Tomorrow morning I leave for a small bowfishing tournament at Rend Lake (in S. IL).

The trip itself may be an adventure. We had to beat one of the trailer bearings off with a hammer in order replace it. Haven't pulled the trailer since then.. No worries.. it's only about 700 miles round trip. [8D]

We will be trying out our 'new' 1977 20hp motor that we recently bought. Hopefully it works.. or it's going to be a long night of rowing.... []

It will be my first night tourny... The tourny runs from 7pm to 6am. The guy organizing it says that it will probably take about 150 fish to win.

Heck, I don't know if I can even pull my bow back that many times... and I only hit one fish for every four shots or so.

Not to mention that my boat can't carry that many fish...

So... I'm thinking this will be a really entertaining weekend!

Check back for updates!!

We did test the generator and lights. They look okay.

Well, this side light might be a problem. Instant smoke.... just add 350 watts.

Hubby: "Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time."

hehehehe You bringing the rig to the bowbash?

Let's see how it does going to Southern Illinois and back before I make any promises about dragging it to the far, far corner of Missouri. BTW, what days will you be there and are you turkey hunting?

Bring our trailer back! [:@]

You know where I live... come and get it.

Unload all those targets while your at it.

I'm going down Tuesday-Sunday. I'm going to try turkey a day or two, but will be on the lake as much as possible. I'm not set up for night fishing, but I have a spotlight just in case.

675 miles, 15 hours on the road, 11 straight hours of bowfishing and no sleep.... It was a blast.

The trailer rolled along with no problems, the motor started on the first pull and ran perfect, didn't lose a single arrow, my shooting was at least 75% (a big suprise to both me and the fish), the generator purred without a hitch. We couldn't ask for better luck. We did lose one bulb to breakage on the trip down and fried a trolling motor wire.. minor stuff for sure.

We never ventured too far from the launch because we were worried about getting lost on that big lake. No map.. No GPS.. and every cove looks the same at night. Hence, we never got into the mud flats where the mass quantities of carp were hanging out.

We ended up with 37 fish, a great night for us.. but nowhere close to the first and second place boats that brought in 171 fish and 160 fish. I did get a bowfin, the only one taken that night. I was going to try and eat it... but it had the most horrendous smell.. [:'(] Got some nice gar and the local boys told me how to clean 'em. Got a pile of gar fillets... I'll let you know later how they taste.


My first ever bowfin..


Sunset at Rend... our boats are ready to go.


Some of the participants getting in a meal before heading off for the night.


Why bowfishing boats shouldn't have carpet....


Step 1 in making gar balls..


Once you get it figured out.. gar cleaning isn't so tough.. and there's a lot of meat on those toothy critters.

nice set up and nice pictures

Cool pics