Bowfishing

A bowfisher will use a bow or crossbow to shoot fish through the water surface with a barbed arrow tethered to a line, and then manually retrieve the line and arrow back, in modern times usually with a reel mounted on the bow.

[1][2][3][4][5] Sport bowfishing is unregulated and unmanaged as of 2024, but the practice is increasingly gaining attention and study across disciplines.

Modern sport bowfishing mostly uses sophisticated compound or lever-action bows,[1] some of which are fitted with laser sights.

Most bowfishing bows have little to no let-off and are typically designed for 40–50 pounds (18–23 kg) of draw weight.

Bowfishing arrows are considerably heavier and stronger than arrows used in other types of archery and are most commonly constructed of five-sixteenths-inch (0.79 cm) fiberglass, but solid aluminum, carbon fiber, and carbon fiber reinforced fiberglass are also used.

In dense marshlands that are unfriendly to boat propellers, airboats, which incorporate top-mounted fan propulsion for operating in very shallow waters, are usually used.Along with fishing from boats and off the shore, wading and shooting is also effective as long as the hunter does not mind getting soaked.

When keeping fish while wading, the hunter may use a stringer tied to a belt loop.

Due to the light refraction at the water surface and the optical distortion of the apparent position of underwater objects (which would appear to be shallower), aiming straight at the target silhouette usually results in a miss.

[citation needed] Each spring, Bass Pro Shops hosts the annual U.S. Open Bowfishing Championships.

Modern sport bowfishing (occurring in the United States), which is often an effort to amass hundreds of native fish in single outings (sport killing) and to discard them as full-bodied carcasses afterwards,[5][1][18][13][12] runs exactly counter to central principles of the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation.

[12][8][2][5][3][4][6] Sport bowfisheries management of native species must be commensurate with the number and size of fish removed from the ecosystem,[22] which is significantly greater per bowfishing participant due to the lethality of the sport (catch and release is not possible),[22][8][5] there are nonexistent limits or extremely liberal limits,[1][4] and there is no enforcement.

The current management paradigm for bowfishing freshwater animals is blatantly inconsistent with established conservation.

Night bowfishing
Modern sport bowfishing often occurs at night, shown here on a specialized boat: raised bow platform with powerful floodlights to expose and attract fish during the placid condition of night, often with several bowfishers covering different sectors.
Historical arrow with three prongs carrying three barbed points. For catching fish in rivers for subsistence . From Guyana . Photographed at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum , Exeter , Devon.
A modern bowfisher takes aim at spawning carp in an Iowa pond.
Bowfishing boats at the 2018 US Open Championship Tournament in Oklahoma. See Scarnecchia and Schooley (2020) for more details. [ 1 ] Modern bowfishing exploits rapidly accelerating technologies to amass the most fish possible for sport killing, with the purpose of fish being discarded afterwards. [ 5 ]
The Filipino Negritos traditionally used bows and arrows to shoot fish in clear water for subsistence . [ 10 ]
Sport bowfishing is prone to excessive waste of native species. For example, 100-year-old bigmouth buffalo in Minnesota and the cycle of modern bowfishing. See Scarnecchia et al. 2021. [ 12 ]
In this single-night bowfishing tournament in Minnesota, tons of native freshwater fish were shot and disposed. More than 65% of the total take was composed of four species of native redhorse , even though 11 other native fish species were shot and dumped into the disposal bin. [ 5 ] Overall, ~85% of all individual fish shot were native fish, and only 1 of 16 species killed in this tournament was non-native. For more details see 2023 study. [ 5 ]