This Saturday evening, Sept. 7, the Bowfishing Fall Brawl takes place at Lake Fork. Sign-in is 8:00 p.m. at the Hwy. 154 boat ramp, but anglers can launch at whatever public ramp they choose. Tournament ends at 3:00 a.m. on Sunday morning back at the HWY 154 ramp. The format for this tournament is Big 10; the team with the heaviest 10 fish total wins.
"It depends on the number of anglers registered for the tournament, but the 1st place team could win $600. It could go as high as $1,000," says Jace Scarbrough, Secretary of the Texas Bow Fishing Association, http://www.texasbowfishingassociation.com. Twenty teams fished the May tournament at Lake Fork.
At the 2013 State Championship held Aug. 17, in Anahuac, Team Pro Drive took state honors with 321 fish.
"We shoot gar, carp, buffalo and grinnell," continues Scarbrough. Powerful lights, such as high pressure sodium or halogen, powered by a generator, helps anglers search out their quarry. "We just scan the shallows for trash fish."
Required fishing equipment is not complicated. "Any bow will work. I attach a spinning reel to the bow. There are other techniques you can use such as a bottle retriever, which is a bottle with some line in it, or a can with line wrapped around it."
The reels are equipped with 200 pound test braided line. After a fish is hit by an arrow, the fun begins as the fish is hand lined back to the boat.
Scarbrough, who bow fishes regularly on Lake Fork's, says his biggest fish might be a 50 pound buffalo or a 40 pound carp.
What will it take to win Saturday night?
"I guess the winner will probably have 250 pounds. It's possible it might take 400 pounds."
Entry fee for the Bowfishing Fall Brawl is $20 per man in a team. There is an optional $10 side pot for biggest fish of the tournament. "At our tournaments, women and children fish free. We try to get the whole family involved."