Big Game Bowfishing Salt water shark and stingray are big powerful fish that require special equiptment if you aim to harvest one. A spincast reel in the stabilizer hole just wont cut it and will probalbly result in lost reels or bows. Here are a couple set ups that work well.
They both use a wire cabled arrow, a slotted retreiver reel, a stabilizer mounted float and 400 lb. Fast Flight bowfishing line.
The first set up also uses a heavy deep sea conventional reel spooled with 40 lb. test mono. When bowfishing where you took alot of time to get a good chum slick going with the tide, you really dont want to leave your spot too often. Here is where the rod/reel setup is handy. Also, when near deep water it is the only way to go. A big stingray can suck on the bottom for a long time with a float in it. In these pics, you can see the setup. The small float always keeps the tag end of the line down away from the arrow, stoping alot of tangles. When the fish is shot, the line seperates from the retreiver reel pulls the small float off, and then you are direct tied to the rod. Make sure the reel is in free spool when shooting.
In this pic, you can see how you double the line over to feed it into the slotted retreiver while leaving the loose end out to tie to the small float.
And here, you can see how the small float seperates from the bow when the fish pulls. That mount on the bow is called a gadget adaptor. It has 2 strong rubber pieces that wrap around the bow to hold it on. Used when there is no stabilizer hole to thread the float stem in.
In these final pictures, you see the other set up. All is the same, but instead of the rod, you use a large rubber anchor float. The float is tied to the small float. Once again I still use the small float as it keeps the line out of the way, reducing tangles. On the lagre float is a wide strip of velcro. Its matching piece is stapled into a loop that is placed around a belt. You just stick the float to the section on you, and you have free movement around the boat. Shoot the fish, the line seperates from the bow, it pulls the small float , and then the large one goes over. Then the chase and wrestling match is on. Speaking of that, the most important accessory is the heavy leather gloves shown in the pic. Never wrap the line around a hand or a finger when fighting a big shark or ray, as they WILL pull it off.
Hope that helps you to set up your bow for big game salt water fish!