where is the best....

Hunter06FlKy · 04-27-2005, 05:30 PM

i was just wondering where the best place and time of day would be to find fish. i live in central florida and i have a pretty good idea of where to go but i never see carp or gar. so if you have any suggestions please let me know. also how many pins do you have on your sight and what are the distances.

HNI_Christine · 04-27-2005, 05:40 PM

I always do the best in the shallow areas/mud flats and where there is some amount of vegetation. Those fish are fairly easy to find when they are spawning. Night bowfishing is a great way to see a lot of fish. (need a boat and lights for that) Also, be sure to check out your state's regs. I think you can shoot some salt-water species in FL. Like stingrays and maybe flounder. I know somebody who goes down to FL and brings back a cooler full or stingray fillets. They're good!

I don't know of anybody who uses pins on thier bowfishing rigs. It's most an instinctive shooting game. Most shoots are fairly close.. like 5 yards.

Hunter06FlKy · 04-27-2005, 05:55 PM

alright thanks for the info. about the pins though, i haven't shot instinctive in a while. so i was just wondering. i think i'm going to fix my bear cub up for bowfishing. so thanks for the help. i'll let you know if i have more ?'s.

Fishhunter · 04-28-2005, 05:35 PM

Once you start shooting, pins get in the way. It won't take long to get the feel for it. Also, you don't have to drive nails. Your "bullseye" is the whole fish.

K2SOCO · 05-16-2005, 12:19 PM

Flats and shallows are real good in my part of Florida (SW). Have never seen any gar worth shooting or any carp for that matter. There are a few good saltwater fish that can be taken. My favorite to bowfish is Talapia. Look for them in the Bass beds (they take them over, this is why they need to be harvested.) Daytime fishing for Talapia is much harder, they have great eyeysight when they see you they bolt and are quite the challenge to hit on the run. Night bowfishing with lights they just sit there and give you any shot you want. And I concur with all "No sight pins"! Good Luck!

Bulzeye · 05-16-2005, 02:34 PM

I met one or two guys at a shoot on the Illinois's Hennepin Canal a few weeks ago that used a single pin for fishing, but i think they really do get in the way. Some shots are so close and have to be taken so fast that you really want to develop your instinct shooting.

Try this. Get a fish arrow, and take the barbs off, but leave the point on.
Use it for practice on your back yard. Shoot at a cardboard cutout the shape and size of a fish.
This really helps. My fish-shooting accuracy went way up after just a few sessions.
Don't bother shooting much past 30 feet.

Also, make sure you know how long of a shot you can take with the amount of line you have on your reel.
You don't want to blow a shot because he was just out of range. He might have come closer if you didn't scare him off.

Just Saturday, I had an arrow stop in mid-air less than 3 feet from the head of a nice carp.
He would have normally been within range, but I had forgotten that I had cut about 12 feet of line off my reel a few weeks back when trying to recover a fish tangled in some logs. [:@]

Fishhunter · 05-16-2005, 06:42 PM

DOH!!

K2SOCO · 05-17-2005, 07:18 AM

The only downfall to Talapia is that they are not near as big as Carp!

psychowolverine · 05-18-2005, 08:30 AM

Backwater areas or creeks sometimes produce carp and shallow areas near creeks. Some rivers will have gar and the lakes are spotty unless you find a hot spot for them.

bowman15 · 05-20-2005, 06:36 PM

Them talapia make tough targets. They don't look much bigger than bluegills up here. More like crappie.

It's easy to hit the big ones.