HNI_Christine

Fun, Fish and Festivities!!


The Illinois State Bowfishing Championship BAA Sanctioned

June 4-5 @ Wolf Creek State Park
Shelbyville, Illinois


Tourny starts at 12 noon June 4, 2005 (Saturday) and ends noon June 5, 2005.

This is a 'big 10' format. (Total highest weight of 10 fish wins)

You can only enter 4 of any species. (enter 4 carp, 4 buffalo, 2 gar or 4 gar, 4 carp and 2 buffs.... that kind of thing)

Optional Big Fish contest.

There are two classes. Those with boats and those wading/walking the shoreline. The two classes do not compete against each other ('cept for the big fish pot)

2-3 man teams for boats. Wading/walking class is a one person per 'team'.

Entery fee is $20.00 per person. $5.00 to enter big fish pot.

80% payout for entry fee, 100% payout for big fish pot.

Awards given right after weigh-in. A raffle will be held also (win a brand new bow!)

A BBQ will be held Saturday evening.

(I'll be giving away some HuntingNet Hats too)

bowman15

I'll be there missy. Oh, wait, you knew that; you're driving me!!

HNI_Christine

What a fun weekend!

We left for Lake Shelbyville on Friday evening. Picked up Bowman (Steve) and hit the big roads.

We had almost made it to Bloomington when a trailer tire blew out. We swapped out the tire with a really bad looking spare. Jim and Steve played "Jack" and lifted the boat and trailer up so I could take off/put on the tires. I might have taken my time a bit... just to see how strong they really are.

The deceased tire.


I don't do much shopping at Walmart... but where else can you pick up two trailer tires for $25.00 each along with some paper plates and a boat light at 10pm?


We arrived at the Wolf Creek Campground around midnight.... Maybe. I don't really remember, it was a long weekend. I do know that we made a special point to pull our truck (high beams on) right up to Kendall's tent.

After Kendall (AKA Carpsniper) staggered out of his tent (heh heh) We all went over to see Rob and Bill (Team Danville) who were still awake and working on a bent trolling motor bracket. (try bending metal quietly, in a packed campground, in the dark) High tech tools were tried, such as a picnic table and two vice grips. Kendall is a big, big guy and I think he could have just intimidated the bracket back into shape but instead he watched the efforts with amusement.

Daylight soon came, and we met up with some more bowfishers. A team brought in this awesome, sparkly, modified-for-bowfishing bass boat. You gotta love it!


The USCG was on hand to give complimentary boat inspections. That was cool of them. Unfortunately, I got there too late to get inspected. I wanted to see if the Coast Guard would comment on my Jolly Roger.

Boats lining up at the registration area.


At noon the competitors started hitting the water. Team Carp-Sandwich hung around the registration table for a couple hours longer. We were trying to give the other teams a sporting chance. (heh heh...yeah right!)

My team members Jim and Steve.


Conditions were a bit tough (windy and muddy water). Still, Steve soon had his first ever gar.

Then his first ever shortnose gar.

We weren't getting anything big tho... and this was a big 10 tourny. eek. I also developed a really swell migraine which forced me to try and sleep under the shooting platform while Jim and Steve continued bowfishing. Eventually, we went back to camp where I crashed in the tent. While I slept off most of my headache, a bowfisherman's bbq was held at the campground pavilion. (waaaa.. I missed it. )

Night rolled around and the boats with lights hit the water. We were sure this was our time to get that monster fish that would win us the tourny... but we were wrong. Steve got a nice buffalo, but other than that we just picked up some more dinky carp and a couple of smallish gar.

Fighting the wind killed our trolling motor batteries by midnight so we came back to camp, took well needed showers and went to sleep.

Other boats didn't come back until daylight. The Indiana Team bought in their boat filled with over 100 carp.

We went out again in the morning and nabbed several carp, but again, all small stuff. (the big carp and gar were too smart for us)

These guys found bigger carp than we did.


Weigh-in time. Dave the Tournament Director was smart to wear gloves. (careful Dave, those guys might try to sneak a quillback through!)


The winner of the Big Fish Pot. Mr Carrigan not only shot the biggest fish, but also the second biggest. They each weighed over 14lbs. (those two fish added up to about the total weight of all of our fish entered) [:-]



With those big fish plus several other nice sized fish, Team Carrigan-Swigart also won first place.


Second place went to the Indiana Team.

Third Place went to Carpsniper's 'Central Illinois Rough Fish Control' Team. (even tho' they tried to enter a quillback in the weigh-in....tsk tsk..)

After the weigh-in and awards.. we had door prizes and a raffle. Just about everybody walked away with something.

(Team Danville, Team Carp-Sandwich and Team Central Illinois had a side competition going for the coveted 'Brass Carp')
Amazingly Danville and Carp-Sandwich tied exactly..... but Kendall's Central IL team completely swatted us..... []

The group (minus a couple of teams)

Steve and Kendall posing in their spiffy HuntingNet shirts.


It was a tiring weekend.

Some passengers slept.

...And some drivers tried sleeping too.

It was a great time. I want to thank Dave our Tourny Director for putting together this great event...and doing the bbq! Thanks to Joe McFarland for coming out from the Outdoor Illinois Magazine to cover our shoot. A big thanks to our buddy from the DNR who helped us grind up our fish and was most cheerful through out the whole event. Thanks to all the teams that entered too.

Red Hawk

Looks like you had fun and great pictures

I'm definetly looking forward to trying bowfishing so be careful, i might give you competetion..eventually

bowman15

Well you better practice alot Red Hawk, cause Amanita can shoot! Take it from a guy whose shot with her on more than one occasion.

Bulzeye

Yeah, she can shoot, BUT she pushes people out of boats.
From what I hear, the last 2 times she's been out, one guy from her boat ended up in the water.
What's up with that?

HNI_Christine

Hey, look at Steve and Jim... Does it look like I could push those guys out of a boat?

I mean, I'm sweet and innocent and perfectly harmless...



I think I'm going to try and get on Kendall's boat next weekend. I'll let you know if Kendall (who makes Steve look small) ends up in the water.

bowman15

I bet he does!!

Sweet? Innocent? HARMLESS!?!?!?!?

Fishhunter

I've seen her shoot in clear water - or try to shoot.

I'm getting jealous. I haven't been out in several weeks. The wather keeps going crappy on my days off. Looks like another fun time for all.

HNI_Christine

Well then Fish...

I went out last night... (6/9) Pbbbttt!!


[8D]