KLS

that sounds cool...

I've never even seen an oceanin person, much less fished in one...

I used to have a video ofvarious groups ofguys bowfish big alligator gars(among other things) down south, it was pretty cool to watch, I borrowed it out long ago and never seen it again



if you havent already seen it, theres a pretty cool program on the outdoor channel called "aim low bowfishing journals", its a pretty cool program if your into bowfishing, I watch all the time, or whenever I remember its on anyway...

linkppn

try an ams bow fishing system. people shoot gators with em!

KLS

in my opinion I'd advise you to steer away from the retriever reels(AMS)...



for one, I'd had several and didnt think much of any of them, the only real advantage they have IMOcomes from the slotted retriever model, and only because its capable of playing out floats for big game fish like gator gars and actual gators themselves, but all the ones I've had and seen/heard about have had their fair share of problems and disadvantages and for general bowfishing I've never seen them work that well...
and its not just me... theres been alot of them floating around the area here over the yearsused by my friends and different aquatances and I cant really think that I've ever heard of anyone thatreallythought much of them, or had much good to say about them, or kept one for long...

in fact I just gave one awaynot that long ago that I'd had laying around forever(that was given to me by my brother years ago because he didnt like it either...)



IMO if lake/river bowfishing for carp/suckers is the main goal you'd be FAR better off with a heavy duty reel like a zebco 808/888 and some quality braided line, I have three main setups at the moment, all three have 888's with braided nylon line and all three couldnt be more dependable and user friendly
they're also cheaper and pretty much guaranteed to work well, where as the retriever is usually a love/hate relationship which(from my dealings anyway)usallyends up being ahate one, they're also kind of costly, and a little pricey to gamble on whether your going to like it or not...

another plus for the closed faced reel is thatif you so choose somewhere along the line you can swap lines, mount it on a pole and have an awesome heavy duty fishing rig for catfish or whatever...

that would be hard to do with anAMS reel...




the other negative thing about the retriever reel is that with its trigger and general layout its designed more to be operated from the riser of a vertical bow, and unless they've developed a new model specifically for crossbows(I have no idea)I dont see them operating very well on a CB, without some work anyway...






just my own personal opinion on it though...

Hotburn76

I refuse to try Bow Fishing! I have to many things I like to do now and my wife would hang me out if I found something else I like to do!!

Buckhunter46755

Id like to set my Vortex up for bowfishing....

bowfisherman

I bowfish pretty often with a vertical bow and I have to say ams hands down. I use both and the ams will last. Spinners rarely last more than a year. The ams is simple to take apart and easy to fix. If you forget to push the button on a spinner your in trouble. The spinner reels in faster but that the only advantage I have noticed.

Buckhunter46755

Yea, that sure wouldn't be a good thingwould it. Bad enough on any bow, let alone a 200lb draw CB....lol.... could prolly get hurt either way too... not to mention busting up your equiptment. Since you mentioed that I have this visual of half a fiberglass arrow with a hell of a point sticking halfway through my left forearm. BADDDDDDD...I think I remember the AMS setups, are they the older styleones that are a spool on an arm right? I'm sure if there is a will, ther's a way to rig for CB's but it might be tricky. I was watching a video of a girl shooting a huge carb with a CB. I didn't think to check the rig out closer at the time. Was watching thechick and that big carp...lol They somehow had a seperate cable rigged to the other line I think. Didn't understand how it worked, not being familiar. But I am pretty sure there was more than one line involved somehow. unless I was seeing anchor line.

chris.

KLS

I have to disagree with that...


the NEWEST 888 I have is about 12 years old, the other I bought in the early 90's and the oldest I have no idea how old it actually is, its the old brown cased model and I've had it forever, I couldnt even begin to sayhow many shotshave beenmade withit and it shoots just as good today as it did the first time I used it


zebco 808's and 888's are pretty indestructible, you almost have to smash one beyond its ability to function to get it to stop working



I've been bowfishing since the mid 80's, I remember when the AMS reels came out and I've owned andused several,they're alright if thats what your into and want to constantly fight with them, but IMO theres a reasonwhy they're simple to take apart and easy to fix...

I, like alot of people,dont care for them... they require three hands to operate, more often than not you get all the line flinging out of the bottlein a big balled up knot, and, on top of turning the crank,the lines retreivel is based on it being squeezed between two rollers by squeezing a seperate lever, which requires more effort on thelever to keep the line from slipping than I care to put into itand, in general, usually works about as good as it seems it would...

I wish I had a dollar for every time I stood knee deep in water with suckers swimming all around me wondering way the line on my retreiver reel wasnt coming out, or going back in, or dealing with the ever contant headache of having to untie a big assed knot in the line while everyone else was shooting and having fun...

no thanks...

I like the idea of just pushing one button, knowing that everything with the shot is going to play out without any big "whats it going to do this time" drama and then being able to easily retreive it with one cranking lever and one hand, all ready for the next shot with no problems...

I actually gave an AMS reel away not that long ago for nothing...



but, everyones different and likes different things I guess, AMS reels have been out for quite a while now and they definitely have a following... in my personal opinionthey're not all bad, and they have their place, that place just isnt in my world...

bowfisherman

seen them break more times than I can count. Maybe its the size of our fish. Those 30 pounders will destroy the drag on a spinner. No point in arguing though. Your a spinner guy and I'm a retriever guy. Just as long as we're shooting fish, right.

KLS

it doesnt work like that...

I've had more shots(and seen more shots)than I care to remember whereit wasforgotten to push the release and, although it can be freaky, I've never once had an arrow come back that posed any kind ofdanger, although it is possible usually all that happens is the line breaks and you have topick up your arrow and retie it,most linesarent strong enough off the bat or elastic enough at lenght tobring the arrow flying back at you with any kind of force, even when the the arrow get a ways away from you before something catches the line all that usually happens is that the string streches and graduallyslows the arrow, maybe springs it back a couple feet and by then its dropped into the ground...



more of an inconvience than threatening...



I've actually had the line grab more coming out of the AMS reels I've owned than my zebcos