C A R O L I N A T R A D I T I O N A L A R C H E R S

The Whispering Shaft Quarterly Newsletter of the

July/Aug/Sept 2009

w w w . t h e c t a . o r g

Keeping The Traditions Alive

C a r o l i n a T r a d i t i o n a l A r c h e r s

M i s s i o n S t a t e m e n t

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The mission of the Carolina Traditional Archers is the promotion of traditional archery and bow hunting. Members will adhere to the highest ethical standards whether in the field or on the range and hold in reverence the traditions and history of archery.

O f f i c e r s B o a r d o f d i r e c t o r s

What an awesome year CTA is having! Our attendance at monthly shoots continues to be high and we just experienced the most successful NCTAC yet. We are definitely in high clover! I want to thank all of our members that attended NCTAC, and especially those that helped with the many tasks required to run this event. As always, the greatest strength of CTA is its members. NCTAC 2009 set an all time attendance record with 398 registered shooters. Equally im-portant was the large number of families registered. A review of event surveys and various web sites indicate that our guests were very pleased and plan to return next year. A special thanks to our club officers. Over the past several months they have worked countless hours preparing for NCTAC. They then worked equally long hours during the event to ensure its success. Best regards, Dave Haggist

The Whispering Shaft, Carolina Traditional Archers (CTA) newsletter, is published on a quarterly schedule. All members are encouraged to submit articles and tasteful photographs about issues of interest to traditional archers and bow hunters. Please submit articles in MS Word format or even just simple email text to jhenz@thecta.org . If you can, also include an archery-related photo of yourself with your article so that people can put a face with a name. CTA Offi-cers and Directors reserve the right to refuse or edit any material submitted for publication that they deem detrimental to traditional archery/bow hunting or to the Carolina Traditional Archers.

Cover photo: CTA member Cory Culbert bowfishing. Photo by Andrew Turner

PRESIDENT Dave Haggist 704-435-0265 VICE-PRESIDENT Tony Lail 704-462-1070 TREASURER Jim Vogt 828-245-4668

CHAIRMAN Charles Suttles 704-201-0061 Tommy Blackburn 336-921-2185

SECRETARY Barry Clodfelter bclodfelter@thecta.org 10001 Archer Road Davidson, NC 28036 704-791-6588 EDITOR Joe Henz jhenz@thecta.org 704-904-9474

Lonny Huff 828-873-6152 Jack Wilson 828-328-8047 Jim Todd 704-875-6726

Letter from the President Dave Haggist

2 0 0 9 C a l e n d a r O f E v e n t s

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July 11—Club Shoot, 9am-3pm, Maiden

August 8—Club Shoot, 9am-3pm, Maiden

September 5—Club Shoot, 9am-3pm, Maiden

October 14-17—Club Hunt, Kerr Scott Reservoir

October 17—Youth Day, Kerr Scott Reservoir

November 14—Club Shoot & Coon Shoot, 2pm-10pm, Maiden

November 21—CTA Workday, 8am-noon

December 12—Club Shoot, 9am-3pm, Maiden

July 9-12 - ATAR - Appalachian Traditional Archers Rendezvous, Beckley, WV More details at website: wvbowhunt.tripod.com

July 18 - Triad Traditional Archers, 8am-2:30pm, Colfax, NC More details at website: www.stickandwheelarchery.com

August 1-2 - Powder Creek Traditional Archers, Mills River, NC

More details call Linda Brittain at 828-891-3332

August 8 - Western Carolina Bowhunters, Fletcher, NC

More details call Charles Henn at 828-684-2636

August 15 - Blue Ridge Traditional Archers, Leicester, NC More details call Ken Penley at 828-683-9545

August 15 - Sissipahaw Traditional Archers, Burlington, NC More details at website: www.stacgang.org

Other Regional Traditional Archery Events

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This year’s North Carolina Traditional Archery Championship was the best ever! It wasn’t too hot, and the rain held off until Saturday night. We had excellent attendance, and everyone had a great time! If you missed it, here are some photos of the event to remind you to be sure and make it next year. And sharpen your archery skills: as you can see below, the awards this year were fabulous!

