down on the outboard to get to our marked spots using the iPhone Navionics app.
We covered many miles of the main lake and some backwaters, many with promising signs of fish. We saw some very nice size buffalo carp during the day and we had confidence in our choice for the first night so we packed up and headed down to the tournament’s Meet and Greet.
Backwater Outdoors had a great location picked for the Meet and Greet. Owner Bryan Hughes had a local radio station there playing some music, along with some great local barbeque, and many vendor tents, includ-ing Jeff Neiball’s NDesigns Screen Printing and Embroidery, as well as the Bowfishing Assocation of America (BAA).
Our team, along with the groups we met the prior night, scavenged around the vendor booths, destroyed the barbeque table, and met many other people with the same passion.
It was great meeting teams from all over the US and learning that different boat set-ups(kicker, fan, trollers, airboats) were more popular in certain
regions. Our team was very surprised at the number of kicker motor boats we saw and this was very convenient for our research, as our team is in the process of adding a kicker to our fan boat as well.
During the Meet and Greet, gloomy skies, fog, and inter-mittent rain were making an entrance, causing us all the same concerns; how are the fish going to react to these condi-tions? At home I would know what to do, but 800 miles from home, that’s a different story.
ing Tournament is one of the
richest bowfishing tournaments ever held, boasting over $50,000 in cash and prizes. Enough to draw hundreds of participants from 28 states!
This unique tournament is spread out over 2 nights starting on Friday night at 7pm. Then, every 3 hours throughout the night: 10pm, 1am, 4am and 7am, participants are allowed to weigh only 1 fish to qualify for prizes during that period. This weigh-in format allowed for 8 opportun-ities for each individual to claim their share of the $50,000 in prizes.
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12
April, 2015
Cool conditions and muddy water hampered the efforts of Team Carpzilla through-out the weekend. Luckily, all of the off-season improve-ments to the boat worked out well.
ABOVE: Apparently separated at birth, their love of bowfishing brought these twins back together.
LEFT: On Thursday, the Hampton Inn hosted an impromptu tailgate party where I'm sure hundreds of fish were shot, each one bigger than the last.