Bowfishing

Night bowfishing
Modern sport bowfishing often occurs at night, shown here on a specialized boat: raised bow platform with powerful floodlights to expose and attract fish during the placid condition of night, often with several bowfishers covering different sectors.

Bowfishing is a fishing technique that uses specialized archery equipment to impale and retrieve fish. A bowfisher will use a bow or crossbow to shoot fish through the water surface with a barbed arrow tethered to a line, and then manually retrieve the line and arrow back, in modern times usually with a reel mounted on the bow. Unlike other popular forms of fishing where baiting and exploiting the fish's instinctual behaviors are important (e.g. angling, netting, trapping, and hand fishing such as noodling), bowfishing is similar to spearfishing and relies purely on the fisherman's own visual perception and marksmanship, and usually do not involve using other tools such as hand net.

Historically, bowfishing was practiced for subsistence, but in the 21st century it has increasingly become an outdoor sport, practiced across the United States that is prone to excessive wanton waste.[1][2][3][4][5] Sport bowfishing is unregulated and unmanaged as of 2024, but the practice is increasingly gaining attention and study across disciplines.[1][4][6][3][7][8][9][5] Due to the lethality of the bow or crossbow, catch and release is not possible with bowfishing.[8]

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  5. ^ a b Lackmann, Alec R.; Bielak-Lackmann, Ewelina S.; Jacobson, Reed I.; Andrews, Allen H.; Butler, Malcolm G.; Clark, Mark E. (30 August 2023). "Harvest trends, growth and longevity, and population dynamics reveal traditional assumptions for redhorse (Moxostoma spp.) management in Minnesota are not supported". Environmental Biology of Fishes. doi:10.1007/s10641-023-01460-8. ISSN 1573-5133.
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  8. ^ a b Montague, Graham F.; Schooley, Jason D.; Scarnecchia, Dennis L.; Snow, Richard A. (5 May 2023). "Bowfishing shoot-and-release: high short-term mortality of nongame fishes and its management implications". North American Journal of Fisheries Management. 43 (4): 962–983. doi:10.1002/nafm.10904. ISSN 0275-5947.
  9. ^ Long, James M.; Snow, Richard A.; Shoup, Daniel E.; Bartnicki, Jory B. (9 June 2023). "Validation and Comparison of Age Estimates for Smallmouth Buffalo in Oklahoma Based on Otoliths, Pectoral Fin Rays, and Opercula". North American Journal of Fisheries Management. 43 (3): 618–627. doi:10.1002/nafm.10865. ISSN 0275-5947.