Photo Credit: bowsite.com

Launching the boat right before dark, I must admit, felt a little strange.  Usually, during our “normal” fishing experiences, you launch the boat a few hours before dark, and then fish til dark; not with bowfishing, though.  Here we were launching just before dark, and making our way to our first spot.  Honestly, I was hooked already.  There is just something about bringing your bow along on the boat.  Too cool!

The day before our little fishing excursion Mother Nature didn’t make things very easy on us, however.  The southern and southwestern portion of the state had tornadoes and torrential downpours.  We were lucky enough to not have to deal with the tornadoes, but the torrential rains reared their ugly head the minute we arrived at the launch.  I left my camera at home on this particular night, but lets just say that the dock was about 2 or 3 feet underwater, and the launch area – that is usually dirt and gravel – was entirely covered with water.  We honestly almost called it quits and headed for home, but after some strategic planning, and Jeff almost bathing the floorboards of my vehicle, both boats were launched safely and we were on our way.  Take that Mother Nature – you can take your flash flood warning, and head on outta here!!

We fired up the generator in our boat – after replacing a burnt out light bulb – positioned the lights in the correct spot, and I readied for my first bowfishing experience.  Honestly, my expectations weren’t very high because the water was so high and murky that we didn’t think we would be able to see any fish.  Thankfully, though, we were wrong.

It was only a few minutes into our first spot, and there, glowing white on the bottom of the lake, was our first prey:  a carp just waiting to be arrowed.  Whoosh, I miss.  Then Justin shoots, and another miss.  Missing didn’t really deter me, though, this was fun stuff.

We headed to another sweet spot that our “guide” Justin was familiar with, and there, right before our eyes, was another fish.  Splash, and another miss by Justin.  The carp was not a smart one, though.  He only went a few feet, stopped, and waited – at point blank range – for one of us to put an end to him.  Justin’s arrow is still in the water from the miss, so it’s up to me at this point to come through for the team…………and I miss……at point. blank. range.

I consider myself to be a pretty good archer, but this bowfishing thing is a completely different animal.  The fish are so fast and so wary that you don’t have time to use a site or a release; it is completely instinctive and requires some awesome reflexes.  Sure I’m using a compound, but that is where the similarities of bowhunting for deer, and bowfishing for carp end.  It definitely gave me a new respect for all of you traditional instinctive shooters out there; it truly is one hell of a skill.

Eventually, after three of us in the boat went 0-10, Justin successfully arrowed a fish for the team.  It was a difficult “hunt” because all of the high water allowed the carp to go pretty much where ever they wanted.  It was an interesting experience to watch the reeds moving on top, and waiting for the carp to pop out the other side; it was very similar to deer hunting in that respect.

There was one aspect of the experience that took a little getting used to, though:  Bugs, and lots of them.  In order to hunt these fish at night you have to have some sort of powerful artificial light, and with that light comes bugs.  They weren’t as bad as they could have been, but it still takes a little getting used to.  I’m sure Jody won’t be going with us anytime soon, though.

My first bowfishing experience was a great one, and according to the expert in the boat, we didn’t even see nearly as many fish as normal.  If that is the case, you can bet that I will be heading out again and going after a few carp.  As I said before, there is just something about taking your bow on a boat that is too cool.

Note: Hopefully, once Jeff gets around to it, he will share a little bit of footage that we took from the other night.  We did manage to capture the one kill on film, and we’ll get that posted as soon as we can.

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