You finally got gear? Awesome! Next is finding where to go bowfishing or bowhunting. Good thing is, it’s not as hard as it seems!

For bowfishing, Typically we like sticking to the Sacramento/San Joaquin River ourselves seeing that there’s a lot more you’re allowed to bowfish for such as obviously carp, goldfish, Sacramento sucker, Sacramento blackfish, hardhead, and Sacramento pikeminnow, but also bullfrogs and Catfish as well! (See Page 22 of CDFW freshwater fishing regulations 2026)

For Hunting, its obviously more dependent on what your hunting but overall any national forest or BLM land will do. However, B zone and D 1-3 usually is where we like to go for almost everything.

Now while all this can be learned through trial and error season after season, year after year, there’s nothing wrong with getting a teacher to learn from the error. There’s nothing wrong with guidance into the sport that as a community we want to keep you part of. That’s where guides come in!

The value of a good guide is greatly needed in this world of archery. professional target archers have their coaches, and guide is no different than a coach for hunting or bowfishing. Someone who has put in the time, footwork, blood, sweat and tears into gaining the knowledge and wisdom they hold and there’s no reason why we as a community shouldn’t learn from them if we can.

Go a head and check out some of our favorite guides for bowfishing and bowhunting!