Help with fishing rig

[Ladams]

I bought a PSE fishing rig out of the local classifieds, at 20 feet the arrow will hit the target completly sidways.
the rig has fiberglass fish arrows,and roller rest,( adjusting it doesnt seem to make alot of difference in arrow flight )I have zero experence with bow fishing so any tuning help will hepl.
Thanks
Larry

[robtattoo]

Shoot it in the water. You're wasting your time really trying to tune it on land.

Get out onto the water & shoot. What you need to be looking for is as little splash as possible. You'll have to mess around with your rest's left/right alignment & possibly your nock-point to get it to hit the water as it should. If you have no-gloves on the string, first thing I would do is pull 'em off. They create a lot of 'roll' in your string & make tuning very difficult.

[mark land]

I bareshaft tune all my bowfishing rigs the same as I do with my hunting setups and shoot and tune at about 10ft with a barbless arrow, then attach the line and shoot in the water and fine tune as needed from there.  Some heavier bows I have had to shorten the arrow slightly but pretty much any bow under 55# or so should shoot the arrow well.
The biggest problem I normally see with some setups that are not shooting or tuning properly is too low a nock pt.  You have to correct the nock position before you will be able to fine tune out centershot and ensure of no clearance issues with the arrow and rest.  With an adjustable rest on the bow you may have some issues with that, but start out with your arrow in a very high nock position and adjust nock height or rest height till the arrow is slightly nock high coming off the bow, then fine tune centershot and fine tune elevation last.
Some rests just will not shoot well with fingers especially if there are any release problems, so you may need to look at another rest option or setting the bow up to shoot off the shelf.

[macbow]

It would help to know exactly what the whole set up is.
I set mine up on the water and like above want practically no splash.
I've had bows I could not tune. Really short recurves give me problems.
If the bow is a recurve and under 55 pounds the regular fiberglass arrows work best for me . The heavier aluminum clad arrows I cannot get to shoot well from 55# down. I think the spine is too stiff.
Hopefully the roller rest is adjustable.
Ron

[Ladams]

My set up is. PSE kingfisher 50# recurve standard fiberglass full length arrows with fish points, the slider attachment for the string, and roller rest,shooting same glove as i hunt with,  Im not sure I understand why to tune it in the water, what difference will it make in the arrow flight before it gets to the water, also i have not shot the arrow with the string attached,the arrow turns completely sideways as soon as it leaves the bow,
I been tuning my own bows for many years and this one is going to make me loose my religion.

[macbow]

The reason for tuning in the water is that it is easier to see what it's doing.
The string is important. We shoot without fletching.
If yours has the plastic flrtching just take it off.
The string has a big impact on steering the arrow, as it pulls line off it slows the arrow down and acts as the fletching.
So if shooting in the yard use the string.
You didn't say what type reel, I use a push button spinning reel.

[Ladams]

arrows have no fletching, the reel is type the srting wraps around and just spools off as arrow is in flight,what is a good starting point to set the nock point at? I will try it with the string to see if that makes a difference
thanks so far for the pointers guys

[ishoot4thrills]

Yes, try it with the string attached and you will notice a HUGE difference in flight. That is why we take the rubber fletching off of our bowfishing arrows. The string drag acts to stabilize the arrow.

[toddster]

I bowfish all the time, I use a real seat and shakespeare TI20 reel, with bowfishing line.  I shoot into the water, as said little splash.  you just want the arrow to enter the water straight.  use a slide on your arrow and put a loop on the slide then you tie your reel line to the loop.  When the arrow leaves the bow and starts to drag line out, will be behind arrow and not kick it to the side.

[macbow]

As for athe starting nock height maybe 1/8 inch high.
I shoot from a short platform on my boat. If it's only a nocking point issue you'll see as its enters the water which way to move it.

[Ladams]

The string made a large difference,thanks guys,
all I need to do now is fine tuning,
Now all I need is some fishies,
Larry

[toddster]

Ladams, dont worry about fine tuning for bowfishing, get out there and aim at the belly to hit in the back, usually 2 to 4" low.

[johnnyk71]

yeah, without the string, yuo have no stabilizing of the arrow. that's the ticket.

[Ladams]

I am headed out this weekend to try it out,
Larry

i might ad that you need to have a large loop in the string (where it atatches to the slide) so it comes around the back of the knock when shot, so it pulls straight inline with the arrow, hope that helps . and good luck.