# Bowfishing for big game



## tonye (Jan 17, 2016)

Hola,

Does anyone know of the toughest arrow/gear that could hold some serious big game?

I run www.spearfishing-trips.com and one of the destinations is Ascension Island, the land of the giant yellow fin tuna's and I would love to try and land one with my bow.

I've thought about this for some time and think the only way would be to try and make something custom. Getting the fish to the surface is not a problem with chum, they go crazy for sardines, so I'm pretty confident I can get a solid shot into one.

From there I would use a similar system to what I use for spearfishing them, which is basically the spear/arrow connected to about 30m of heavy duty float line/rope, which is connected to some bungee, that is then connected to a large float which I'll throw over board.

The idea is the float and bungee does all the fighting for me, tiring out the fish until I can start pulling her up etc.

Everything in that system should work but my main concern is the arrow ( I don't have much experience here), and the connection to the rope - I need something bomb proof.

When were spearfishing we use steel shafts and crimp the line on, often the 7.5mm shafts are bent to hell by the end of the fight but as long as all the connections hold it doesn't matter.

Before I start looking into custom arrows, does anyone have any ideas on if this type of big game stuff exists or not, or ideas on going forward. Its such a wild idea but I'm really amped to try. I'm back there in the middle of August so have some time to plan.

Thanks for reading lol,

Tony


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## Sgrem (Oct 5, 2005)

Arrows are usually heavy fiberglass arrows with a hole in the end that the 200-400 pound fast flight line is tied to.

Have shot some 6ft almost 7ft gar with the above with no failed arrows to date.


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## JFolm (Apr 22, 2012)

Only thing is a gar and a tuna are two totally different animals. Gar are lethargic and don't put up as much of a fight as a tuna which is built for speed and strength.


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## Sgrem (Oct 5, 2005)

I agree....but it only needs to hold as much as the float/bungee can pull....


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## JFolm (Apr 22, 2012)

That is until he gets to hand lining. He mentioned the stainless steel shafts are bent after hand lining the fish in.


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## tonye (Jan 17, 2016)

Yeah Ive speared many fish and pound for pound Ive not seen anything beat tuna yet. 

Re the bent spears, the tuna actually bends them well before I try and pull the line up.

I'd say I don't mind loosing arrows in the fight as long as they hold, I would expect to lose gear.

In the back of mind I was kind of thinking about a steal trace that ran from the head of the barbed arrow to the rear, and the float line would connect to that. That way the actually carbon arrow (or whatever), could break in to bits and the steak cable could hold strong - it would be a one use only type of arrow etc.


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## texas two guns (Jan 23, 2006)

You need to rig it with the AMS Big Game Break Away rig.
The arrow pulls out of the tip (which stays in the fish).

I use it for Alligators


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## Blake0311 (Jun 9, 2015)

texas two guns said:


> You need to rig it with the *AMS Big Game Break Away rig*.
> The arrow pulls out of the tip (which stays in the fish).


X2
Good luck! Should be a fun time


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## tonye (Jan 17, 2016)

Hahahaa perfect, we call these slip tips in the spearfishing world. Thanks guys I'll let you know how I get on 



texas two guns said:


> You need to rig it with the AMS Big Game Break Away rig.
> The arrow pulls out of the tip (which stays in the fish).
> 
> I use it for Alligators





texas two guns said:


> You need to rig it with the AMS Big Game Break Away rig.
> The arrow pulls out of the tip (which stays in the fish).
> 
> I use it for Alligators


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## texas two guns (Jan 23, 2006)

Take pictures


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