Laser Sight for Bow Fishing Question

Looking for opinions about using a laser sight for bow fishing. Do they work as advertised? What should I look for when purchasing one? According to the suppliers, the laser beam bends in the water so it doesn’t matter if the fish is on the surface or a few feet deep. If the dot is on the fish, you should be able to hit it.

My boy and I went out Wednesday evening and had a lot of chances but only managed to hit two. Often times we’d think we made a good shot judging but the line of bubbles as the arrow entered the water but we’d end up missing.

Maybe we just need to spend some time trying to hit submerged, suspended targets a couple feet under the water. We’ve got our pin adjusted so we hit targets floating on the surface and then try to adjust for submerged fish by aiming a little below them. I’m hoping the laser will eliminate the guessing game of how low to aim.

Thanks,

Boone

Have you tried no pins, used to do that with a recurve, practice practice.

catmando wrote:

Have you tried no pins, used to do that with a recurve, practice practice.

We have spent some time practicing but the water we practice on has relatively little clarity (the Mississippi) so we haven’t been able to practice shooting deeper than a foot or so. On Wednesday we were on the Croix which has much better clarity and some of the shots were deeper. We’ve also practiced on dry land by taking the barbed tip off the arrows and shooting into a foam block. We practice shooting both instinctively and using the pin.

I agree, success shooting anything from sling shots to rifles comes with practice practice.

Googled your question, result;
Laser light shown passing into a hemi-cylindrical dish filled with water. The light enters the water (at the curved side of the dish) along the normal line; no bending occurs upon entry. The light continues through the water along a straight line until it reaches the boundary with air (at the flat side of the dish).

I’m not exactly sure from reading this, but it seem to me the lazer beam would also not be bent, when entering river water.

fill some 1 liter or 2 liter pop bottles with sand. Tie on 6 foot of trilene 20 pound big game mono to the neck, and tie a float onto the other end, leaving a 4″ loop off the float. Throw them out off a dock, and practice shooting them at various depths from 1-5′ deep with a barbless arrow. When done, use a decoy retreiver to hook the float loops and pull them back in. After enough practice, you’ll be able to know you’re “lead” on fish at various depths. It takes practice, but it’s worth it. I started out at age 14 only shooting carp that had their backs out of the water because I was worthless at hitting anything deeper, before an old timer taught me this practice method.

Dave,

If the laser hits the surface of the water perpendicularly (a.k.a. along the normal line), it will not bend. But if it hits at an angle, it will bend. Notice how high vis fishing line appears to bend upward towards the surface as it enters the water? This is because water and air have different refractive indices. The fishing line does not really bend upward towards the surface as it enters the water. It just appears higher in the water than it really is. The same thing happens when we look at a carp under water… the carp appears higher than it really is. That’s why you have to aim “under” the carp to hit it.

The theory with a laser is that it will bend when it enters the water but if the dot is on carp, that will account for the carp appearing to be higher in the water than it actually is. The laser is adjusted so the dot hits where the arrow is hitting the surface of the water.

Or as TC explained, just practice hitting under-water, suspended targets that are floating up off the bottom. I’ll have to ask my neighbor if I can use his pool…after the all kids are out of course.