Saturday 8/7, a small group of us bowfishers met out on the Illinois River.
We launched out of Starved Rock State Park and headed over to the Vermillion River. The day broke very, very foggy and cut the visibility to just about nil. We hoisted the Jolly Roger on our boat in the hope of not only striking fear into our quarry, but also in the hope that a speed boat might see it and not run us over.
The Fog
As the fog lifted, we made our way up the Vermillion into a deep pool where the gar were rolling like crazy. Sometimes a dozen gar would be hitting the surface at the same time. The problem was, they would only stay at the surface for a billionth of a second. Just barely enough time to swing your bow at them. Not enough time to draw and shoot. Ed and John had some luck shooting at where they thought the gar would be after it surfaced. We tried that....but just shot a lot of empty water.
Two silver carp jumped up right in front of us at one point but we were too freaked out to actually get a shot off at them.
The white spots are gar rolling on the surface.
We then headed further west on the Illinois, right up until we realized we had used up more than half a tank of gas. We tried our best to make it back to the launch but ran out of gas about 300 yards short. We had to have Ed tow us back.
(it was either that or make Jeremy row)
Ed with his gar. (Ed forgot his grill!!!!)
John with his Illinois gar.
For comparison, this is his Texas gar. I guess things really are bigger in Texas.
Illinois River Outing--Pics
]
