn't help account for the water's refraction, but it at least keeps me in practice for getting my arrows to hit where I'm aiming. Since fishing arrows are so heavy, there is a lot of drop to account for, even at short bowfishing ranges.

I always try to hit fish right behind the gill because many times their head is too tough, and if you hit them too far back they can rip the barb out when they flail their tail around.

Red Hawk · 06-18-2004, 09:12 PM

I'm not working at the moment so it might be awhile before i can get the right equiment. Is there some type of an 'poor man's set up' for the time being?

Bulzeye · 06-21-2004, 06:31 AM

In case you didn't see my other post...

"I grew up bowfishing with my Dad's old Bear brushbow that had a 20 year old homemade drum on it.
It was basically a 1" x 4" board mounted to a 1" x 1/2" board that was taped to the front of the bow.
It had an aluminum tab nailed to the side of it to grab the end of the string. Worked great, lasted a LONG time, and cost about 25 cents."