Bow Fishing

Bowfishing is a game of accurate skills and speed. You as the bowman is armed with a hunters bow and some arrows. This bow is not an ordinary type of bow, but a special kind of bow that is equipped with a line attached to an arrow. Reason why the line is attached to the arrow it is because once you hit the fish, you grab the line and pull the arrow with the fish on it back into the boat. Your objective is to wait for a fish to jump out of the water, fly for a few feet and shoot it with your arrow. So, you're in a small boat going up and down the river looking for the right spot where the fish could be swimming. Now this type of fish is not an ordinary fish that you just throw out a line and bait on a hook and wait for it to bite even though you could do this, but this type of fish jumps out of the water and flies a few feet. Strange but true. This fish is known as The Flying Asian Carp. When the boat passes over an area where the fish is swimming, the fish is easily frighten by the vibration of the motor of the boat as it pass over and near them and believe it or not they are trying to get away very quickly by jumping 8-10 in the air. And when they jump they are flying everywhere. In fact when you least expect it, they will jump right at you and hit you in the face, the back of your head or anywhere. Imagine a carp 2 to 7 feet long, weighing 30-40 pounds or even 100 pounds smacking you in the head. This could be very painful. Once the fish starts to jump out of the water, prepare yourself to draw back your bow, find a target and shoot a fish. If you hit a fish, you will get ten points but if you miss, you loose an arrow. You only have ten arrows to start with and 3 minutes to score as many points as you can. If you hit 3 fish in a row, you will receive a bonus arrow. Some fish are near and some fish are far. Challenge yourself to try and hit the farthest fish away. You as the bowfish hunter will be able to shoot left, right, up and down because you never know what direction the fish will be coming from so you really need to be ready to shoot when the fish starts flying in the air.When I first saw and learned about the Asian Carp fish invading the Illinois River I was kinda shocked that the fish had such a negative impact environmentally on the river. Why do they have such an negative impact on the river? It's because they are capable of eating 5-20% of their own body weight each day. They consume plankton—algae and other microscopic organisms—stripping the food web of the key source of food for small and big fish. If they reach the Great Lakes most if not all the natural fish life will be greatly effected. In other words the fish in the Great Lakes could be extinct if nothing is done to stop the fish from reaching the Lakes. I wanted to make this game about the men and women who go out on the river to hunt the Asian Carps with bows and arrows which it is called Aerial Bowfishing. I also wanted to educate people about the invasion of this species of fish that if nothing is done to stop the fish from getting to the Great Lakes, the Lake will be filled with this destructive carp fish.Aerial Bowfishing in Central Illinois is a hunting sport that pursues the Flying Carp Fish. The US Coast Guard licensed Bowfishing which provides one the most exciting economical hunt available today. The Asian Carp is an invasive species that has taken over and infested the Illinois River with over 200 million fish in a 100 mile stretch right in the middle Point Blank's home territory. The Asian Carp is an aggressive breeder in these nutrient rich waters with a rapid growth rate and have no natural predictors. In July 2012, Congress included the 'Stop Invasive Species Act' as an amendment to a transportation bill it approved. The act required the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to speed up implementation of strategies to protect the Great Lakes from the Asian Carp.