Holy Moly!!!!!!!!

[J White]

I took a little interest in bowfishing once upon a time, seems the way
to tackle those monsters is that they arrow it, and let it pull the line and
then a buoy, jug whatever overboard - sort of like the harpooning scenes
in jaws. Then they put another and another in it till they get enough lines
in it to handle it. Not attached to the bow. Don't know if thats how this
one was done, but sounds like a good approach. About that Ranger with
the transom ripped out, heard a story similar to that, supposedly down
south of here on the Tenn-Tom, culprit in this case wasn't a fish, but
a water-logged mattress floating just flush with the surface. Said it
swiveled the big V-6 right up onto the rear casting deck, at speed, and
threw the guy out over the bow. Scary stuff! And Moose, posting those
pictures sounds like fun!

[crappieseeker]

Some people sport fish for gar using nylon rope. They tie a not in the end and fray the line a little and tease the gar into biting it so that he gets his teeth hung in it. Alot of people where I use to live in Northeast Alabama bow fish for carp, buffalo, and gar. I have seen some big ones killed, a hundred pounds or so, but not as big as that gar. I saw one in the river that was probably 150lbs and tried to catch it on 6lb line, what a laugh, that lasted all but about 10 seconds. Me and a friend of mine use to spear fish in the shallow waters at night with a spotlight out of a flatbottom boat. It was fun, but kind of scary at times. My friend always wanted to try and spear the real big fish, though we never got close enough to spear one of the biggest ones and I'm glad. The ones about 50 to 70 pounds would take you for a ride. I had always heard that catfish cant swim backwards, but I never believed it until I started spear fishing at night. I'm still not sure its true, but my friend sold me on it. The first time we went out he said be careful and hold on if we come close to a big catfish because when you spook them, if they are facing the boat, they will go straight under it and rock the boat by banging off the bottom due to the water being shallow. He said they cant swim backward so they will come straight at you, and he was right. I never saw a real big one, but they all went straight under the boat and you could hear them thump when they went under and hit the aluminum sometimes. Does anyone know if this is true about catfish or was this just a reaction.

[CatFan]

Did you notice the two downriggers in the picture and the reels. I don't see any rods but man they had to be some big ones They other link said that the 8 ft long Alligator gar was caught on 50lb test line. Not sure what line these two guys used to catch the gar in the picture that Jerry posted.

Look at the pic again Moose. Those are bowfishing rigs, not downriggers.
:p

[Crapbie]

My great grand daddy dropped one out of a plane over loch Ness, I wonder how its doing lol

[jfraley]

Back in my younger years, I was bass fishing back in a shallow slough and there were gar everywhere. I don't know if they were mating, spawning or what. There were swiming right on top of the water, so a friend and I tried shooting them and then netting them real fast. That didn't work. We shot several, but they immediately sunk with the blood coming out of their heads. It was still fun while it lasted. We weren't too concerned about the bullets coming off the water. I have caught several while catfishing too, but none nearly as big as that guy.

[Bruce Carp]

The gator was shot by both in the picture with bows, notice in picture. Bowfishing to the extreme! Shot down around Texas.

[fiddlefarter]

The reels on those bows are big Zebcos. Ones an 808 and I think the other is an 888. I shoot a Pro Staff 888 on my rig and have a big Synergy as a backup. I shoot fish some and usually shoot a couple tournaments each year although I have only shot one this year. I shoot a PSE Kingfisher recurve. It allows quicker shooting in my opinion. But with big gator gar and the tough skin they have a compound bow is the way to fly. With the big dogs like this, you bust 'em with a bouy tied on and then keep after them till you can gaff them suckers. But we don't have gator gar like that around here so we don't have bouys. Crappieseeker the tournament I shot this year was the Muzzy Classic on Guntersville. It was a biggest 20 fish tournaament and we finished 21st out of about 75 boats with 89lbs. 666lbs won the tournament! They had a 55" gar and some huge grass carp. Bowfishing is kick a$$ fun in a boat rigged up right. we shoot out of a 17/72 Alweld with a raised front deck and 8 halogen work lights powered by a Honda generator. When shooting for fun we light it up, crank up the radio, crack open a cold one and run down banks with the trolling motor, shooting as many carp, gar, buffalo, drum, grinnell, etc., as we can. Numbers tournaments are fun too. 12 hours, 7pm to 7am of shooting as many fish as you can. Thats when you want to shoot short skinny gar, so you can stack 'em in the boat like cordwood.

[Meat on the Table]

I do believe it was a Bow kill. I have shot some big ones years ago, but nothing like that. Fiddlefarter, good to see another stick bow man. I shoot an old Black Widow recurve. I agree, that they allow quicker target aquisition, especially on moving targets. Nothing beats the satisfaction of instinctive shooting.

[crappieseeker]

fiddlefarter, around guntersville and the Tennessee River is exactly where I was talking about. They have some big gar there, although I've seen none compared to the picture on here, but I would say theres some probably that big around there. I use to live at Goosepond and alot of people bowfish the rivers and backwaters around there. I crappie and bass fish there but do not bowfish myself.

[rockinmichigan]

Man that's a monster. I've hooked into longnose gar, one that I'm getting stuffed right now is a shade over 26" and that's the only one I technically landed. Caught that back in late May, and hooked into another one about 40" that got off my hook when we were netting him up, that was about a month ago. Ticked me off real good, but both of those longnose are a far cry from those gator gars.