First Bowfishing of 2012-My Biggest Fish Ever!

[ishoot4thrills]

My two sons wanted to go to the Nolin River this evening to catch crawdads and stuff so I said okay and grabbed my Browning Wasp and stuff and away we went.

While they went off downstream a little ways, I stood at the edge of the river bank looking for live targets to shoot. Saw nothing so I went up on top of the road bridge(now closed to traffic since last year) to get a better vantage point and maybe try to plan a "spot and stalk". I met a guy walking his dog and we talked awhile. Right after the guy left, I looked down in the water, which is quite a ways below the bridge, and I saw a big gar facing upstream directly below me.

So, I'm thinking, "Can I pull off this shot from way up here?". Well, at least I can try. So, I leaned slightly over the guard rail and took aim and let her fly. Missed him by mere inches. But, to my surprise he was still there! So I reeled in as fast as I could, re-nocked and looked down in the water again and he wasn't there in the same spot but he had drifted downstream a little. I could hardly see him now as he was a little deeper. So, I drew on him again and let her fly. This time my shot was true and I saw my arrow take off!

After fighting him for a few minutes, I lead him over to the bank to my left and my youngest son grabbed the arrow and pulled him to shore.

Longnose Gar 46 inches long. The bow is a Browning Wasp, 51#@28" with Zebco 808 on a short rod strapped to the bow with an AMS adapter. Power Pro braided line, 60# test.

It got dark soon after or I would've taken more pics of the area.

[tradhunter]

Nice!          

[LA Trapper]

Good one!  You set the bar high the first time out.

[Richie]

Awesome, I love your rod and real attachment.

[Hot Hap]

Congradulations. Hap

[rastaman]

   

[KentuckyTJ]

Nice one Doug and good shootin'

[rushlush]

Nice!

[wooddamon1]

Nice!  

[Ryan Sanpei]

Sweet!          

 good shootin    congratts!

[rxhntr]

I wish we had cool fish to shoot around here---just stinking carp. Thats awsome and good shooting.

[Guru]

Congrats!

[Shedrock]

Good shootin'!

I shot alot of gar growing up in NE. I sure miss it. I had many misses as well, not the easiest fish to hit.

[bluegrassbowhunter]

Way to go Doug.Nice shooting

[Cyclic-Rivers]

[owlbait]

Yeah buddy! That is a great fish. Congratulations.      

[ishoot4thrills]

Thanks everyone for the kind words.

I couldn't wait to get pics of the fish and then get home and post them on here!     :rolleyes:        

It was an awesome time the boys and I had when I arrowed that gar from that bridge. We were so excited! Man, it sure had a lot of fight in him. There were people around fishing from the bank and it was obvious they had never seen anything like what was going on in front of them. One woman came out on the bridge and wanted a picture of me and the fish to show her husband later. The guys fishing from the bank were obviously doubtful that my setup could kill any fish. They asked me when we arrived at the river, "You ever get anything with that?" I could tell that they thought I was wasting my time while I was standing there on the river bank waiting for a shot. Man did they get a surprise.

Like I've heard people say before, "Bowfishing is about the most fun one can have with their clothes on!"

I would have to agree.....

[Friend]

Nice one Doug!

Thanks for sharing.

[ishoot4thrills]

Originally posted by Friend:
Nice one Doug!

Thanks for sharing.

Thanks Scott.

It was a pleasure talking to ya over the phone, too.

Thanks again for the offer, man. Very generous. I'll keep it in mind.