3rd Annual Illinois State Bowfishing Championship at Wolf Creek State Park at Lake Shelbyville June 9-10. Sponsored by the Illinois Bowfishers. Big 25 Format. Max of ten of one any one species. BAA Sanctioned. Registration starts at 8:00 AM Saturday. 1st boat off at 11:00 AM. Tournament ends Sunday at 7:00 AM. This is an 20 hour tournament!!!! There will be a Big fish pot for $10 per boat. There will be an all the carp you can shoot pot with added money included in your registration fee of $30 per person for non club members and $20 for club members. One to three persons per boat. Kids unders 18 shoot free with a paying adult. Limited to the first 50 boats. Free BBQ Saturday evening at 5:30 for all shooters. Courtsey boat inspection by the Land of Lincoln Power Squadron.

Bowfisher

Added it to the calendar

Bob:
Hope to see you and some Bowfishers from the southern part of the state at the Illinois State Bowfishing Chmapionship. Get to practicing.

Bowfisher

I hope we get some rain to raise the water level a bit.

I just bought another bow/bowfishing rig. I've never bow fished a day in my life. I'm looking for some to go out with to show me the ropes. I have a boat and looking to learn...

We can go out maybe next week some time. Let me know when you have an evening off. I'll be on 7-3 next week.

I work evening from 4-midnight. I'm off monday but headed up to Lake Kincaid to bass fish again. I'm taking my new bowfishing rig to practice and maybe I'll get a carp...I'll bring it with me on Sunday to peabody....

Highcountry, you should check out the fishing days at Grafton, June 2nd.
We're hoping to get after some bigheads after the show.

Illinois Bowfishers State Championship.

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Stop by and see us even if you don't plan on shooting in the tourney.

Well the third annual Illinois State Championship is in the books. Thanks to the everyone who helped make it fun time for the 15 teams that participated.

I'll try to get pics and more info up soon.

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Teams listen as Dave "Bowfisher" Randolph conducts the pre-tournament rules meeting.
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CPO Sgt Scott Siddens made sure we all knew how to stay safe and legal.

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All the boats went through a voluntary vessel safety check. Thanks to the Power squadron members that gave up their morning to do this for us.
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Boats lined up to be checked and register.

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Gathering for the weigh-in.

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And Oooh what fish they weighed-in.

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The Indy Boys brought in some mighty nice gar.

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The grassie on the lower right weighed 49lbs

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We apprieciate Park staff for helping us "can" our fish.

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Luke Whitknack accepts the first place trophy for team Indy Boys with Dave Thompson and Alex Grable.

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Jake and Snuffy took second.

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Matt Clark's team came in third place.

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Rob Grider hands Joseph Ewing the trophy for most carp. Despite Joseph's partners Bill and Kristina Shelby arriving late and having to spend quite a bit of time fixing his fan motor and his generator.

There were gift certificates awarded for biggest Carp, Gar and Buffalo fish.
They were won by Mark McLeester, Alex Grable and Matt Clark respectively.
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And finally the door prize tarp. The prizes just wouldn't fit on the tables we had so we laid out a tarp.
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Everyone who stuck around to the end went away with some nice prizes thanks to many sponsors.

I want say a BIG thank you to all the people who made this event fantastic. I could not begin to name them all w/o leaving someone out.

We were blessed with excellent weather again.

If you weren't there you missed a boat load of fun. I didn't even have any pictures of the BBQ. If you did miss it,don't dispair. There's always next year. See you then. :D

Looks like a great time was had by all...

The Illinois State Bowfishing Championship was a blast. The Bowfishing Gods broughts us beautiful weather. The Land of Lincoln Pwer Squadron was there to inspect the boats and the Lake Shelbyville CPO was there to give us a pep talk on boat safety and discuss the red zones. The state record Grass Crp was broken, now 49# and some oz. Several really nice Long nose Gar in the 55 inch class where taken. Great BBQ. 38 shooter in 15 boats took over 4000 lbs of rough fish out of Lake Shelbyville many still with eggs in them.

Bowfisher

I got a dumb question, I've never bowfished b4 but what do they do with all them fish after the tourney?

http://www.illinoisbowfishers.com/images/state07/lonnie.jpg
We apprieciate Park staff for helping us "can" our fish.


Boo, this was a 20 hour tournament so nearly all the fish were not in any shape for consumption. (human or otherwise) Some of the fresher ones were saved along with several large gar for use in a "Women in the Outdoors" class.
The rest were used as fertilizer by the State Park.