Bow fishing
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Arch fish is the hunting harpoon of fish and other aquatic animals using arrow and bow . Often the arrow is connected to a special fishing reel attached to the bow via a fishing line . This method is particularly suitable in shallow water. Shooting is usually done standing in the water or from a boat at a distance of one to four meters. When aiming, the optical parallel offset and the optical elevation of the prey due to the refraction of light on the water surface must be taken into account - the prey is not where it appears to the shooter. To make matters worse, the optical offset is dependent on the distance due to the flatter viewing angle with increasing distance . There is no bycatch in bow fishing .
Bow fishing is a traditional hunting method used to acquire food and, as a recreational sport, it is an economic branch of hunting tourism and nature tourism .
history
From the Stone Age to the beginning of the modern age, bow fishing was on an equal footing with fishing and spearing fish. In Europe in particular, it was a widespread method of obtaining food. Nowadays bow fishing and spear fishing are still practiced by indigenous peoples of South America, Australia, New Guinea and the South Pacific. In the West, this technique is almost exclusively used by licensed bow hunters and recreational athletes, often for hunting large fish such as sharks , catfish or barramundi . Bow fishing is a variant of bow hunting .
material
Usually special fish arrows are made for bow fishing ; normal sports, hunting or war arrows are unsuitable. The design of the arrows is tailored to the subsurface of the water. More important than the quality of the arrow shaft is the type of arrowhead used at a short shooting distance, which hits the bottom of the water with every shot in shallow water.
The arrowhead is solid for stony ground so as not to blunt too quickly. A low bow draw weight in the range of 20-30 lbs is used. For this purpose a solid hardwood arrow, perhaps 1 cm thick, with an iron point and barbed hook , shot from a moderately strong to weak bow would be used.
A more delicate point can be used on sandy bottom , for example a trident-like point, which increases accuracy due to its larger hit area. One variant is to divide an arrow shaft made of bamboo into four at the front, sharpen the quarters individually and spread them far enough apart with cord winding to achieve the larger hit radius. The Australian Aborigines nowadays expediently use umbrella or bicycle spokes, which they sharpen and insert into a tubular shaft. The arrow with 10 to 15 thin, spread tips can achieve a high level of accuracy even with smaller fish. The hit radius is about 10-15 cm.
Hunting strategy
The strategy for materials and procedures is adapted to the type and size of the fish: large fish are shot at with single-pointed harpoon arrows, which can usually be retrieved by a thread, while small fish are hunted with the multiple points mentioned. Fish with a long flight distance that hide when the shooter approaches the water are only observed in order to find their hiding place. Brown trout, for example, often hide in swarms under poorly visible roots. There they can be wounded or killed by repeated shots from a short distance, so that they drift downstream (safety device required) or are impaled on an arrow.
Carp in ponds and when they are very large, flee into the middle of the pond and can be seen and hunted from an elevated vantage point. A small point with long barbs in the manner of a harpoon is suitable, and because of the greater distance and size of the prey, a somewhat stronger bow. The fish hit is caught by swimming towards it or by means of fishing line and fishing reel attached to the bow. In this way it is also possible to bow-fish from a boat .
At sea in incipient is low tide the opportunity to drive the fish on foot or by boat from the sea side in a bay or in shallower water and shoot there with mehrspitzigen arrows on sandy ground. It can also be shot from a boat when the fish are swimming over a bright seabed.
effectiveness
Bow fishing is most effective in smaller bodies of water such as streams and ponds, cut-off river arms, and on the banks of large bodies of water, as the fish there have fewer opportunities to escape. The catch rate of the bow can be higher than that of the simple fishing rod, depending on the archer's skills. Fish that are afraid of hooks and lazy to bite can still be reached with the bow; nets and fishing rods are more productive in large bodies of water.
In Germany and Switzerland, bow fishing and bow hunting are prohibited.