bowfishing reel question?

[ChumpMcgee]

#4764

I was walking around the lake close to my house and realized the carp are really up in the weeds and I thought that I really should get into bowfishing. I have never done it before and went out to fleet farm got me a fiberglass arrow and broadhead along with some of the bow fishing line. My question is I have a longbow and I really do not want to drill a hole into my bow to put this spool on it. What other ways can I attach it to the bow or how else can I walk thru water and have my spool with me? I thought if I was just bowfishing in one area on land I could bring my fishing pole and have it lay on the ground next to me but if I want to walk around the water it may be more of an issue. I have been thinking that I could take the rubber straps from my great northern quiver off and somehow attach the spool using that but at the same time I do not know how I would attach it since it did not come with any bracing.

Could I attached it to my waist somehow?

Any suggestions??

[Jason Wesbrock]

#33807

You can always pick up a tape-on reel. Ebay is full of them dirt cheap. If you bought a hand wrap reel that screws into a stabilizer hole, you can make a simple mount with a bolt through a piece of scrap wood that’s taped to your bow.

[William Warren]

#33874

I use a tape on from 3 Rivers, its inexpensive and it works great. The frame is very maleable and can be shaped to fit your bow. I recommend putting a layer of tape on the feet before attaching the reel to the bow to protect the bows finish in case it flexes any when you shoot. I use electrical tape and as long as it is not left on too long it will leave no residue.

[ChumpMcgee]

#34559

I think I have it figured out. I was looking around the house for some sort of inspiration, I figure since I do not have the bracing or the actual round reel that I could take a tuna can cut two holes at the bottom of the empty can and take a zip tie and put it thru the holes and wrap it around my bow. It worked great! Now just have to go out and test it!!

[woodchuck]

#37734

Can you post some pics? This sounds like a great idea, and my favorite price 🙂

[ChumpMcgee]

#38242

I can see what I can do with the pictures but I will say this I had my first trad kill the very first day I took it out 🙂 The only issue that I had was I put the tuna can on my bottom limb and the can kept slipping down my limb. It did work very well thou. Like I mentioned before I took the tuna can two holes on the bottom and took 2 zip ties and wrapped it around the limb then clipped the extra tie that was hanging off

[Ben M.]

#42485

My son and I whipped up a couple of homemade reels for ourselves this afternoon. Won’t have a chance to test ’em until tomorrow but I figured I’d post some pictures anyway. We used the cans that canned chicken breast comes in. They’re 4″ in diameter and 2 1/8″ deep. Each reel uses folded duct tape for padding (between the can and limb) and 50′ of Dacron B-50 for line. I cut a rectangle of metal from the can’s lid, wrapped it in duct tape to cover the sharp edges, and taped it to the can with duct tape. In this way, it forms a sort of clip to hold the loop of line from the arrow to the reel (see pic). Two zip ties attach the reel to the bow, and masking tape protects the bow to keep the zip ties from scratching it. I wrapped the riser with masking tape and tied the line around it before winding the reel. (Which was unnecessary because the line slid off the masking tape anyway.)

Frogging season opens today. We’re headed out tomorrow morning to try our luck.

[Ben M.]

#43541

The reels were great! The shooting…not so much ;). I missed two frogs and hit one, the little man missed six. We need some practice. Still had fun though.

[James Harvey]

#43558

Looks good Ben 😉

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