Bow fishing boats

[Stone Knife]

I'm already thinking about bow fishing again, last year was my first year Drewsbow took my son and me out for some carp shooting on land. We had a blast, I was wondering what type of boat setup is good.

[barebow]

I think a small Jon-Boat would be nice. They have a flat botton to stand on and can get into shallow water where the carp area at. Check out this link for the Lund brands. The one in this picture even has a platform in the front to step up on. That would be great for shooting fish.

 http://www.lundboats.com/jonboats_06.html

[BrianfromTulsa]

Anything will work, make sure it's a boat you don't mind getting dirty.

For me, I like a shallow draft boat and you have a real advantage with an elevated platform.  We've had decks as high as 4-5 feet above the water but I've also shot fish out of a canoe so I guess I'm saying that you can make a dream boat for bowfishing but whatever you have will work.

[VTer]

Stone Knife, here's mine. We can get in all the good spots that  a big boat won't go. A 17' Mad River w/ a shooting deck/stabilizer system I made.

[Featherbuster]

I will have to get some pictures of a buddys boat that bowfishes tournaments, its a sight.  A deck on the front 4 feet high with enough lights to turn night into day and a honda 4 stroke generator on the back to power all the lights.  

I just have a 14' aluminum with a 4hp mariner that i bowfish out of , works fine for me.

[ksbowman]

I use a little 8' fiberglass two man bass boat with a trolling motor on one end and a 4 hp out board on the other.The boat only pulls a few inches of water,gets back in tight places,is easy to load and unload by myself,but will handle two people very well and is extremely stable.Best of all it is cheap if you pickup a used one.  Ben

[bretto]

I've shot more fish from a canoe than anything else. I'm building a platform on the front of My john boat now. Will still shoot fish from the canoe on the smaller streams but there's a lot of fish to be shot on the lakes around here. bretto

[J.Williams]

Sounds like a heck of a rig featherbuster.All I have is a 14.5ft. Old Town canoe and it's a real balancing act trying to stand up in...have come close to falling in many times.Use to have a flat bottom Johnboat that worked well and am gonna keep my eyes open for a decent used one.

[killinstuff]

If you really want to get into it, an airboat with a platform, bank of lights, and two trolling motors up front is the best rig I've ever been in. But a canoe is nice to.

[BMN]

I use the layout boat I use for waterfowl hunting. It's stable enough that I can shoot out of it standing up.

 

Bill

[redneckrampage]

my rig is a 17 foot xpresss duckboat with a custom built platform that is 5x6 foot in size and is about a foot over the rails of the boat, i like that hight as its hig enough to make a real differnce during the day yet come night is still low enough that when i fire up the generator the lights arent too high off the water to really light the fish up, the one biggest thing i would do different from the start is to get a boat as wide as possible to float shallow as possible, if this sounds like some cash it is as i bought everything when i was in iraq and bowfishing accounts for about 85-90 percent of my archery time,

[Deadsmple]

VTer,
can you tell us more about your stabilizer system? Looks pretty cool. Specs would be great.

[VTer]

Its all made out of plywood, primed and painted. This is a pic of the new improved floats that I fiberglassed. The arms are double thickness 3/4 ply that lay across the gunwhales and curve down accordingly to the top of the floats. The unit is 6' wide. The platform is as wide as my canoe by 28" deep. The floats ride in the water with maybe a couple inches not drafting. It attaches with one long carriage bolt on each side that goes thru two holes I drilled in the center thwart, tightened with wingnuts. The painted floats lasted for a few years but eventually started taking on water, hence the new ones.

[gregg dudley]

My son has a 10' pond prowler that I bought him for Christmas last year.  We just built a plywood deck in the front this morning so he could be a little higher for bowfishing.  The boat has a 56# thrust trolling motor and a pushpole and seems like it is going to be a lot of fun to shoot out of.

[Deadsmple]

Thanks VTer,
That's a great idea, now I just gotta go and build one of my own.

[Drew]

I use my 15' v-nose...I just built a platform for the front that you can stand and shot off..this year I'm going to add some lights for nighttime.

[swampbuck]

Thats nice Vtr thanx I just may try that.I've shot out of my canoe standing up with my daughter at the controls and I've not gotten wet so far.Also have a flat bottom but it's not registered so ya hafta row electric trolling motors still count as a motor I've been officially told so  by DEC officer's