We have many back water places here on Champlain where there lots of carp, bowfin, and gar. The gar here aren't the alligator gar and if I ever wanted to shoot one I would go to Texas and get one of those monsters that go over 100 pounds.
well if your near carlyle lake in Il we havea some nice gar here nothin like texas tho we have smaller ones
I need to get with some bowfisherman. I know litterly zero about it. I got the perfect bow I built for it. I am looking for a guide in TX I hear they eat well too.
I used to have a friend who lived here and actually had a bowfishing boat constructed for him. It had lights and a raised platform and was all aluminum. He took it to Texas and killed a bunch of gar. He actually had one mounted and if my memory serves me it was well over 100 pounds or perhaps even 200 pounds. It was huge and very prehistoric looking.
If you have some small rivers where feeder creeks feed into them is a good place for Gar. At least in my area any way! you using a recurve?? I love mine for Bowfishing with the AMS reel on it.
No gator gar in IL but we have lots of the spotted, shortnose and longnose gar. There's a big fat one.
Dadgone, those look hard to hit. I have a selfbow (osage) that I made, that came underwieght for deer, at around 40lbs. I figured it would make a great bowfishing rig.
I never tried with a bow but I can tell you they are hard to hook with a pole. They will cruise right over and take anything that looks like a dead minnow but try to get a hook that will hold into one of those boney mouths. Most of the time they come unbuttoned and the few times I caught them they rolled and actually tangled themselves up with the line. Around here they run up to about 5' long but most are about 3'.
