Great time on the water (more pics added)

[BDann]

The family and I are having a vacation in Destin, and the kids were getting kinda tired of the same old beach activities.  They have been wanting to try bowfishing, so I booked a trip with Locked Up Charters in Destin.

I bought a strap on adapter for the kids Maddog bow, a zebco 808 and a hornet lite arrow.  The guide was a real young guy, and put us on fish right away.  In fact, we had to break out the fishing rods on the way so everyone could land a couple of ladyfish that were schooling.  We had a very short boat ride to his spot, and were on rays very quickly.

He had a couple of pse kingfisher bows with the ams reels for my wife and I to shoot.  She had a score to settle with the stingrays after getting hit by one a few years ago.

My daughter Chloe and I were up first, and the action was fast. Bisch will agree that she is a certified foam killer, but she was ready for her first kill today.  She had plenty of shots, and connected with a cownose ray in about 15 minutes!  It wasn't very big, but she was very excited, and I couldn't have been more proud.  At least until the next ray showed up.....

[VictoryHunter]

Photos?!    

[BDann]

A big cow nose ray appeared directly in front of us, and Chloe drew and released, hitting it at the base of the tail.  She had a battle on her hands as the ray soon had most of the line stripped off the reel.  I was helping my 8 year old son Jack shoot at some rays as she took her time with the fight.  She had it aboard after a few minutes.

I'll see if I can post some pics with my iPhone, but I'm having some trouble.

Tell Chloe I said congrats and I can't wait to see her again so she can tell me the story in person!

Waiting on the rest of the story!

Bisch

Well, Brian can't post pics from his phone so he asked me to post the pic of Chloe and her ray.

Here it is:

 

Congrats again Chloe!

Bisch

[LB_hntr]

Sounds like an awesome vacation !
We (wife and kids as well) love bow fishing. Nothing like a night on the water with lights glowing, generator humming and everyone having a blast. Never tried for rays before. Now you have me itching to set a trip up!

[Anointed Archer]

Very cool,

[BrushWolf]

Sounds like a some good family fun. Congrats on the big ray.      

[BrushWolf]

Are the rays any good to eat?

[BDann]

We had to cut the trip short because we lost ALL the arrows.  Our guide evidently didn know how to tie the arrows, and the knots came undone when my wife and son connected on a couple of big rays.

I bought a couple more arrows and found the right way to tie the arrows on.  We are going to finish the trip tomorrow, and hopefully we will all bring something home.  I also sent a link to our guide so be would be more prepared next time.

The guide cleaned them for us and we'll fry them up tomorrow with some shrimp.  He says they are pretty good.

[BDann]

Fast forward to day 2.  The weather was perfect, and so was the water.  My oldest daughter Chloe connected quickly on another cow nose ray.  I managed to drill one that was scooting away after one of Chloe's misses, and I must admit that it was probably a lucky shot.  Of course I acted like I meant it to happen!

My 12 year old daughter Emma was up next, and she took a nice cow nose ray with her second shot ever bow fishing.  She took another one with her next turn, and had the best shot to kill ratio by far.  So far 2 of my 3 kids have taken rays for their first trad kills.  I was pretty proud already, and then 8 year old Jack got up on deck.  I helped him with the gear and he had lots of shots.  He hit several, but wasn't getting the arrow into the rays.  He was a real trooper, and finally managed to take a nice cow nose ray..  He was so excited, and I was even more so.  To see the kids and my wife having so much fun was incredible.

My wife Stacy got into the action and drilled one right between the eyes.  She puts snakes, alligators and stingrays in the class of " the only good one is a dead one."

I manged to take a couple of real nice southern stingrays as well, and those suckers put up a good fight!  And yes I think they taste pretty good.  We fried them up tonight along with some shrimp, and everyone enjoyed them.

It was a fantastic outing, and all of my family chalked up their first trad kills!

[BrushWolf]

Awesome!!

[Gatekeeper]

Congratulations, Brian! sure looks like a great time.

[VictoryHunter]

Congrats! Sounds like a blast.

Way to go for the whole BDann Gang!

Congrats,

Bisch

Brian asked me to post a few more pics of this adventure for him so, here they are!

First up is BDann himself with a very nice ray!

 

Next is Emma and her ray!

 

Looks like the BDann clan had a great time on the water, indeed! I think I am going to have to look into bowfishing for rays one of these days!

Congrats again, guys!

Bisch

[Bowhunter4life]

Congrats to the whole family!  Looks like you all had a great time!

[Doc Nock]

The Family that plays together, stays together!

Excellent!

What fun!!! Hey, Bisch, you think you can hit a moving target?!    

[BDann]

Here's a shot of Jack with his ray.

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Here is my wife Stacy with her ray.  Notice the shot placement.

  [/url] [/IMG]  

Our guide was Royce Dahnke with Locked Up Charters in Destin, Florida.  He got us into a bunch of action, and was great with the kids.  

The kids were shooting their Maddog longbow, 33@28, with a Zebco 808 and strap on adapter.  It worked very well on the smaller rays, but didn't have the horsepower for the big ones.

[gregg dudley]

Awesome!