Award Winners

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Guest Speaker G. Fred Asbell

Special Guest Owen Jeffery

Practice Range

Photos by Joe Henz

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Raffle

Vendor Tents

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Kids Event

Photos by Joe Henz

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Ranges A & B

Photos by Joe Henz

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Toughman Shoot

Novelty Shoots

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Women’s Recurve Name Range A Range B Total

1st Place Linda Graham 179 159 338

2nd Place Maggie Vogt 145 153 298

3rd Place Donna Carter 161 131 292

Women’s Longbow Name Range A Range B Total

1st Place Lorraine Cummings 174 139 313

2nd Place Nancy McLaulin 116 116 232

3rd Place Jennie Wagner 112 105 217

Youth Recurve Boy Name Range A Range B Total

1st Place Joshua Lawler 155 149 304

2nd Place J T Altizer 150 134 284

3rd Place Luke Coltrane 144 130 274

Youth Longbow Boy Name Range A Range B Total

1st Place Joseph Posey 165 139 304

2nd Place Luke McMillan 138 113 251

3rd Place Cody Bouknight 137 106 243

Youth Girl Name Range A Range B Total

1st Place Emily Trivett 120 96 216

2nd Place Hannah VanBumble 88 87 175

3rd Place Kathryn Grant 104 58 162

Men’s Recurve Name Range A Range B Total

1st Place Denton Ayers 169 180 349

2nd Place Roger Cobb 166 176 342

3rd Place John Dill 167 173 340

Men’s Longbow Name Range A Range B Total

1st Place Page Eldridge 170 166 336

2nd Place Don Batten 161 169 330

3rd Place Larry Altizer 173 148 321

Men’s Primitive Name Range A Range B Total

1st Place Ethen Proffitt 150 139 289

2nd Place Billy James 128 111 239

3rd Place Scott Hall 127 97 224

Whispering Shaft Jul/Aug/Sept 2009

Cubs Name Range A Range B Total

1st Place Cody Ostrander 192 184 376

2nd Place Hunter Watson 191 177 368

3rd Place Jacob Warren 183 168 351

Chipmunks Name Range A Range B Total

1st Place Rheanna Young 118 97 215

2nd Place Brandon Eudy 111 96 207

3rd Place Josh Miller 58 78 136

Toughman Name Score

1st Place Preston Roberson 91

2nd Place Buddy Ford 78

3rd Place Clyde Estell 75

Friday’s Coon Shoot - Youth Name Score

1st Place Ian McMillian 59

2nd Place Seth Smith 35

3rd Place Hannah VanBumble 28

Friday’s Coon Shoot - Adult Name Score

1st Place Preston Roberson 77

2nd Place Jeremy Coggins 77

3rd Place Joe McMillian 65

Saturday’s Coon Shoot - Youth Name Score

1st Place Austin Maxwell 50

2nd Place Abigail VanBumble 44

3rd Place Derek Cass 38

Saturday’s Coon Shoot - Adult Name Score

1st Place Bryan Henn 60

2nd Place Benji Bouknight 56

3rd Place Roger Harrison 53

(CONTINUED)

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I had tried bowfishing in my teens growing up in Globe, Arizona, and had shot a couple carp from the banks of Lake Roosevelt. It was a lot of fun, and since I moved to North Carolina just a few miles from Lake Norman, I figured there may be an opportunity to try it again. I first wanted to find a guide that could show me how to hunt carp on the local lakes. With a little online research I found the website www.tarheelfishstickers.com . Tarheel Fish Stickers is a local club that sponsors bowfishing tournaments on area lakes. Their website has tournament information as well as a blog for members to share best practices and ideas for this sport. I posted to the site asking for information on the local lakes as well as if any of the members run guide services. One of the members named Andrew Turner responded that he would take me out, if I would be willing to split gas. We ended up meeting at a local lake a couple weeks later. I shot 3 carp on that first outing - the largest one being about 12 pounds. I had the time of my life, and was instantly hooked on bowfishing! I also happened to be in the right place at the right time. In addition to running a bowfishing guide service Andrew competed in the Tarheel Fish Sticker tournaments with two other guys under the name of “Team Curve”. The name “Team Curve” originated from fact that all of the team members shot recurves, as opposed to most bowfisherman who use compound bows. Fortunately for me “Team Curve’ had just lost a member due to other priorities, and since I fit the build by shooting a recurve, Andrew asked me to join his team. It has been a true adventure ever since. And wouldn’t you know our team won the Tarheel Fish Stickers 2008 Club Challenge, allowing for the club to sponsor Team Curve’s admission into the largest bowfishing tournament in the US, known as the Muzzy Classic in Guntersville, Alabama. We arrived in Alabama around 2:30 AM, Thursday morning of April 23rd 2009. Instead of going to bed as normal people would at that hour, we decided to hit the lake immediately to scout for carp! We decided to launch our boat in a creek called Mud Creek, near the hotel where we were staying. Shortly after launching our boat we heard a large roar. Around the corner came a large 500+ horse power airboat with blinding lights. It was one of our competitors’ rigs. It was then that we knew we were in the big leagues! These were serious guys with serious equipment! In contrast we had a 20-foot Tracker that with a 50 horse power en-gine, which cost less than a quarter of the cost of an airboat. We were definitely intimidated. We shot a couple of small Gar for practice, and then decided to hit the hotel for some rest. After sleeping the rest of Thursday morning, we awoke Thursday afternoon and hit the lake for some more scouting. We found a few large carp and shot a few in the 30-lb range for fun. Unfortunately, at about 2:00 AM our electrical generator, which provides the power to our lights, stopped working. This was devastating to us! Without a generator we could not power our lights, and without lights we could not see the fish. But at that point we were too tired to troubleshoot it, and decided to call it a night and figure out what was wrong in the morning. We woke up late Friday morning, and as luck would have it a fellow bowfisherman happened by us while we were troubleshooting the generator in the hotel parking lot. He stopped to help us troubleshoot, and quickly pointed out that we had tripped an internal breaker, and showed us how to reset the switch. So, within a couple of hours we were back in action, scouting for more fish Fri-day night. Friday night scouting proved quite promising: we saw some very large common carp (30 lb range) and a Grass Carp that was the width of the boat (approximately 5’ long) and could have weighed as much as 80 pounds! We were very excited given the size of the fish we had seen this evening. Unfortunately, towards the end of the night our generator died again, which again killed our lights. So once again we called it a night and headed back to hotel. Saturday morning came quickly and we were very frantic because our tournament was only hours away and we had a dead generator. Fortunately we discovered that carburetor became loose, and once it was secured the generator worked fine. We were ready for the big show! We arrived at the Muzzy Classic shortly before “Blast-Off” (the time that everyone leaves from the boat ramp). Seventy-one teams had showed up to compete, and began putting their boats in the water. It was a spectacular sight to see! There were com-petitors from so many different states: Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Florida, and others. Out of all the teams competing, we only saw a couple other teams using traditional bows. Blast-off came soon and we were heading down the lake to our first honey hole! Upon arriving at our spot we quickly shot a 53 lb grass carp! We had to put two arrows in it to secure it, as well as use a gaff to pull it into the boat. Not bad for the first fish of the evening! Shortly, after getting the large fish aboard though, our boat motor quit working! At this point we thought we were up a creek without a paddle. But two of us kept fishing with the small trolling motor, while the other team-member disassembled the boat motor with nothing more than a multi-tool. Within 30 minutes he was able to clean some garbage out of the engine which had been sucked into its cooling system. MacGyver would have been proud! We were back in action!

