Variety is the Spice of Life … a New Lake Record on a Mid-summer Bowfishing Adventure






In the midst of a 47 day run of 100+ degree days, we took a little break from the sun and fun of white bass fishing and did a little bowfishing last night.

Trent proudly hoists his pending Jr. Angler lake record Stillhouse common carp

Trent’s dad displays this THICK smallmouth buffalo he shot weighing in at over 11 pounds.

We got out on the water around 8:15pm just as the sun had set in order to give us enough remaining light to do some practice shooting to check aiming pins and work the kinks out of our equipment.

I had two shooters with me, my younger brother, Andy, and my nephew, Trent, age 15.

Both had bows which is a nice arrangement allowing for both followup shots in the event of a miss, or a double shot in the event of sighting more than one fish at a time.

As light faded to dark, we spooked 4 drum off of rocky shorelines, but didn’t see any carp or buffalo until we got off the rocks and moved on to softer bottoms.

The shooting was good right up until 10:15 when a wind came up and persisted bringing the trip to an earlier than expected end.

We had a good time of shooting before the wind cranked up, resulting in a total of 5 boated fish — 3 carp and 2 buffalo.

We had three highlights this evening. First, Trent beat the standing record for the Junior Angler bowfishing category with a common carp he brought in going 8.25 pounds and measuring 24.75 inches. Next, his “old man”, not to be outdone, stuck an 11+ pound buffalo that honestly looked as tall as it was long — almost saucer shaped. And finally, we boated a “double” where the boys shot at two different fish just seconds apart, and managed to land both of them; Trent got his fish while shooting at a quickly moving spooked fish — a really nice shot!

Besides the bowfishing we enjoyed spotting deer, raccoons, blue heron, and hearing a multitude of coyotes calling back and forth to one another and yapping. There was other aquatic life to observe, too … we saw all manner of bait fish, large gizzard shad,lots of sunfish, largemouth bass, and one very unconcerned turtle.

Congratulations, Trent, on your record. I know you’ve practiced in the backyard a bunch to get ready for this bowfishing trip, and the hard work paid off!!

I’m confident you didn’t miss a lick at your 7:00am football practice this morning, or if you did, were wise enough not to let your mom know about it!








Leave a Reply