homemade bowfishing stuff
 

Has anyone here made their own bowfishing stuff? I took an old fishing rod and cut the rod part off, leaving only the handle and reel. Then I drilled a hole in the end of the handle and stuck in a threaded peice of metal that fits where my stabilizer goes on my recurve, then epoxied the metal piece in the handle of the rod. Next I took an old aluminum arrow and took the insert out, and filled the shaft with sand. and glued the insert back in. Then I took the blades off of a 125grain thunderhead broadhead and bent some stiff wire around the base of the broadhead and the top of the shaft insert and bent it into barbs. Then I made a little loop out of the wire up next to the tip to tie my line onto. Then I epoxied it all together and now if I just tie the line to the loop next to the broadhead and screwed the rod handle and reel onto my bow, I think I' ll be in buisness.

I think it will hold up. I' m not a serious bowfisherman as you can tell, but I think I can get a bluegill or two.

RE: homemade bowfishing stuff
 

Wow! And I thought I had been a real do-it-yourself' er back when I first started bowfishing--you got me beat by a long shot! I' d like to hear how it all works when you have put it through a field trial.

Chad

RE: homemade bowfishing stuff
 

Don' t forget to push the button before you shoot!!!!:D

Might work, but I bet the wire won' t hold up on a gar or carp. Bluegill? Maybe, but thats a gamefish..;)

The reel sounds fine, just use strong line. As far as arrows... I' d have to spend the few buck for a real fish arrow.

Also, NEVER NEVER NEVER tie to the back of the arrow. You may end up DEAD!!! Best to use AMS slides. Go to the ' retriever' website for details... I think it is www.amsretriever.com but I' m not for sure.

chad

RE: homemade bowfishing stuff
 

www.amsbowfishing.com is the website. Then click on Bowfishing Warnings for details!!!

RE: homemade bowfishing stuff
 

I still use fiberglass shafts and I by my points, but make my own rodes and reals. I tend to make a small stiff pole from the rest of the rod. It helps when you get big fish (like alligator gar or big carp). If you shoot a big fish and dont have a pole attached the fish will jerk you all over.


Be carful shooting bluegills, make sure it is legal in your parts. Around here it is illegal to shoot game fish.:D

RE: homemade bowfishing stuff
 

I found out bluegill was illegal to bowfish for here so I had to go with catfish.

Anyways, here' s how it went. I managed to get a few catfish and it held up pretty good. Nothing huge, about 3 pounds was the biggest I got. The arrow worked good[:-], better than I thought it would. Other than planing after it went through about a foot of water it was shooting like a pro........Then I lost my arrow[X(].

Since then I found an old Bohning lightning " hand" reel in the attic I didn' t even know I had[:o]. I like it alot better than my homemade one. I also got a pair of real arrows and safety slides. I also got some 200# test fastflight line. It all only cost me about 14 bucks to upgrade and now my gear works twice as good:D.

I made my own to start with....that was nearly 40 years ago. My first reel was a turned wooden block (turned on a lathe to get the right shape to hold the line and let it slip off with little drag) It was tied on because my bow didn't have a place to screw it in and I didn't want to add one to my Grove's Spitfire. It actually worked better than the aluminum block reels available at the time. I then made a seat for an 808 but had to reshape the anti reverse on the 808 because they had just switched from metal to graphite and it wouldn't always catch firmly enough. This allowed the reel to wind backwards enough to trip the pin and would sometimes cause the arrow to come back at you. I solved that by reshaping the catch. Shortly after I bought a reel seat because the pole on the one I made was longer than convenient. Then I got a bottle reel and promptly got married. Haven't bowfished much since but plan to take my daughter (Missouri State NASP Winner) this year. I made a few arrows but had a problem getting a material springy enough for the barbs. Too hard and it tears a big hole they can slip off of. Too soft and the barbs bend flat and do not hold. Worth the money to buy a good arrow.

As for tying off to the end of the arrow.....that can actually be a lifesaver. Tied that way and no slack in the line....if you draw back and haven't hit the button....the arrow pulls off the string. I also recommend dropping to about 45 lb test. You may lose an arrow or two, but in case of line entanglement....the line tends to break instead of the arrow coming back at you. Of course this will depend on the poundage of your bow as well, and the ideal weight for this may go up or down accordingly.

EDIT ADDITION BTW You can get fish arrows for $11 from wal mart

I don't like the 200# test for reels.....I assume they fixed the old problems I had with the 808's but I still remember too many arrows coming back at me. I like that line for the bottle reels, but not for the fishing reel type set ups. Besides, I found the lighter line shoots faster and farther, and I have taken more than a few carp and 20 plus yards with my 41 pound recurve, by switching from the 80 lb they recommended at the time to a 45 pound braided dacron catfish line.