By Corey Culbert

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That night we were able to pull in another 650 lbs of Common Carp, ranging in size from 13-33 lbs. However, in the competition we were only allowed to weigh in our twenty largest fish. When all was said and done, Team Curve finished in 9th place out of 71 teams with a total weight of 459.4 lbs. The top team weighed in 505.9 lbs. with their largest fish, a grass carp, weighing 79 lbs. While we didn’t win a trophy, we were very happy with our placing, since we were quite the under-dog going head-to-head against tournament professionals with $80,000 airboat rigs. At the end of the day Team Curve attributes a huge part of our success to our recurve bows. Having the ability to snap shoot can make a world of difference in bowfishing. This is where traditional bows win every time over most compounds. Many of the fish we shoot are moving, and at different depths in the water. By being able to snap shoot we can use less force for close shallow shots, which reduces the chance of destroying arrow tips on rocks, and on longer shots we can come to full draw. In either case most shots happen in a split second, which makes the recurve an effective tool. The other advantage of the recurve is that it is lightweight compared to a compound. Many of these tournaments last for 12 hours, during which you have to stand on a boat deck holding your bow with the arrow nocked. I shoot a 55 pound Damon Howatt, and my two team-mates shoot a 60 pound Damon Howatt and a 45 pound PSE Impala.

If you have an interest in Bowfishing in North Carolina, please visit the www.tarheelfishstickers.com website or contact Corey Culbert at corey.culbert@gmail.com or by phone at (704) 765-1650.

Team Curve with their twenty largest fish at the Muzzy Classic Bowfishing Tournament. Team Curve members from left to right: Corey Culbert, Fred Ashley, and Andrew Turner.

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About our Club Shoots

Maiden Directions: From Hickory or Gastonia, take US-321 to Exit 28. Take Maiden Hwy (North/Business/321) into Maiden. Stay on 321 through town, then Right on May’s Chapel. Continue to Bowhunting Club Rd. (Watch for “Foothills Bowhunters” sign.) This road is gravel, but easily passable with a two-wheel drive car. Left at the fork in the gravel road, take road to the end.

Our monthly Club Shoots are loads of fun! If you like traditional archery, or even if you’re just curious as to what traditional archery is all about, you owe it to yourself to check us out! It’s an event the whole family can enjoy. All club shoots are held at the Foothills BowHunters/CTA range in Maiden NC. Shoots have about 20 3-D animal targets. All the foam targets are in the woods, amongst the trees, which makes for a realistic and very pleasant setting. Shoots cost $10 for members and $15 for non-members. Meal is included with the price of admission, and first-time visitors shoot and eat for free!

Whispering Shaft Jul/Aug/Sept 2009

10001 Archer Road Davidson, NC 28036