Fish Vs. Fabric

This summer I've been dangling between my two favorite hobbies, sewing and bowfishing. My husband teases me about always having hobbies that involve sharp pointed objects. I can't lie, I love needles and arrows. So making time for both is quite a feat. My husband and I will get off the boat after fishing for 5 hours and I'll shower off the yucky smell and run upstairs to finish my embroidery.

Most people know what sewing involves, but what is bowfishing? I love archery, always have and this year for valentine's day, my wonderful husband got me a beautiful new compound bow. He's not even into bows and hunting, so it was completely romantic. :)
All you have to too is, grab an AMS bowfishing reel and attach it on the side, get extra long bowfishing arrows with a harpoon tip and go out and shoot fish! Well there's a few more details then that, but my favorite part about both hobbies is that they help the environment.

I create all my crafty projects with recycled materials I pick up from, yard sales, thrift stores, and generous donors. Reuse instead of buy new.

Bowfishing is helping the Department of Natural Resources get rid of unwanted fish species that harm the lakes, rivers and streams they get into. Carp for instance, are not native to the U.S. and have devastating effects on the underwater ecosystems. They eat out the bottom of the food chain, causing a chain reaction and depeating food sources for the native fish.

Thankfully the places we've found to fish at, always have a few people on the banks that know how to fry these suckers up! We have also taken home a few buffalo carp for dinner and sometimes we leave them up on the forested banks for other wildlife. I'll never know what happened to that 20lb grass carp I got these spring. We left it on the bank and came back 2 weeks later and there was no bones and no trail. What kind of animal in Belleville, IL is big enough to drag away a 20lb fish?

This was early on in my bowfishing adventures. My husband had to do all the nasty work, because I wouldn't touch the fish. I got over that really fast, when I got splattered with guts one too many times. :)

Sorry if I grossed you out, but it's so much fun! Won't know until you try it.