What I’ve Learned from 27 Years of Bowfishing and Competing in Bowfishing Tournaments with Mark Land
Day 2: Mark Land on the History and the Growth of Bowfishing.
Editor’s Note: Mark Land is the technical support manager for Feradyne Outdoors, LLC (http://www.feradyne.com/) which includes Rage Broadheads (www.ragebroadheads.com), Muzzy (www.muzzy.com), Tru-Fire (www.trufire.com) and Nockturnal (http://nockturnal.com).
He handles the bowfishing promotions and the Feradyne Pro Staff, including Muzzy.
 I'm often asked, “What’s required to be a member of the Muzzy/Feradyne Pro Staff?” Our Pro Staff members are considered a promotional arm of our company. So, their primary responsibility is to promote and educate the public about our products. We’re looking for individuals who are very active on social media and active in bowfishing forums and who place well in bowfishing tournaments, although competing in bowfishing is not required. We want individuals on our Pro Staff who like to write articles, take pictures and do seminars and are exposed to numbers of people during the year. We have to be very careful about the people we select to be on our Pro Staff, because they represent our company. I also ask our applicants to submit a resume of their archery experience. I want to know what they’ve done over the years in the sports of bowfishing and bowhunting. Most of our bowfishing Pro Staffers are very active in bowfishing. Our Pro Staff participates in store openings for major large retailers. Too, many of our dealers hold local bowfishing tournaments, and they may ask one of our pros to come to the tournament and do a seminar on bowfishing.
 I've been at Muzzy for 18 years now. Ever since I've been involved with the company, bowfishing has grown and grown and grown. When I started working for Muzzy, the company only had about four or five bowfishing products. Today, we have many more products, and bowfishing represents about one-fourth of the income for the company. I think bowfishing is an offspring of the growth of the entire archery market. We've seen a dramatic increase in the number of people who are participating in all forms of archery - not just bowfishing or bowhunting, but also tournament archery and high school archery. More women are coming into the sport of archery, and we’re seeing an overall growth of the hunting and fishing market. Women have learned that they can extend their hunting season into the spring and summer months by shooting tournament archery and bowfishing.
 One of the biggest growth spurts in bowfishing that we've seen in the last 8-10 years has been the invasion of Asian carp in many of the lakes and rivers in this country. Numbers of TV shows, magazine articles and newspaper articles are about bighead carp and silver carp - the ones that jump out of the water and fly through the air. Carp are easily accessible, and you don’t have to have expensive equipment to hunt and shoot them. When I first got into archery, Muzzy was about the only archery company promoting bowfishing and was the major supplier to archery dealers for bowfishing equipment for many, many years. Back then, bowfishing equipment primarily consisted of fish points and arrows, but all that has changed. Now, there are probably at least 10 companies in the bowfishing arena. Out of those 10 companies, I would consider five major archery companies.
 You can get some information on bowfishing on http://www.muzzy.com, or on our Muzzy Bowfishing Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Muzzy-Bowfishing-115477487783/?fref=ts. Also, there are numbers of bowfishing groups that you can join on the internet and get information from about good lakes to bowfish and how to bowfish better.
Mark Land on How to Get Into Bowfishing: https://youtu.be/MD7TJ5AyBNk
Jon Justice - “Why I Love Bowfishing:” https://youtu.be/ZHApRC2k7Ps
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.
Check out our new website at www.johninthewild.com.
About the Author
John Phillips, winner of the 2012 Homer Circle Fishing Award for outstanding fishing writer by the American Sportfishing Association (ASA) and the Professional Outdoor Media Association (POMA), the 2008 Crossbow Communicator of the year and the 2007 Legendary Communicator chosen for induction into the National Fresh Water Hall of Fame, is a freelance writer (over 6,000 magazine articles for about 100 magazines and several thousand newspaper columns published), magazine editor, photographer for print media as well as industry catalogues (over 25,000 photos published), lecturer, outdoor consultant, marketing consultant, book author and daily internet content provider with an overview of the outdoors. Click here for more information and a list of all the books available from John E. Phillips.
|
