Bow fishing is a great mixture of both fishing and hunting! It you are a thrill seeker and are looking for something to do with family and friends this summer, we have the perfect trip for you! When the sun is shining on the crystal emerald water, you’re able to see everything! We do all day time bow fishing making it very easy to see the fish a little ways out and allow for you to get prepared to make the perfect shot.

Summer Species!

There are a variety of species to shoot here on the emerald coast. During summertime our main target is Big Southern Stingrays, Cow Nose Rays, Mullet, Gar and Catfish. Southern Rays or “bottom” rays are rather large and are easily spotted in the clear water. They will be lying directly on the bottom. While they seem like a large and easy target, they can be swift and difficult to shoot at times. They make for an excellent challenge. Cow Nose Rays are our “topwater” rays. They will be swimming in depths from 2 feet to 6 feet. It is not uncommon to even see these rays with their backs out of the water. They are fast and creeping up on them can be a challenge. You better be on you’re a game! Mullet, gar, and catfish are long slender fish that also cause for you to aim just perfectly to hit your mark. They swim faster than a stingray does as well.

Let’s Go Bow Fish!

Keep in mind bow fishing does not require any experience. We will teach you everything you need to know prior to hitting the water and help you throughout the trip. Bow fishing is a sport for everyone to enjoy! The only regulation we have is in order to go bow fishing and participate you must be able to pull back 40 pounds. All equipment and licenses are included on each trip. We also have left hand bows if needed. Give us a call today and let’s have some fun!!

Grab your cooler and sunglasses and let’s go! As you make your way down the harbor walk to the boat, you will already notice the warm salty air and a lot of attractions going on. Destin is a town that doesn’t sleep very often. Before you take off, you will meet at our booking booth right up the stairs from our boats. Here you will read and sign a release form and also pay for your trip. Once you have done those two things you will be directed down the dock to your boat. Here we will give a thorough demonstration on how the bows work and how to shoot them safely. After all bow fishing is very fun but requires total focus at all times to avoid careless accidents. Once the demo is complete y’all are ready to go.

With gear and crew loaded up, it’s time to fish. From backing out of the boat slip to arriving at the hunting locations, it won’t take more then about 10 minutes. There are special cases where we may ride a little farther depending on where the fish have been schooling at that particular time of the year. Once arrived at the spot, the Captain will give another brief safety instruction on the bows and how to stand on the front of the boat while shooting. For safety, we allow two shooters to stand up on the bow at a time. The captain will be up in the tower spotting fish and driving as close as he can to get y’all an up close shot!

Get ready…

Here we go; Captain just spotted a school of 10 Cownose Rays straight off the bow 25 feet! Shooters get ready! When the boat is almost on top of them, that’s when you will want to draw back and take your shot! Zing! Zing! Both shooters sling an arrow at them. Shooter 1 misses. Shooter 2 penetrates a ray and it takes off, taking line fast! If you are shooter 1, you will want to reel up your line and get your arrow knocked again for a second shot. Usually the school of fish won’t travel too far away. If you are shooter 2, let the ray run a little bit and then put your bow down and hand line him in. Rays are too strong to reel in manually, you will have to reel in a majority of them in, depending on size. Some rays will take longer to get inside the boat and put up a mean fight while others might give up pretty easily. Once the ray is right beside the boat and you can see your arrow, the captain will come down and either gaff the ray and bring him over the rail or grab onto the arrow and bring him in the boat. Once in the boat, the captain will carefully remove the barb for y’all to take home with you and then take the arrow out of the ray.

Depending on where the ray is shot will determine whether the ray will be released back into the water or if it will be placed in the icebox to be used as crab/shark bait. If a ray has been shot only in the wing, it will be released back into the water. Stingrays are made of mostly cartilage and will heal up a flesh wound almost instantly when placed back in the salt water. If the ray has been shot in the vitals or spine and cannot heel up, we will put it in the icebox to take home with us. Stingrays are some of the best bait you can use for setting crab traps or shark fishing.

Depending on how many shooters you have, you may have to rotate so everyone gets a shot. Our trips are determined to leave you with tired arms! Once the trip is over and time is up, y’all will wrap up the lines, secure the arrows and place the bows back where they go and head back to the dock!

It is time to have some fun so book a charter now!

Bow fishing is used to catch a wide variety of fish, and with the nice weather we’ve been having, we’ve been experiencing a lot of that variety here at Destin Bow Fishing.

Cow nose rays have been popping up and have become visible in our clear and blue water, and the southern rays are starting to seemingly come out of nowhere. Feeding non-stop and pushing up on the sand bars, all of our recent bow fishing trips have been successful. Shooting from about ten to fifteen rays per trip, they have been weighing in at the 30 to 40-pound range. They’re known to get up to as much as 100 pounds, so maybe you’ll get lucky!

