The sun felt like a blowtorch when I arrived at the river around 1pm. The temperature was 90F, but the air was dry which helped.
Today was another day split between fly angling and bowfishing. Most of my time was spent fly fishing, but with about 45 minutes remaining before I had to leave, I pulled out my bow.
There were some good-sized largescale suckers (Catostomus macrocheilus), and one lone carp, still lingering in the area. I’d discovered, late in the day, that there were quite a few suckers down at a slow bend, where I’d seen them last week. They’d been stacking up there after spawning.
So, starting at the slow bend, I took a few shots.
I stood on the shoreline and scanned the water below me. It was a fairly steep drop to around 4-feet, which is where the suckers were cruising. They were no longer holding in the same spot, nearly motionless, as in prior weeks.
On my third or fourth shot, I drilled a big sucker in about five feet of water, 12 or so feet off the bank.
I watched the fish take off diagonally up towards the surface, with my arrow in its side. It was beyond exciting!
I began trying to reel the fish in but I wasn’t accomplishing much, since my drag was inadvertently set a little light. But, it was electrifying nonetheless.
Until the arrow came out several seconds later. I’m not going to lie, it was a deflating moment.
Yes, this is the third fish in a row, all largescale suckers, where my arrow pierced and then released shortly thereafter.
In each of these occasions, I’d shoot the fish, it would take off with my arrow in its side, I’d begin fighting/pulling, and then the arrow would come out. Are suckers soft-bodied?
My current favored hypothesis is that, since I’m shooting so deep, the arrow loses energy and pierces the fish’s skin, but doesn’t go all the way through the other side of the fish. My draw-weight is 30lbs currently, and maybe that’s not strong enough for deep water.
Anyhow, out of about ten bowfishing shots today, I did shoot the one fish. So, that’s improvement. 10% accuracy, right? Better than 2-for-60 earlier this month.
I just ran out of time, otherwise I’d have stayed much longer.
