Bowfishing gear for a beginner

[Fowlmouth30]

Anybody have any recommendations on what would be a good set up equipment wise for a beginner? Not looking to spend a fortune right now, just looking for a decent bow to get started with. Any help would be great, thanks.

[Murray]

what you looking to spend?

[dixiedeerslaya]

any old compound or recurve bow will work... my first bow was a 15 dollar flea market bow that i slapped a reel on and bought a few arrows........ it doesnt take a fancy bow to kill a fish,

now if you are willing to spend a little more money, say 250 dollars, you can buy a browning barracuda, or a pse fishhawk.... the barracuda is a little compound bow and the pse fishhawk is a little recurve... both can be bought and set up for pretty cheap...

my advice, if you are just startin out and not sure if you are gonna stick with it, to look around at flea markets, pawnshops, or ebay and find you a 50 dollar compound or recurve.....

if you already know you are hooked and know you will be doin it for a long time, go with a barracuda or a fishhawk

[ProvidenceSwamper]

I dont go anymore unfortunately, but when i was in High School i used to go with my dad and a couple friends. We found 2 or 3 Bear Compound bows at like Money Man for like 30 bones a piece, and set em up with the big bowfishing zebco. They worked fine and we shot plenty of fish. If you are going to get hooked take dixie's advice and get a nice set up with a barracuda or fishhawk.

[dixiedeerslaya]

i gotta correct myself the pse recurve is called a kingfisher..... the fishhawk is a compound made by AMS...

[cudexter]

dds- I have an old bowtech blackhawk2- compound, would that work with a reel?

[dixiedeerslaya]

any bow can be used to bowfish with.... as long as it has limbs and a string!....

the only thing about some compounds are their draw weight... you dont want to go bowfishing and be shooting 60lbs allnight... its best to get a bow with a draw weight below 55lbs.... idealy around 35-45... that way you are not shooting through the fish all the time, and your arrow wont get stuck in the mud so bad when you miss.....

[cudexter]

10-4.

Just looking at options in the case of an invite.

[Tater]

I shoot a TQ Stingray @ 45 lbs. I like the recurves for shooting fish.

By all means make sure you understand the hazards of tying off to the back of the arrow before you start shooting. Tying off to the back can be very dangerous if you don't understand what's going on. I tie off to the back myself as do most and if you do so make sure that the length of line from the throat of the reel to the end of the arrow is short enough that it will pull the arrow off the string if the bail is closed on the reel. Arrows tied to the back of the arrow will come right back at you....dangerous. Arrows tied off to the front will flip over and slap the boat or your legs/feet...not near as dangerous.

[millero]

any old compound or recurve bow will work... my first bow was a 15 dollar flea market bow that i slapped a reel on and bought a few arrows........ it doesnt take a fancy bow to kill a fish,

now if you are willing to spend a little more money, say 250 dollars, you can buy a browning barracuda, or a pse fishhawk.... the barracuda is a little compound bow and the pse fishhawk is a little recurve... both can be bought and set up for pretty cheap...

my advice, if you are just startin out and not sure if you are gonna stick with it, to look around at flea markets, pawnshops, or ebay and find you a 50 dollar compound or recurve.....

if you already know you are hooked and know you will be doin it for a long time, go with a barracuda or a fishhawk

i didnt realize that it was that cheap to get into.

[cudexter]

I shoot a TQ Stingray @ 45 lbs. I like the recurves for shooting fish.

By all means make sure you understand the hazards of tying off to the back of the arrow before you start shooting. Tying off to the back can be very dangerous if you don't understand what's going on. I tie off to the back myself as do most and if you do so make sure that the length of line from the throat of the reel to the end of the arrow is short enough that it will pull the arrow off the string if the bail is closed on the reel. Arrows tied to the back of the arrow will come right back at you....dangerous. Arrows tied off to the front will flip over and slap the boat or your legs/feet...not near as dangerous.

When we going, pro?

[scduckcmdr]

When I started out I put a big zebco on my old bowhunting bow. My buddy had a bottle attached to his old bow and hand wound the string around it. Thats the cheapest I know to start out. We used a 2 mil candlelight spotlight attached to an old car battery and fished off of a old basstracker. Cant get much cheaper!

[dixiedeerslaya]

i didnt realize that it was that cheap to get into.

the bow part is cheap... its the boat part that gets expensive.... it just all depends on how much you like it and how far you wanna take it... some folks *like me* go overboard and end up buying a boat just for bowfishing, adding 500 dollars worth of lights, 400 dollars worth of decking and rigging, 1800 dollars on a kicker motor and its rigging, and an ungodly amount of money for Maintenance bowfishing is VERY tough on equipment....

but for the weekend warrior, you can get started for around $200 if you already have a generator.... i think i had about $150 dollars in my first setup on my small boat... a piece of plywood and a couple shop lights is all you need....