Volume 1, Issue 1, January 2015 | Page 6

The fan on the boat pushes us through the cattails. The gen-erator is humming along in support of the lights, exposing the lake’s shallow bottom on a beautiful spring night in Wisconsin. Ice is freshly off this particular lake and our pursuit of rough fish is renewed for another year.

I excitedly hold new bowfishing equipment in my hand while I stand in the bow looking into the water. There! I see the unmistak-able golden scales of a nice common carp. Drawing back my bow, I’m surprised when my arrow pulls off the string.

Instantly I feel my frustration peak as I frantically try to put the arrow back on the string, only to see the fish glide under the boat to live another day. I have fallen victim to “not pushing the button”.

I’m pretty confident that the majority of bowfishermen (if not all) have experienced this similar situation if they have made the switch from a retriever style bowfishing reel to a spincast reel or “spinner”. This reel style is the push-button, closed-bail style of reel that we used as kids, but in a much bigger/beefier package, and should not to be confused with the open-bail configurations of spinning reels. The new bow in my hand, purchased for the 2014 season, carries a Muzzy Xtreme

Duty (XD) Bowfishing Reel. Although it has taken me a few nights to really feel comfortable with this new shooting setup, I can now say that I have successfully transitioned to becoming a spincast shooter.

I know I do not have as much experience as some of the long time spincast shooters on the water, but I would like to share some experiences I’ve had while transitioning to bowfishing with a spincast reel.

As with most any type of outdoor equipment, there are pros and cons, and spincast reels are no exception. The biggest benefit, in my opinion, is rapid arrow retrieval. This feature alone can help you make a second, or even third shot on a confused fish. When shooting retriever style reels I could never shoot and reload with the speed I can now. The ability to put more shots in

the water greatly increases my chances of putting fish in the boat.

Another benefit to shooting a spincast reel is the ability to fight the fish directly with the bow and reel vs. putting the bow down and pulling in the line hand over hand like I used to do with a retriever. This leads to fewer chances for knots to form, or to have piles of line lying in the bottom of the boat after a fish is landed. There is nothing more frustrating than being on a bunch of fish and needing to untangle a mess of line in the back of the boat.

Fighting fish gets even easier when setting the reel’s drag system, which can be adjusted to

a shooter’s preference, or based on the size of the targeted species. Drag allows a shooter to play out larger fish by keeping

(continued on next page)

what's the deal with spincast reels?

by Josh Ring

The author proudly displays a nice silver carp taken using his Muzzy XD reel mounted on an F&D reel seat, with an F&D rod and Woody Wire line.

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January, 2015