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.