Bowfishing rig questions

[gtodave]

Anyone here have a bowfishing rig? I'm looking to set up my boat and had a couple of questions. Where's the best place to ask?

In case there's anyone here that can answer, questions would be:

Should I run the generator to my on-board charging system and run the lights off of the batteries, or just run the lights straight off the generator and let the batteries run the trolling motor?

How high are you running your rail?

 

[outrider58]

Some info and people to ask here:

Night time snake head fishing with bow from small boat

I have a smaller 16' Lowes John Boat that I use for fishing and crabbing. I go snakehead fishing daytime but never at night. I talked to a few guys that use LED lights and say that the Snakes stay on top of water at night and not cautious like other fish. I want to use crossbow with fishing...

www.mdshooters.com

 

[gtodave]

Thanks...I had forgotten that thread.

 

[Wsanner]

I have done a little bowfishing here n there.... : ) do not run the on board charger while using the batteries. It will burn up the charger and the batteries will get super hot. Give me a little info first.... odds are your troller is 12,24,or 36 volt DC.....Are your lights AC or DC?

 

[Slackdaddy]

Tip #1 : "Bow Fishing" is not fishing,, Bow Fishing at night is spotlighting.

Tip# 2: Shoot Blue cats, they are tearing the bay up,, Leave the Sneks alone.

 

[Wsanner]

ok... your entitled to your opinion. As long as its legal, let alone the state is paying to harvest snakes, Im going to keep on shooting them and putting them in the restaurants However we do shoot thousands of cats thru the year too....

 

[outrider58]

ok... your entitled to your opinion. As long as its legal, let alone the state is paying to harvest snakes, Im going to keep on shooting them and putting them in the restaurants However we do shoot thousands of cats thru the year too....

Both are invasive species. Kill them all, 24/7

 

[remrug]

Both are invasive species. Kill them all, 24/7

Unfortunately I'm afraid both are here for the duration. I wonder how crabs and clams will survive the cats? Wonder and worry about the future of perch and rockfish.
I dont fish the shore too often ,but have killed every blue cat I have caught, and will continue to do so.
It pains me to watch guys releasing giant blue cats knowing how much damage they will be doing to the fish population. KILL EM ALL !!!

 

[Wsanner]

Both are here to stay. The catfish are worse than the snakeheads. But if the snakes are not halfway controlled, they will get worse. You cant get to half the breeding grounds where the snakes are so you will never be able to get rid of them. On top of that, I shot fish this year at the end of December and also in the middle of February that were full of eggs. The bowfishing guys get hounded from everywhere. The rod and reel guys want to make the snakeheads a game fish, then they cant be shot. But as of now when they cant catch fish, we get the blame. Yet we can go back to the same place the next nite and put fish in the boat. Now its starting with the catfish rod and reel guys. They say kill all the small ones but leave the big ones alone. Truth is I cant sell the big ones, but just like everyone else, I like to put big fish on the boat. So we filet the big ones and give them to friends and family. Hell, I even have a buyer for carp. So what Ive figured out from the rod and reel guys is It pretty much comes down to bowfishing is fine, as long as you are not shooting the fish they are trying to catch. Enough ranting, lets get gtodave fixed up so he can go shoot some fish!

 

[pbharvey]

go shoot some fish!

I took my boys and one of my son-in-laws on Wsanner's bow fishing charter last year and it was an unbelievably good time. Highly, highly recommend. We did an offshore white marlin charter over the summer and spent half the time on the boat talking about how much we enjoyed the snakehead trip. The offshore trip was really nice but Wsanner's snake head charter was next level. The anticipation and excitement of bow fishing is something you have to experience to understand.

 

[rbird7282]

Both are invasive species. Kill them all, 24/7

This


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[Slackdaddy]

We live on the PAX river (1/4 mile from soft launch),, Wife and I,, and a couple neighbors plan to hit the Blues hard this year, we set up an outside fish cleaning/processing station (fancy words for cutting board table and hose). Goal is to make the blues a food source for us.
We are 100% kayak,, so looking at jug lines.

 

[pbharvey]

We live on the PAX river (1/4 mile from soft launch),, Wife and I,, and a couple neighbors plan to hit the Blues hard this year, we set up an outside fish cleaning/processing station (fancy words for cutting board table and hose). Goal is to make the blues a food source for us.
We are 100% kayak,, so looking at jug lines.

You probably know this but you can only jug fish July 1- February 28/9

 

[gtodave]

I have done a little bowfishing here n there.... : ) do not run the on board charger while using the batteries. It will burn up the charger and the batteries will get super hot. Give me a little info first.... odds are your troller is 12,24,or 36 volt DC.....Are your lights AC or DC?

24V trolling motor. Don't have lights yet, so I'm open there. Was planning to plugging them directly in to the genny if I didn't run the onboard charger

 

[Wsanner]

Sorry for the late response. Been fishing every nite since Wednesday. So you have a few options. You can plug the lights into the genny and run the troller off the batteries. But depending on your speed, you may get 4-5 hours of run time. Depends on how long you wanna fish.... If you want to be able to fish all nite, best option is powermax converters. But now you will need to plug them into the genny. So you either need a bigger genny or run 12 LED lights. Its a rabbit hole your heading down if you cant tell. lol We run 2 4500w generators. 1 runs our 220v troller, 2 100w LEDs and 1 300w LED. The other runs 6 400w hps lights, 2 100w LEDs and 1 300w LED. You can almost see tomorrow....

 

[Wsanner]

As far as a rail height, I prefer about 16-18 inches tall. That wat you have enough to brace against if you need to, you can rest your foot on it to stretch a bit and its not in the way. I still end up hitting my lower limb on that occasionally. I see boats with a rail that is around waist high and wonder how they shoot without hitting the rail all the time.

 

[gtodave]

Sorry for the late response. Been fishing every nite since Wednesday. So you have a few options. You can plug the lights into the genny and run the troller off the batteries. But depending on your speed, you may get 4-5 hours of run time. Depends on how long you wanna fish.... If you want to be able to fish all nite, best option is powermax converters. But now you will need to plug them into the genny. So you either need a bigger genny or run 12 LED lights. Its a rabbit hole your heading down if you cant tell. lol We run 2 4500w generators. 1 runs our 220v troller, 2 100w LEDs and 1 300w LED. The other runs 6 400w hps lights, 2 100w LEDs and 1 300w LED. You can almost see tomorrow....

9000w of gennys....wow! I have a little guy (2500w I think?) I was just going to use for lights. 4-5 hours of fishing is plenty for me. I just want to put some meat on the boat.

 

[Wsanner]

Lol, you should be fine. I tend to forget how deep I am into it.... And looking to buy a airboat pretty soon!