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Bowfishing and fishing from a tandem

Joined
Apr 15, 2018
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Location
Kansas/Texas
Not exactly a long trip. I fish a channel in a local marsh that cant be accessed without a machete a canoe and a push pole. It
 

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I'm experiencing technical difficulties, dang modern technology!!! Anyway I was trying to post from my phone where the pics live and lost the text portion.

The marsh has some great water in it once you hack your way in. Roughly a mile of channel ranging from a 2 to 12 feet deep and 2 to 100 feet across. The mouth of the channel is a logjam where it flows into a river so there is no power boat access. I have the place to myself. The game warden has been very interested in my activities over the years. When I got back from a Texas trip I asked him if he kept interlopers out of my secret spot. "You're the only guy I've ever seen in there and you bring more fish outta that little hole than any of the guys on the river or lake get"
CANOE POWER!!! ;-)
I usually set a trot line then go paddle around for a couple hours casting and shooting carp with a bow. I catch channel and blue cats on the trot line (and literally tons of turtles) I get white bass, white perch, crappie and largemouth bass on the rod and reel. During frog season I get a LOT of frog legs outta the marsh. Did I mention the turtles??? I've always liked turtles, we've always had them as pets so I can't bring myself to kill them just for stealing my bait. I have hauled hundreds of them a couple miles down the road and I have yet to see an appreciable difference in the population where I fish.
My gear is rather unconventional (don't hate) I have a flat back 17' fiberglass with no name or number on it. I would call it a freighter, she's 40" across the gunwales and has a very flat profile bottom. I will post some pics one of these days to see if someone on here can identify her. Right now she's creatively named "The Green Canoe". As fat a chic as she is I realized early on that running a trotline with 100# of fish tugging all directions was not the ideal canoe chore. I lay a double blade paddle across the gunwales and clamp the far side with a cheap spring clamp. Drape the line over the paddle handle inboard of the blade and you have two hands free to fight Moby or Nemo or whatever is on the hook. This system also stabilizes the canoe in windy weather (notice my location, Kansas) I just pull myself along the line hand over hand with back to the wind and it works well.
When casting with rod and reel I will often set a rig in the rod holder behind me trolling it as I cast to either side, I know, a lotta hooks in the water, this is more of a food fishing exercise than a strictly pleasure event. I'm on the local fire department and a member of the American Legion so I supply fish and frog legs for both of them to have fundraiser fish fries. It's a rough job but someone has to do it ;-)
The marsh is infested with carp, that's actually what initially got me in there, I'm an avid bowfisherman. They make great cut bait and the ones that don't make the cut (pun intended) end up being fed to the hogs (yes, pigs like sushi) For some reason it's difficult for me to draw a full size compound or recurve while sitting in a canoe and if I'm standing there is a momentary loss of balance as I draw. Neither of which make a good match with bowfishing and the canoe. That's when I started tinkering around with the crossbow. A full size modern crossbow is just too much for shooting the fiberglass fishing arrows. They end up buried in the muck or logs and you can't get them back. I got a youth model recurve crossbow off of ebay and started messing with it. Light, small and easy to stow in the canoe, all plastic and aluminum so I don't have to be careful with it in the marine environment, low enough speed to not drive the arrows into oblivion but fast enough to make shots out to about 60 feet and it has picatinney rails top and bottom for mounting a red dot and a light. The girlfriend took to the crossbow immediately, she can't draw any of my conventional bows but she can shoot the crossbow after I cock it (yes, she does bait her own hooks). So the ordnance was covered, now for the platform. I like to stand so I can see into the water better and have a better shot angle on fish that aren't breaching. In fact I like to stand so high that I started perching on the cooler I stow my gear in. That's pretty wobbly and a dang hard spot to paddle from. I cut some saplings about 12' long to push/pole my way through the reeds and to the channel, I started using a pole to push while standing on the cooler. Still wobbly. Enter the 7' double blade paddle. Works good for paddling while standing and I also use it to pole now instead of the saplings. Still wobbly. I dealt with it through last season, right now I have a platform welded up in my shop and I am going to put some retractable outriggers on it for stability. (remember, no hating)
Oh yeah, while I'm mentioning weird things I do to The Green Canoe. Just got done rebuilding a 1961 Johnson 3hp outboard with the folding lower for river and lake fishing trips. Weighs about 40# full of fuel and folds in half so it takes less room than a 40qt cooler when being stowed. I'm also making a light bar that goes midship to the bow on both sides for nocturnal water pig and bullfrog hunts. I have a horizontal rod holder to keep the fishing poles outta the mud and blood, a couple of upright rod holders for trolling or fishing live or cut bait, an anchor trolley, a crossbow rack, and a couple coolers full of misc. gear. Yep, she's pretty much a Redneck yacht at this point, but a lotta fun.
Don't worry, I just picked up an old Coleman shorty for river trips, I'm trying my damndest to not modify it, TOO MUCH :)
 
As kids, we hauled in a lot of carp, with fiberglass bows, and cheap wood arrows. What fun it was at the time ! My first watercraft was a 10' jon boat, and a Evinrude 3 1/2hp.. With just me in it, I could get that little jon up and plane.
Thanks for stirring up some old memories !

Jim
 
Don't think you're going to get any hating here. Thanks for the description of your boat and it's use. This is one of the things I love about canoes. So versatile and adaptable for whatever we do. Fishing, BTW, is what got me into canoes in the first place.

I'm a little unclear about how the kayak paddle helps your stability. Do you have paddle floats attached?

Also - thanks for the details on your bow. My daughter has expressed interest in bow fishing, and that information may come in handy.

I see a colloquialism, I think, that I don't understand. "Water pigs". What is that? Nutria?
 
Very cool setup, and a nice little spot to fish!
Like Steve, fishing was my intro into the canoe world as well. The ability to access the water without hacking through shore growth is much more preferable. I've also been toying with the idea of using my bow on the water. I've been keeping my eye open for a good deal on a spool setup for it. Your information on the kiddy sized bow is interesting, may have to do the same. The Middleton I own is a big magnum pushing shafts out around 320fps.
I will expect to sink some arrows beyond retrievability, lol ;)
 

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Nice. We shoot a lot of those slimy bottom feeders here too although we use compounds we retired from deer hunting service and turn the draw weight down as far as it will go. Best thing we ever did was to attach lasers to the stabilizers. We opted for green, however, as you can see the beam the whole way out & makes it much faster to get on target.

A pressure switch on the grip saves batteries and a hay hook makes hoisting them simple. (Note: in much the same way that you don't cut toward yourself with a knife, you need to swing AWAY from or parallel to your hull. Even aluminum doesn't hold up well to a sharpened hay hook but don't ask me how I know that).
 
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