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Meeting with city officials to legalize bowfishing in city limits

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bung

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
Anyone have any decent talking points or present to the parks and rec board?

Their big concern is safety and image. If I can convince them, they will recommend the council act- generally the council follows their advice.

Anyway, I need to meet with them to present why it should be legalized and am looking for stats regarding injuries from the sport and positive things that come with the sport. Esp any studies that might be availble about how carp harm ecosystems.
 
#4 ·
Image

thats the image he is talking. Statically speaking I can say bowfishing is safer then jogging and bike riding but I dont have any thing to back it up, but i would cite the destructive nature of carp.
 
#5 ·
you all started me to thinking about carp i know buffalo are good eating but regular whiskered german carp is there anything that they do thats good for the habitat of lakes and rivers? would like to hear if it is.:cf:
 
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#8 ·
Explain to them that these fish are not native and are invasive. Explain to them their ability to repopulate at rates that are far greater than the desired game fish. Describe the sizes that these fish can reach. Just from the pure volume taken up in a body of water from trash fish takes away from game fish. You can only put so many gold fish in a fish tank. Put some emphasis that the sport is growing and with that growth, comes more responsibility. Not all follow the rules and some don't respect the sport......which in turns ruins it for us. Explain that the youth really enjoy the sport and teaches them how to live outside where we were meant to be, not inside with video games and terrible TV shows. Challenge on of them to go with you. I've taken numerous amounts of people that have never even shot a bow that absolutely loved it! Most of them ended up purchasing their own bow shortly after.
Good Luck!
 
#10 ·
We have this philosophical debate on the boat all the time. What role does the fish and game department really play when you are talking about non-game fish? Is it like coyote hunting, also a non-game animal? If it's a non-game fish, does that mean bowfishing should be allowed on lakes that are rod and reel only? Then you get to sinking fish. Totally illegal on gamefish in Oklahoma due to wanton waste law, but wanton waste doesn't apply to non-game fish. So sinking fish should be legal, right? And on, and on...

Good luck man. Best advise I can give is get them on the boat. Anyone that still likes nasty slimy stinky carp after a trip out is an hard core tree hugger and they aren't ever going to be convinced otherwise.
Safety? Do they allow skiing? Jetskis? Duck hunting? Fishing from a boat? Think you can win that one based on all the other chit they allow already. Unless the lake is completely locked down now.
 
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#11 ·
Ranger F said:
Lotsa places bows fall under firing a weapon inside city limits... That's the hang up
Click to expand...
Yeeup, many cities (most around here) have a "projectile" law. Anything you can shoot may be deemed dangerous and illegal.
When you present your case you could say that you share their concern with any safety issues they might have, but can assure them that you are using a tethered arrow, shot downward into the water, at a close distance and retrieved. Danger to the public... is not even an issue.
Best of luck to ya, let us know how it goes.


Jay
 
#13 ·
Sorry to resurrect an old thread but called WDM Parks and Rec today and got a rather angry "NO" to bowfishing at raccoon river park. my son wants to get into bow fishing but tough to find someplace local to go. if things have changed and the person i called was misinformed, let me know.
 
#14 ·
CyBuzz said:
Sorry to resurrect an old thread but called WDM Parks and Rec today and got a rather angry "NO" to bowfishing at raccoon river park. my son wants to get into bow fishing but tough to find someplace local to go. if things have changed and the person i called was misinformed, let me know.
Click to expand...
This is an interesting thread. A sticky with salient info for anyone wanting to get such laws changed would be in order, but finding someone with the time to write the data would be difficult.
 
#15 ·
Natural resources departments are focused on "balancing recreational opportunity with conflict". Direct quote from recent interactions with multiple states fisheries chiefs. It makes sense that in more populated area the conflict potential is higher, and they are less likely to expand bowfishing privileges. The most advantageous talking point I see is that bowfishing provides an alternative recreational opportunity with broad appeal in a time that license sales, and general population participation are declining. While every new recreational opportunity provides a potential new conflict, the sheer amount of opportunity invasive species harvest provides outweighs the negative conflicts.

The standard argument is "bowfishing removes nuisance species and is good for the aquatic ecosystem." This is somewhat true when the target species is common carp, and the asian carp, but in all reality bowfishing has a minimal impact on fish populations. The greatest leverage lies with the opportunity for outdoor recreation.
 
#17 ·
I met with the Virginia DGIF a couple years back and got a couple species added to the legal list for Virginia (catfish and bowfin). It was a strikingly simple process, but I think mainly because bowfishing is still so obscure and uncommon. That being said, I think your problem is going to lie in the 'weaponry' issue. A bow is considered a weapon in my county, whether it is set up to fish or not. Not to mention the public perception of you hauling in a bloody carp right there in the sight of families and kids. I think that will be an uphill battle. I think your best shot is to go for night-time bowfishing to be legalized. That eliminates most of your problem. Perception is reality.
 
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fowlplay
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