1st day out on my new boat

[bowman15]

I FINALLY got to get out on my new boat today. It's the first time I've been out on it since I brought it home. And everything worked great.It's alittle small for 2 people, but it's great for one person. The carp were starting their spawning activities. You could see groups of small males swarming around a big female everywhere. I was targeting the females because they were the biggest targets. My shooting was terrible. I think I was hitting about 10-15% for the most part. Right at the end I found my groove and I couldn't miss, but that was also when I found the buffs and I had one pull-off after another. Ilost at least a dozen fish. I ended up shooting 5 different species of fish, including my biggest gar to date. It was right around 45 1/2" long. The first one I shot at was alot bigger around, but I never saw it's total length. It was facing away from me with it's head down. It was at least 4 1/2" across. I ended up with 29 fish total including my first and second grass-carp ever. They were the smallest fish I shot too.



Total take for the day:
20 commons
5 bigmouth buffs
2 small grassies
1 smallmouth buff
1 longnose gar

[HunterOpel]

GREAT JOB!!!!!!!!!

[Bulzeye]

Nice haul Steve!!

5 species = very nice.
LOVE the gar. That's big for up here.
Nice pic too.

Glad to hear everything performed well on the new floatie.
That's gotta feel great, especially considering the condition that boat was in when you got it. I think it'll work fine for 2 people -you just can't shoot 360 degrees without yelling "duck!".

[ilyotehunter]

good shootin. what kind of motor setup do you have? where did u fish at? i like your boat setup its pretty cool

[bowman15]

Thanks. I just wish I could have done the boat justice. I should have had over 60 fish in it today. I just couldn't hit anything, until I was ready to leave that is. At least now I can get the practice I need.

I've got a Motor Guide 37-pound thrust with a long extention my partner Mark made,and I just picked up a late 70's Mercury 20-horse tiller for it. The troller was getting pretty warm early on so I went way up against the wind and drifted back over the flats. I was on the DesPlaines River where alot of us go. I saw 3 other bowfishing boats out there today too. 2 had 3 guys on them and one had 4 guys. And everyone was hitting fish!

[fishpoint]

Hey Steve - glad to see you got Little Woodie on the water.

I'm jealous, I didn't see squat yesterday and you nailed a bunch today. Great shooting!

[slim23]

congrats man! awesome work on the new rig. i know what ya mean on finaly gettin to go out for the year. i still aint shot outa my new boat.