John’s Note: Jon Justice from Rockmart, Georgia, has been bowfishing for 12 years. Chuck Belmore, one of the hosts of “The Habit” (http://thehabit.tv/news/content/1-tv-show/) TV show, got him started in bowfishing. Today both Chuck and Jon host “The Habit” TV show.

John E. Phillips: What’s the biggest fish you’ve ever taken with your bow and arrow?

Justice: Chuck Belmore and I went to south Texas to film a show for “Iron Man Bowfishing,” the name of our show before we started “The Habit.” We had terrible weather. The wind was blowing, there was a good chop on the water, and seeing fish was almost impossible. But I finally spotted a dark shadow in the water that looked like a telephone pole or perhaps a submerged tree. Once I saw it move, I took the shot. When my arrow hit that telephone pole, the water exploded! I saw the biggest fish I’d ever seen while bowfishing. Chuck and another friend of ours were able to place arrows in that alligator gar too, and the three of us fought the fish for about an hour. The big gar would go down and get wrapped around underwater trees that had fallen into the lake. The only thing we could do was hold onto the line until the gar untangled itself from the trees and came to the surface. That was such a monumental trip, and that alligator gar was so big that I’ll never forget him. Before that bowfishing trip I was clean-shaven, but after we took that giant gar, I decided I wouldn’t shave my face. That was the last picture ever made of me when I didn’t have a beard. That alligator gar measured 7’4” long.

Phillips: What’s the biggest carp you’ve ever shot?

Justice: One of the biggest grass carp that Chuck and I ever took weighed 78 pounds. We were doing a TV show called the “Campbell Outdoor Challenge” at a tournament at Guntersville, Alabama. Chuck, Bryan Hughes, the owner of Backwater Outdoors (http://www.backwateroutdoors.com/) and I were bowfishing together. The second night of the tournament, we came out of a creek, and I yelled ,“Holy Moly!” I looked over at Chuck, and his eyes were as big as saucers. “Did you see that fish?” I asked Chuck. His only answer was, “Yeah.” We let the boat coast to a stop, I put a new tape in the camera and got all my equipment ready, and I climbed up into the camera stand to video this monster grass carp hunt. I turned the video camera on, and Chuck and Brian got two arrows into the carp and fought the fish for about 10 minutes. This fish was a beast of a grass carp!

To get John’s book, “The Bowfishing Bible,” go to http://amzn.to/22zX7Zz. To learn more about hunting and fishing from John E. Phillips’ print and eBooks, go to www.amazon.com/author/johnephillips and www.barnesandnoble.com

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