wild guide: carp-e bow’em
BOW FISHING STRATEGY
To bowfish carp, you have to first find
them. You can spend a lot of quiet hours
seeing nothing if you don’t look in the right
places. Once you locate good numbers of
fish – again, usually in those shallow weedy
back bays, its game time. But finding them
is only half the battle. One of the biggest
challenges with bowfishing is hitting your
target, primarily because you are not
usually aiming directly at the fish. Big or
small, the academics of compensating for
refraction in the water and the fact that fish
are usually on the move, make your target
somewhat elusive. Most importantly,
remember that when you look into the
water, the fish is actually displaced from
what you are seeing.
A good, but general, rule of thumb that
works for me is that for every foot (12
inches) the carp is away from you, along
with every foot (12 inches) in depth it
is, you need to compensate by one inch
accumulatively. So, if the fish is 10 feet
away and swimming at a depth of two
feet (24 inches), then you will need to aim
approximately one foot (12 inches) below
in order to connect.
One of the reasons I like to use a recurve
bow is that, shooting eventually becomes
instinctive. Certainly, compensation is
required, but again, it becomes second
nature the more you do it.
Regardless
of
your
equipment
preference, rest assured, if you’ve never
tried bowfishing carp, its time you did.
Invasive species are found in many waters
across Canada. Do a little research, consult
your local regulations, and you’re sure to
find an opportunity somewhere near you.
33 Wild Guide
. Summer 2017
Using a stable flat-bottom
boat like this 17-foot
johnboat with a deck
on the front allows the
shooter to move around.