Shooting Silvers and Bigheads
 

I going on the Sangamon for the first time tomorrow. I wlaked the bank a couple days ago and say 2 nice silvers in the brush piles. There heads were facing into the current and they would only show themselves for 2-3 second intervals. Is this common behavior? Does anyone have any advice how to get these bad boys. The river is full of a lot of dead falls along the shore and log jams by the bridges. A lot of the river is very shallow with deep pockets all around.Should I just should focus on the log jams and dead falls? I have seen several nice gar cruising out in the middle to. Do you hang around the brush waiting for one to show up or do you keep your boat moving all of the time? Any advice would be helpful.

RE: Shooting Silvers and Bigheads
 

I have not shot the sagamon in years, then only went one time with robow7. He says that there are some huge gar in there and big heads have been in there for years. I have been shooting the wabash and we find the big heads in deeper water where log jams are. They like to lay in behind the jam out of the current with their mouths open and just suck it in. But they are spooky. Good luck

RE: Shooting Silvers and Bigheads
 

You'll find the silvers in calm water. If they were in a brush pile, it's because that was calmer water than the main current. If you get a boat, try to find them in open backwater. Trying to get your arrow out of the brush wastes a lot of time.

RE: Shooting Silvers and Bigheads
 

Your personal best and worst are a riot!!!:D

RE: Shooting Silvers and Bigheads
 

Well I spent 2 afternoons on the Sangamon River. It is a virtual smorgasborg of rough fish. I shot 12 buffs, 2 grassies, 2 bigheads and 1 gar. I didn't feel comfortable being out there after dark. I bet night fishing would be awesome. The problem is running aground. I have a small 14' canoe with outriggers and a 30 lb trolling motor. after the shooting light was gone I kept hitting sand bars on my way back. Every time I ran aground 10-15 buffs would bust out of the water and smash into my boat. When shooting you had to choose the largest fish to shoot at because once you took one shot, the other 15 would scatter all over the place. I bet I saw 100 buffs this afternoon.

The bigheads were really cool. These were the first I have ever killed. I thought the first one was a buff just under the surface. After I shot him he charged my boat and got hung up on one of my outriggers. When I saw it was a bighead I got really excited! The second one was with another bighead with their mouths out of the water so I shot the one on the right.

It would be really tough to shoot this river at night but I am game if some one wants to come with me. I think it would be endless shooting at night but very hard to navigate through the trees and the sand bars. I can tell you that I no longer have and interest shooting on sanchris lake or lake springfield.

I will try to get some photos posted tomorrow.

RE: Shooting Silvers and Bigheads
 

First a bowhunter gets ruined by shooting fish. Then a bowfisher gets ruined by finding a great place to fish. LOL

J/K David, sounds like you found a really nice spot. Was the river just too shallow in some spots (was there no way to miss the sand bar) or was it just tough to navigate in the dark?

Can't wait to see the pictures.

RE: Shooting Silvers and Bigheads
 

Some spots you just can't avoid the sand bars. At night it becomes much harder to miss them.

Here are the photos from both days.

RE: Shooting Silvers and Bigheads
 

Cool!Thanks for the report and pictures. I might need to head to the Sangamon.

That's got to be fun in the canoe. I shot an 8 lb 8 ounce common carp at Wonder Lake and it pulled me right into a dock, then another, then just about pulled me in. I can only imagine trying to fight bigger fish in it.

RE: Shooting Silvers and Bigheads
 

Well come on down! Bring your canoe! You can cover one side of the river while I am on the other side. I wonder if a morning would be better. The big buffs might be in then.