Bill Mann

I think it's good to hear arguments/concern from both sides. Threatening to ban someone for speaking up sounds more like a case of playground bullying 😞

You sound like you have anger issues

I think the issue is killing large numbers of fish for fun. Kill what you will eat, that's fine. But killing for sport and tossing the kill isn't right. If being "invasive" was the issue, Smallmouth Bass, muskies, brown trout should all be killed by us bowhunters. Smallmouth bass aren't native to most places up north and they take over lakes. Why aren't they used for bowfishing practice? Why can't we shoot all the muskie we want to? They aren't native to most lakes. Why is it legal to shoot alligator gars of immense size if people are not eating them? Why waste a natural resource? If you kill it, you must be willing to use it for food. Otherwise let it go.

Tough to breathe when I smell dead fish everytime I go near a river/lake bank. Tough to breathe when I am wading in chest deep water and I keep kicking up dead fish left to sink after being shot. Something needs to be done or no one can enjoy the outdoors

Long time lurker here. I see both sides of the coin. I bowfish. I ONLY kill what I eat. After looking at these sites for ages I thought I would chime in. I keep seeing tons of dead rough fish and game fish littered along the ramps and roadside. Why are you guys taking a life if you are not going to eat or donate it ? I was walloped as a kid when I shot birds and squirrels for fun. Maybe the modern bowfishers were never raised right. Shooting for thrill and dumping the kill is just wasting a natural resource. Carp have been here for over 150 year and were introduced for food and for game. I let people fish for carp on my private pond and I don't harvest the large carp since they are not good eating. I love watching families catch a 30 lb carp and love seeing the joy on faces of their kids. If they want to bowfish, I take them out with the strict rule to target small carp which are abundant and also good to smoke. The love for killing will destroy the bowfishing world. The disregard for life and the wanton waste has given bowfishing a bad rap. The loud generators, disregard for other anglers and dumping fish on shore or sinking them after being shot, will probably make bowfishing illegal in most waters. The modern bowfisher is the greatest threat to bowfishing. There needs to be a balance where we get to shoot fish but we let anglers enjoy catching the large ones for catch and release. If not, we are just destroying this sport. The sponsors and gear manufacturers are already backing out of many tournaments. They will keep backing out once society is fed up with the mess us bowfishers create. Carp are great sport fish. They are the closest to fighting a large saltwater fish on rod/line. It's sad that anglers and bowfishers are always at each others throat. In the long run, bowfishing will just lose out due to the waste/senseless killing and dumping. Bill.

Lol.I kill what I eat. I own 2 ponds: 1 with tons of carp and one with NO carp ( drained 3 years ago). Mud and sediment settles after a bit. My pond with NO carp is always muddier since we tool around with a boat. Plus the pond with no carp borders a golf course and fertilizer run off results in algae bloom. bull on carp resulting in long lasting muddy water. I bowfish waters which are gin clear and FULL of carp. I see boats/fertilizer run off etc as a larger threat to water quality in shallower ponds. If you don't kill what you eat, you are just a little brat who loves to kill for fun. I take a life and I utilize the kill.