Eric Davis
Mayhood's Sporting Goods

CHENANGO COUNTY – Once the snow has finally melted away and the weather has become warmer, the common carp starts it’s spawning season. The carp hatch in very shallow water; typically you can see their dorsal fin and some scales sticking out of the water along the edge of the body of water. With some of the fish visible, this makes them easy to find and easy to aim at with a bow.
Bowfishing has become a very popular activity across the United States with bow manufacturers engineering the equipment specifically for the sport. There are companies such as Fin-Finder that focus solely on bowfishing equipment and accessories.
In New York, the only species you are allowed to bowfish for are carp. In other states, there are more species of fish that a legal to bowfish.
Bowfishing can be pretty inexpensive to get into if you already own a bow. There are starter kits available for around $100 that comes with a reel, line, a rest, and an arrow. It can be a bit of a pain but you can swap the accessories back and forth on your bow so that you bowfish in the spring and summer the are able to switch your hunting accessories back on for hunting season in the fall.
If you decide to get pretty serious, you can purchase a bow specifically to bowfish with.
One thing to be aware of is the draw weight of the bow you use. The arrows you use for bowfishing have a pivoting barb on the front of the arrow so that the point goes through the fish but when the fish tries to swim away the arrow doesn’t come back through the fish, letting it escape.
Once you reel the fish in, you unscrew the tip of the arrow and can reverse the barb to get the fish off the arrow.
A major safety concern is how the line is attached to the arrow. Originally, the line was just tied to the back of the arrow after a hole was drilled through the arrow. However, this can be problematic as the reel is on the front of the bow and the line is wrapped around the riser.
When the arrow was shot, there was a chance that the line would tighten around the rest of the riser and either break or pull the arrow back towards the shooter. Now there are safety slides that go around the arrow that slide up and down the shaft that the line is tied to.
This allows the shooter to push the safety slide to the front of the arrow before nocking it. This also keeps the line in front of the riser while the bow is drawn and fired. Once the shooter starts pulling on the line after a hit or a miss, the slide goes to the back of the arrow where a stopper catches it and keeps it from sliding completely off the arrow.
As with regular archery arrows, the shooter should inspect the arrow between every shot and replace a damaged arrow, nock, or safety slide as soon as they notice it.
When shooting at a target that is below the surface, you need to aim deeper that you think because the water refracts the image making the fish appear shallower than it really is. The best way to learn how to aim at those fish is trial and error. It can take several misses before you finally get the right distance to aim low at.
A frequent question you receive is “What do you do with the carp?”
I advocate for not shooting something that you aren’t going to use. This could include eating the animal/fish or using them for something else.
For example, I like trap mink and raccoons using what is called a pocket set. The pocket set is a fist-sized hole cut into a sheer bank at the water’s edge. There is a trap at the entrance to the hole and I place a piece of bait in the back of the pocket. I like to use big pieces of fish as my pocket set bait so I will cut the carp I shoot bowfishing down into the right sized piece for my trapping needs.
Some people eat carp; other people will use them as fertilizer for their gardens. The main thing is to have a plan for your harvest before you go out.
Bowfishing season in New York starts on May 15 and runs until September 30 of every year so you can start planning your bowfishing trips now and be ready when opening day arrives.