Bowfishing Boats and Ideas

[LB_hntr]

Its getting close to that time of year where building, modifying, and updating bowfishing boats starts happening.
 Post pics of your boats, suggestions, ideas or anything that will help those of us that want to spend time on the water chasing fish with recurves and longbows.


Here is a video I made this summer that shows my boat and why things are like they are. along with tips and suggestions.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lkEkwzksSA&feature=youtu.be

There will be 2 podcasts about bowfishing that will publish in 2 weeks covering types of boats, lighting, accessories, etc.

Please post anything you got or suggest that could help or make life easier for bowfishing boats.

[bofish-IL]

Here is a photo of my 14' x 48" alumicraft jon boat with 4 300 watt flood lights for night fishing.

This night I was on the Mississippi River no wind and the May flys were terrible. The dark brown is May flys about an inch thick on the carpet. They ran me off the river. They crunched under your feet every time you moved. Was in your ears and all over your face.  

 

[bofish-IL]

My current boat is a 17' x 54" Express with a 50 Mercury. It has the raised aluminum  deck so I could put the flood lights under the deck. I have not used the boat for night fishing yet so don't know how it works.

The setup for my 1st boat with the lights on the deck put out a lot of heat from the lights. I hope the raised deck with the lights under it will prevent so much heat hitting me and possibly keep some bugs off me. I found out the first few times out the bigger boat weighted so much more it was a lot harder to move around. Especially when your in weeds or moss.


 

[LB_hntr]

bofish-IL,
that is a beautiful boat. love the high sides and a 17x54 is a great size boat. I wish my boat had 6inch higher sides. you are going to have the time of your life in that rig!
Every boat has a trade off. smaller boats are easier in back waters and tight spots and can be launched in places that are impossible for big boats. But big boats can fish more guys, handle rougher water and fish bigger water. pros and cons to everything. I love your boat!
 If you feel the weight of the bigger boat gets to be a problem for your troller you could add a kicker with stick steer or a fan with a stick steer. with the size of your boat both would work awesome.
A kicker system on your size boat would be my favorite set up for a perfect fish just about anywhere boat. The kicker will chew thru the weeds more efficiently and move you fast enough to chase fish. Plus it will bounce up on rocks, stumps etc and not get damaged.

[bofish-IL]

I have a long shaft trolling motor but where I bow fish at night it is super mossy and the troller won't go more than 10 foot before getting 50 pounds of moss wound around it. We usually have a person push poling. I have always wanted a fan motor but gas for a fan, generator, and outboard eat you up each trip. Plus with all the extra weight you end up having to beef your trailer up.

I ran into a person several times a few years back from up North that was coming over where I shoot. He had a 20 ft. boat with a fan. You could shoot 4 people on the deck at once. It was great going over the moss and weeds.  They were nuts about shooting the gar we have around here.   They said they don't have any up North. When he was loading up to leave he tied his prop to the cage. I asked why and he said he found out the hard way the wind turning the prop on the interstate would burn the bearings up in the motor. Never would of thought about that.

The bad thing about the Mississippi is you run up River 3 or 4 miles and just when the bow fishing gets good a lightning storm pops up. It seems like that River attracts lightning.

[LB_hntr]

Yep trollers are the worst shape for a motor. The collect every weed type and hold them until you raise the motor and hand clear them. I fight it all the time but can usually tip the bullet nose of the troller out of the water so it points up on a 45 degree angle and just the prop in the water. This works pretty well for my light boat. If I had a bigger boat is rig up a kicker. I'd buy a used 4 or 5 HP outboard for a couple hundred bucks and rig it up as a stck steer. This is a stick mounted up front that is on 2 pivot bearings so if tilts forward and back. It extends below the deck where cables connect from the stick to the kicker. Also would have a a handle on the stick like a bicycle brake that would work the throttle and a push pull lever for shifting. This way I could control the kicker motor from the deck. I see a lot of kicker rigs and they can run weeds and crap I can't dream about. Plus its cheap and light. Kicker rigging would cost about 200 bucks and the motor about 250-300.
  Fans and airboats are great but by design they are very hard on motors and require a lot of maintaince. They are also a pain in the butt with any wind as they only like to go straight into the wind at fishing speeds.
 As the saying goes there is no one perfect so all boat.
   In a perfect world is have a 18x8 airboat to fish 4-5 guys for anyplace when the wind was calm, my 16x48 for backwater and rivers set up like I have with a troller and a boat like your with a kicker/stick steer for lakes and windy days.  But unless I hit the lotto that day isn't coming anytime soon...lol

[mark land]

I wish I could post a pic of my boat but do not do the photo bucket thing but have a few mods to do this year on it and will be getting started with than soon.  Planning on hitting a few more tournaments this year as well as filming more shows then I did last year.  Definitely want to get back down to LA and hit the bigheads in KY as well as our regular carp spawn around here, but turkey season does seem to get in the way.
LB you need to do a coverage of our Muzzy Classic or something on your podcast we usually have a pretty big crowd for it.  I would love to get back up for the Great Lakes shoot again someday, been missing that one sometimes.
As far as fans go I run a pretty big fan on my boat but I came up with a actuator steering system for it along with my normal push-pull stick and it works great and only takes thumb pressure to steer the fan, alot of people are using that setup with their bigger fan setups now and really works well.  Holler at me here at Muzzy and I can show you some my setup and what I have done with it.
I'm running a 2080 SD custom aluminum boat with tunnel and float pods, a 175 Mariner and 29HP DFI fan motor with 2:1 belt drive pushing a 50in IVO prop, it is a beast and will push this boat thru 8-10in of water and less if the bottom is soft.
I also run 12-150 MH lights off a Honda EU3000IS generator and have a quick release trolling motor mount for when I go gator hunting or chasing big heads.  Built a bighead light tower for it but unless we are taking people out I usually just use my Stabilite on my bow for that.

