A question for bow fishermen.

[Dandrews]

I’ve never bow fished and I’m not passing judgment but I saw this yesterday and it left me confused. I was fishing the Great Miami River (GMR) in Hamilton and there was a guy wading with a bow. He shot what looked like a decent sided buffalo and then he just tossed it back in the river. I see guys shoot fish down there every once in a while but I’ve never seen anyone release a fish after shooting it. I guess that’s akin to varmint hunting, I’d just never thought of it before.
What are the chances of that fish surviving? I know some shots may be more lethal than others and the buffalo population in that river is not going to miss a few members believe me, but is it common to release a fish after it’s been shot?

["chillin"]

Thats just plain laziness. The fish will most likely die. When i go wading with my bow i always take a stringer, just tie it to a belt loop and drag the fish along with you. What he did was against the law. When i first started wading for carp with my bow i had quite a few fish get away while taking them off the arrow. This was easily cured by putting them on the stringer before removing the arrow. Some people are dumber than a box full of hammers.

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[Dandrews]

I guess that the fish could have just gotten away from him, but it looked like he looked at it, admired it for a second, and tossed it back. I wasn’t close enough to be sure, it struck me as odd.