The southern stingray is member of the stingray family found in tropical and subtropical waters that often bury and cover themselves in sand or substrate in order to hide from predators. Known for their usually docile and distinctively playful behavior, these big bottom rays often put on a show and pull line out hard and fast, providing fast and furious bow fishing action. 

This bow fishing season has gotten off to a good start so feel free to come out and join us this summer!

T-Minus 18 days for the first official day of summer but we here at Destin BowFishing aren’t waiting any longer, we are in full swing for the summer! With the kids out of school, summer is the perfect time to create some family memories and document all of your adventures. Today we will showcase a few pictures from May that we’ve shared on our Instagram and Facebook. For June, Destin BowFishing are challenging you to document your fun in the sun this summer. Follow us on Instagram, Like our Facebook page and tag us in your pictures. At the beginning of July, we will show case some of your pictures using our hashtag in a roundup post. While the fish are biting, you should be snapping those pics. We’re ready to double-tap your catches!

Destin BowFishing Social Media
Instagram: @destinshorecharters
Facebook: facebook.com/destinshorecharters

Taking your own pictures and wanting us to see? Use the hashtag #DESTIN BOWFISHING or #DESTININSHORECHARTERS on social media and for a chance to be featured in our June round-up! Here are some bonus hashtags you can also use on your posts: #fishing #bowfishing #stingray #bottomray

Here on the Emerald Coast this June, Destin Bow Fishing is offering up some of the warmest and most ideal weather we’ve had in the past year!

With crystal clear water that’s already warming up and allowing for near-perfect visibility, we’re able to provide you with the guaranteed greatest bow fishing places in the country!

For our first-time guests and those of you that just aren’t as familiar, bow fishing is a method of fishing which utilizes specialized archery equipment to shoot and retrieve the fish in place of fishing lines, making for the perfect combination of hunting and fishing.

Most non-game and rough fish species are legal for bowfishing and nighttime is considered to be the more popular time for the sport. Fish tend to come out and feel more secure at night as the water cools, even though here we’re having just as good luck during the day!

Most arrows are used without sights, instead bow fishers rely instead on instinct. Although perhaps awkward and unusual at first, this will soon become second-nature. We can assure you that bow fishing is a lot less intimidating than it sounds, and is much easier to prepare for and learn than it sounds.

Destin Bow Fishing is very accommodating for beginners, and our professional staff is always around to answer questions on bow safety. We offer the equipment needed and will help provide you with the experience needed to master this unique and exciting sport!

I’d like to take the time to highlight some key points that are about bow fishing.

1. Bow Safety

   Bow safety is very similar to gun safety, but do not let that sentence scare you away or keep you from trying out the sport for the first time! The most important thing would be to make sure that all the pieces of your bow are in god working condition, if you do not know how to inspect your bow, we can teach you what to look out for and more specifically when something looks wrong. Of course all the normal rules apply as they do for any projectile weapon, do not point it at yourself or anyone else. And, depending on whether or not you are fishing from a boat and the type of boat you are fishing from, try not to aim the bow at the boat until you get a grasp of understanding the mechanics.

2. Gear

   Many people think that it is hard to break into the sporting world of bow fishing if you don’t already have the gear for it. In fact many charters such as ourselves offer the equipment for first time bow fishers without the need to make a commitment to the sport by purchasing the gear yourself. Another odd misconception is that a boat that is well fortified and outfitted specifically for bow fishing is needed. This is completely untrue! While it is definitely more fun―and in some ways easier to bow fish from a boat―it is also very common to see people bow fishing right off of the docks.

3. Sights

   If you are familiar with bows, you know that many bows come equipped with a sight to aid with long range hunting. This aspect can deter new comers to the sport who feel like they would not be able to properly work a sight. In fact you’re better off skipping a sight altogether, many bow fisherman do not fish with a sight because it ultimately gets in the way. More often than not, you will be so close to your prey that a sight is really just redundant and you most likely would not even have enough time to line up a shot in the crosshairs.

Hopefully these little blurbs helped clear up some questions you may have had about the exciting and unique sport of bow fishing!

Welcome to Destin Bowfishing! No experience or equipment is required for our fishing trips for all ages. Give us a call or contact us to book your next fishing trip.

Come Bow Fishing with Captain Chris Kirby and Destin Inshore Charters. Fulfill your bow fishing cravings on the deck of a 22-foot Cape Horn — A bay boat made to accommodate anyone’s Bow Fishing needs. Fishing will take place in the emerald-green blue waters off Destin, Florida. Destin’s home of the World’s Luckiest Fishing Village.