[bofish-IL]

Here is a photo of Mark's boat. I have a question Mark is the middle platform for filming or shooting?

 

[LB_hntr]

Mark that is one serious bow fishing rig. How do you like mh lights? I have not shot over those yet. You don't see too many tunnel hulls anymore.

I would love to check out the muzzy shoot and wish I could hit women of the local shoots here too. But my job as a wedding photographer has me working every weekend.

Bofish-IL, the center tower is set up with led lights for shooting bigheads.

[Jerry Russell]

My rig is a 1760 Lowe tunnel hull with a 60HP. I run a GPS guided trolling motor so when we arrive at a lake we have fished before it is simply a matter of telling the motor to drive the boat and start shooting. Amazing technology. I run LED lights with no generator and it is a slice of quiet heaven. After years of listening to a generator I just could not take it any more. I am going to add a camera tower for filming this spring.

 

[BEN]

WOW!! You guys are SERIOUS!!!    

[LB_hntr]

Jerry,
gorgeous boat! Ever use your licker when bowfishing? The LED's are nice and quite. They are coming along way with the colors of the led light to help with the muddy waters and offer great versatility and quietness!

Ben,
Your boat is a great boat. I like the smaller boats for the kind of places I fish. you can launch them in places that don't even have a launch to fish back waters, they work great on the canals and small rivers. That's why I went with a 16x48.

[Jerry Russell]

Originally posted by LB_hntr:
Jerry,
gorgeous boat! Ever use your licker when bowfishing? The LED's are nice and quite. They are coming along way with the colors of the led light to help with the muddy waters and offer great versatility and quietness!

Ben,
Your boat is a great boat. I like the smaller boats for the kind of places I fish. you can launch them in places that don't even have a launch to fish back waters, they work great on the canals and small rivers. That's why I went with a 16x48.

Thanks. I have had this boat for four years now and it is the toughest boat I have ever owned. It is constantly in the water 12 months out of the year. We do everything in this boat including alligator, waterfowl, bowfishing, stripers and much more. We have even fished it for big sharks and near shore (7 miles) grouper and snapper. To say it is versatile is an understatement.  The kicker motor is just used as a safety on big water and to make it legal on some of our bowfishing lakes with HP restrictions.

[robtattoo]

 

 

This is my old tub. I have no clue as to the year or manufacturer of the hull, but it's an 1854 riveted jon. I totally stripped it & rebuilt it with a 6'x6' platform, sodium lighting & a 50hp Force motor.
At some point I'd like to rip out the wooden flooring (I ran out of cash for a checker-plate floor) & re-do it, plus there are a couple of leaks that I missed.
Unless someone wants to buy it! $5,000? Anyone?

[BrianfromTulsa]

I've got a 2072 Seaark with 10 50w LEDs.  Mine are 120s tho so I still run a generator
 
 
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Multi-use boat.... it looks like this right now
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[LB_hntr]

Rob, I like how you hung your lights to the rail with brackets and still used a pipe to the floor for stability and to clean up the wires. Great idea. I have seen where people just mount the lights on the pipe and the mount breaks off the light tab. Your set up is awesome.
 Brian email me your pics and I will post em for ya. [email protected]

[ishoot4thrills]

I mostly bowfish from the bank or from bridges but this is what I use when I'm on the lake:
1980 Lowe 1648
1980 Mercury 25 hp tiller steer 2 cycle

   

   

   

   

   

I put the floor in it myself with FRP panels supported by pink Foamular insulation installed between the ribs in the floor. This has worked out great for flooring without the added weight and rot of wood and is much cheaper than aluminum.

I would love to install some LED lights and run them off of a battery or two. Any ideas on where to get inexpensive LED lights would be greatly appreciated....

[LB_hntr]

Here is Brian's Boat from above.
 
 
 

[bofish-IL]

Doug when I first started bow fishing at night I used 4- 12 volt flood lights that was connected to a trolling battery. I had 2 batteries so I could fish 4 or 5 hours. I think they were like 100 watt lights.

I shot a lot of fish like that for years. You didn't have trouble hearing other shooters talking because of the generator noise.

[ishoot4thrills]

Originally posted by bofish-IL:
Doug when I first started bow fishing at night I used 4- 12 volt flood lights that was connected to a trolling battery. I had 2 batteries so I could fish 4 or 5 hours. I think they were like 100 watt lights.

I shot a lot of fish like that for years. You didn't have trouble hearing other shooters talking because of the generator noise.

Where's a good place to get said lights and about how much do they cost?