I don't bowfish, but I think bowfishing is closer than hook and line to my preferred method. Is this the appropriate, gentlemanly place to talk about spear fishing? Only one way to find out, so let's give it a shot, shall we?
My tale begins on a sunny Washington day. I was at work, staring at a monitor and talking to strangers on the phone, and itching to get out of the office and on the water. At 3:30 my wish was granted and the Gronckle (my 17ft boat) was in the water. We headed out into the wind, and I idled through the no wake zone, taking time to appreciate the monkey-crap-brown water. I rounded the channel marker into Posession sound and was greeted with whitecaps and wind, and the water color turned into a monkey-crap-brown tinged with dog-puke-green. Oh yeah, this is going to be fun to swim around in!
24 minutes later I was on site at one of my favorite spearing spots. I dropped the anchor in 31 ft of water, geared up, grabbed my gun and my stringer and jumped off the boat. Looking down from the surface, I couldn't even see my fins on my feet through the murk. Yup, conditions were perfect!
I dropped down to 40ft, feeling the not-so-welcome feeling of cold water inside my drysuit. A leak? Perfect. At 3 minutes into the dive my stomach and crotch were full of C-O-L-D water. Hmm, I guess I'm not gonna impress the missus tonight! At 4 minutes into the dive I saw the shadows of the wreck I was diving on emerging from the dark. I turned on my light, loaded the bands onto my gun, put my game face on, and settled in for what I thought was going to be a long search for ling.
2 minutes later, I'm face to face with a dandy ling cod who is just laying on the bottom, staring at me like I owe him something. Beautiful color, good size, very healthy looking fish. I swam over the top of him, and he never even flinched. Alright tough guy, let's go. I lined up my shot and let loose the spear, hitting from the top down right between the eyes, completely stoning him. He never swam, rolled or fought at all, he just quivered a few seconds and then he was done. I strung him up, turned my now freezing cold butt around, and went back to the boat. Total dive time: 12 minutes.
Back on the Gronckle, I started rehydrating
and motoring back in. The wind had died off some, the sun was out, and I had some good fillets to look forward to. All things considered, it was a pretty good day. I would have liked a longer dive, better wind conditions, and less murky water, but I had a fish and that's why I went out there in the 1st place.
