Top_Heavy's World

I am a fanatic about any sport that uses a bow. I have a Black Widow recurve bow, that I have turned into a killing machine. I mounted a retriever reel on the handle, it took some modificatons to get screw holes in the proper location, but trigger location is now perfect. This bow has no sights and I shoot it with bare fingers, but it is awesome out to almost 8 yards. I took an older Mathew's Z Max compound and tricked it out as my "big fish bow". This 70 lb draw bow used to harvest deer and even went to Alaska and Africa with me, but now is the death with a string! I left the sights on, only 2 are really needed now, but with some adjustments, a 12 to 15 yard shot, down to 2 feet deep is makeable. There is a definate advantage to each type and I will try to help with your choice.
The recurve bow is light, fast and easy to use. The bow will accurately shoot an arrow at any draw position, even only part way back. It involves no release to get tangled in, it is just simple pleasure. The power is lacking in my opinion. Fish up to 15 pounds don't seem to take much energy to push an arrow through them, but I have lost most of the big fish I was able to put an arrow into with the lighter bow. I use this bow when the fish are staged in less than 2 foot of water, when they are eating muck from the surface of a freshly flooded reservoir, or if I am able to float right over the fish and the shots will be almost straight down. This is most common in cold water or at night. We have large lights mounted on the perimeter of the shooting deck and/or use a big spot light to locate night time fish. It is surprising how much the fish will tolerate at night, some actually rise up in the water, when in the light.

The compound is the bow of choice when the larger fish are rolling along the bank, are spooky, such as when sunning near the surface, or when in really clear water and staying deep. I have taken fish out to 17 yards, when they had fins sticking out of the water. Usually grass carp, the big fish will gather in pods, like whales. If the outer fish are spooked the entire group is gone. I slowly move up on the group and look for the biggest fish possible, that is the fish I am after. I like the let off of the compound for being able to hold the bow for long periods of time as well. I hunt in muddy reservoirs often, and seeing a tail of a fish is very easy. We push or push pole up to the fish, draw and wait until a part of the body is visible. Sometimes this takes a second or third draw with a recurve, but with a release and an 85% let off bow, I can wait the fish out. The power of the compound is also needed when shooting the large fish, some weighing over 60 pounds! Unlike many of the guys, I like the head to be on the outside of the far side of the fish. I like the barbs of the arrow to be pulling on the scales of these monsters, as opposed to the soft meat trying to hold it. I have lost many large fish when they finally pulled off the solid glass shaft.

I will get more detailed and offer some of my tricks and techniques as this series goes on, including arrow, head and line selections. Bank vs boat fishing, day and night time techniques. Creeks and small bodies of water vs big reservoirs and lakes, timing of the spawn etc. I hope you follow this series closely as we are only a few weeks away from some of the best off season shooting you will ever find!