I first just cut down some standard bow fishing arrows. They were heavy. Then I started making bolts out of small steel tube that works well. A little machining and welding involved. I'm not on here often but will try to get some pictures up.
The barbs they have on the fishing bolts don't look like they would hold and does the line ever get hung up on anything. Do you have any advice for me? I want to get one of these but don't want to waste my time and money.
Mick - I'm sorry I almost never get on this computer anymore so I had major issues with user names and passwords. I drilled thru the mounting arms on the reel and bolted it to the site on top the crossbow. broke it once, so now I just drop the whole thing when i get a fish and pull them in by hand. I'm sure you've already built yours and tried it out, but I hope this helps.
aljoe - I have gotten totally screwed up with three different email and youtube accounts and haven't been able to log in for months. I don't spend a lot of time on computers anymore. I got it working now and can't seem to find past messages except for this one. If there is something you were asking please ask again, sorry. I simply bought the crossbow and wide mouthed reel, then drilled some holes thru the mounts on the reel and bolted it to the top frame on the crossbow. I've broken it off with a bi fish before, so now when I get one I just drop the whole thing and pull the fish in by hand. Hope this helped?
The crossbows are all over Ebay. I just machined a new mounting plate and bolted the real to the plate. Really effective. I'm building a few at a time for friends. It is a special wide open mouth real.
