Bowfishing is a fishing technique that uses specialized archery equipment to impale and retrieve fish. A bowfisher will use a bow or crossbow to shoot fish through the water surface with a barbed arrow tethered to a line, and then manually retrieve the line and arrow back, in modern times usually with a reel mounted on the bow. Unlike other popular forms of fishing where baiting and exploiting the fish's instinctual behaviors are important, bowfishing is similar to spearfishing and relies purely on the fisherman's own visual perception and marksmanship, and usually do not involve using other tools such as hand net.
Modern sport bowfishing often occurs at night, shown here on a specialized boat: raised bow platform with powerful floodlights to expose and attract fish during the placid condition of night, often with several bowfishers covering different sectors.
A modern bowfisher takes aim at spawning carp in an Iowa pond.
The Filipino Negritos traditionally used bows and arrows to shoot fish in clear water.
Sport bowfishing is prone to excessive waste of native species. For example, 100-year-old bigmouth buffalo in Minnesota and the cycle of modern bowfishing. See Scarnecchia et al. 2021.
Fishing techniques are methods for catching fish. The term may also be applied to methods for catching other aquatic animals such as molluscs and edible marine invertebrates.
Ama diver in Japan
Noodling for catfish in southern USA
A Hupa man with his spear
A fisherman casting a net in Kerala, India
