Steve Knight

I can still hear my college roommate, David Bratton, chiding me, "Don't believe none of what you read and only half of what you hear."

Of course he had flip-flopped the old bromide just to make light of my journalism major. However, since he had access to the closest dove field and was a former offensive lineman, I learned to live with the insinuation.

Had he been making those comments today, Bratton might have looked like a genius.

For example, in March the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department commissioners voted to halt bowfishing for catfish and catfish only. Within days there were news reports claiming and Web pages clamoring that the commissioners had voted to ban all bowfishing in the state.

Tyler-based game warden Chris Green heard from the panicked local bowfishing community and helped quell its fears.

"There were several phone calls made. (The information) filtered down and it created some chaos with those who bowfish," Green said.

Green said he has seen steady growth in bowfishing locally, especially among younger people.

"In this area it is popular. It is something that surprises me. They had a couple of bow-fishing tournaments on Lake Palestine and they had boats and produced several hundred pounds of rough fish," Green said.

Until last September and beginning again this September, rough fish such as carp and gar have been the only target available to bowfishermen. Since September bowfishermen have also been able to take catfish, however, the commissioners repealed that regulation effective Sept. 1.

Phil Durocher, TPWD's Inland Fisheries director, said the problem was that bowfishing for catfish didn't fit the department's traditional management plan for game fish.

"It is a form of recreation that doesn't fit with our management plan of catch and release or selective harvest," Durocher explained.

As for taking rough fish with a bow, however, Durocher said that has never been a positive or negative issue.

"They don't take enough to matter," he explained.

Green said there are lakes in his region where bowfishing is popular. The list is topped by Palestine, but also includes Lake O'the Pines, Lake Fork and Lake Tyler.

Because of the nature of the sport there have been some conflicts on Lake Tyler between bowfishermen and property owners. Most bowfishing occurs late at night from boats rigged with a generator to operate lights. If the generators aren't loud enough, some of the fishermen fish out of airboats that can be deafening when under way. However, while the city of Tyler has banned hunting on the lake, bowfishing is a form of fishing and requires a fishing license.

Green said with the exception of a few social issues, he has had few problems with bowfishermen.

"Sometimes they take a bad rap from someone dumping fish and the noise," Green said. "But bowfishermen are good. They always have the proper license and safety equipment. We hardly ever issue a citation to them, either a hard citation or a warning."

Bowfishing is to fishing about what snow boarding is to skiing or what mountain biking is to bicycle riding. It is more of an extreme sport.

It requires a lot less equipment than bass fishing, but specialized equipment all the same. Most beginners start with whatever kind of compound bow they can get their hands on. They then have to purchase a reel that attaches to the bow, fiberglass arrows and special points. Not counting the bow, three arrows and a reel is going to cost a minimum of $70.

It is the boat that can be costly, but nowhere near the cost of a bass boat. Because they fish in shallow water on lakes or on rivers, bowfishermen fish from flat-bottom boats. They are rigged with bright lights for night fishing when the fish are in the shallows.

Bowfishermen are after both numbers and size. Some of the current state records include 65 pounds for a bigmouth buffalo, 46 1/2 pounds for a common carp and 290 pounds for an alligator gar taken from the Trinity River in 2001.

Other species sought by bowfishermen include bowfin, grass carp, spotted gar and talapia.

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Contact Outdoor Editor Steve Knight at 903-596-6277 or by e-mail at outdoor@tylerpaper.com

Steve Knight
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