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Wild Addiction's Tim Roller (Left) and Pro Staffer Fred Andalora wade into Saginaw Bay at the start of the 24th Annual Great Lakes Bowfishing Championship.

Bowfishing for Carp, Gar Pike and Goldfish - Unlimited Fun!!!

TV Camera Crew & MyBayCity Outdoor Writer Burn Event Into Memory of Film

June 3, 2007       Leave a Comment
By: Dave Rogers

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Quanicassee, MI - The sun creeps up over the rim of Saginaw Bay and peeks into Caseville where 250 two-man teams of bowfishermen are signing up for the 24th Annual Great Lakes Bowfishing Championship.

Tim Roller and Fred Andalora of Tim Roller's Wild Addiction television show are signed up to compete. Roller has brought along his Wild Addiction camera crew to film the event that will be shown in 2008 on the The Sportsman Channel National Television Network.

In Bay City, wily cameramen (Dave Rogers and O.J. Cunningham) who will stalk the wily fishermen who will stalk the wily carp, gar pike and goldfish are loading equipment into the car.

After breakfast at Big Boy, the Bay City pair rendezvous with Wild Addiction's Tim Roller and Fred Andalora of the Wild Addiction Pro Staff at Garner Road near Quanicassee.

Without the voice from On-Star, all would be lost. But Onstar can lead you to Garner Road - can even lead you to the carp.

The game, er, rather fishing, is on.

Battling through miles of muddy, rutted roads, the intrepid sportsmen finally reach the field of battle -- flat, shallow, Saginaw Bay.

That's where the wily carp likely will be found.

The goal, should we choose to accept, is to land the greatest total weight over two days that might bring an $800 first prize in the 24th annual event.


Below: Top Photo: Tim Roller launches an arrow at a swimming carp in the shallow water of Saginaw Bay.
Lower Photos: (Left) Roller shows his catch - a 10 pound carp. (Right) Roller and teammate, Andalora share a laugh during a break in tournament action.








Git 'Er Done . . .

Bowfishing - Nothing to it. All you gotta do is take any bow and arrow (recurve or compound) hunting equipment and a special arrow attached to a long yellow line.

Pull on some high hip boots, or, better yet, waders. Check your compass, fish knife, sunglasses, stringer line for all the carp you're going to shoot. You get the idea.

Camera Crew: have plenty of tapes in fanny packs hung from your, well, fanny. Check the mikes, the remotes for the fishermen, the focus, white balance. Get that damn hum out of the mikes. No, not that one, that one. There, now we have it.

Long Walk - You wade several miles through knee-deep water. The sun shimmers off the bottom in golden lines interlacing through your eyes, dancing off the sand to mesmerize you into thinking they are carp, or gar, or, you know, dogfish or goldfish.

Competition - Dozens of other bowfishermen are all around the bayshore, stalking, lurking, peering into the water, hoping for that giant carp. It is an intrepid, fateful hope, a morning blasted into memory, embedded for all time. There is a book in this. Or, at least a TV show in 2008.

Then, Stop! Hush! Is that a carp swimming right toward us? Yes, don't move, be quiet, let him (or her) come in close. Draw your bow and FLASH! the shot is launched.

That's when the rubber meets the road. When the fox is on the run. When the buck is in your sights.

A good shot may most often be a lucky shot, what with the shimmering water, dancing shadows, steaming sun. Like shooting a caribou with a 300 Amlicher after running 27 miles through the snows of Siberia.

If you can hit that flashing target, the wily carp, you are a man, my boy. You have reached the pinnacle.

And, if you're O.J. Cunningham, cameraman for Wild Addiction, you might just have the makings of a television show and a DVD on carp fishing with bow and arrow. All we need is 10 or 12 more successful fish shots. Maybe if we go over there, down the next road, into the next little muddy bayou, maybe there will be more fish. Yes, I think I seem them rising, the water burbling as they spawn.

Now, if you can, hit a three inch wide garfish that's as skittish as a colt surrounded by wolves . . . that's a good shot.

Goldfish? Dogfish? Not Today! They must have been holed up in the depths someplace for they weren't in evidence this fateful Saturday. Where did the goldfish come from, anyway? Junior's glass bowl? China?

We don't know who won the Great Lakes Bowfishing Championship. It wasn't our Wild Addiction crew. But we'll get 'em next year, for sure.

Our crew did take a few carp and one or two others wriggled off the arrow, and many did not cooperate; the arrows slid over their backs and the carp themselves wisely slid off somewhere toward Canada.

Wild Addiction's Tim Roller did plug a huge carp, probably a 10-pounder, on the first shot he ever took during his first bowfishing competition. He may be, as they say, hooked or even "addicted.".


Wild Addiction Cameraman O. J. Cunningham (foreground) films Tim Roller during the 24th Annual Great Lakes Bowfishing Championship.


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Dave Rogers

Dave Rogers is a former editorial writer for the Bay City Times and a widely read,
respected journalist/writer in and around Bay City.
(Contact Dave Via Email at carraroe@aol.com)

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