Business end of a bowfishing rigged blowgun
I blowgunned a bunch of lizards, shot some bigger ones with the bow. If they are not positioned correctly where you can get them into the water, you can't hold them with the lighter blowgun tackle..
This one is perfect blowgun size.
Big claws on these dudes! This is also the eating part.
He had a double re-growth on him, Ol' Two-Tail..
Pretty cool critters!
These were both very nice ones, just under 60" long.
Cool skin patterns, JP says they don't tan well though, lose all their color..
The tail is very tendon-y, not meaty like a gator. I will report back after we eat some. You can grill them with the skin on and then pull it off, similar to grilling a fish .
It's been awhile since I've had that much fun, very cool to stick stuff with a blowgun!
I never knew iguanas could swim until one of them launched off the canal bank and swam directly underneath my boat one morning. Surprised the crap out of me.
Matt
How long did it take you to get dialed in with the blow gun....sounds like you were hitting on all cylinders in a short period of time.
—Jim
She rolled him down the bank, they do get wrapped up...
It was HOT by the time we got done.
Mom soaked them in cream for a while before cooking, best frog legs I've ever had. 
You can see how thick the brush is.
Having a sight on this rig was key. I only missed one out of 14 shots. I was able to head/shoulders pound them, knocked them clean off their perches. If notice the dart in this one, this is from knocking him back in the brush, him trying to scramble to the water, wrapping the line around 326 branches... since he's near the water and it's easier to bring him towards you instead of dragging him backwards through the brush, we would dart him, slack the bow line and then get him into the boat using the blowgun . Untie the arrow and the line comes back through the brush no problem, on it's own.
in Belize, they told me traditionally they'd kill a pregnant female, roast them whole and the eggs inside were a delicacy
The big ones require bowfishing equipment, unless they are on a seawall, right next to water and you can get them to jump quickly, otherwise they head to the brush and its ugly. Strong little dudes..
Thanks for the positive comments folks! Anyone interested in going, feel free to PM me and I will give you all the info I have.
They are nice and orange this time of year, not sure if this is the iguana rut or what, but they are definitely easier to see than back in July.
Kid shot this one, she's pretty good with the blowgun. Lots of times they don't even move when you dart them, until you put pressure on them. We paused before the 2nd dart to take this pic. You can't really control them in the trees with blowgun line, they are just too strong, 2 darts help. 
This is the best way to handle them. They have a built in bullseye on their head, very kind of them to give a guy something to aim for. I need all the help I can get.
Actually, holding 1" above that circle is the place to be.
Amazing color on these, just a cool critter! They take an arrow like a champ.
Tail regrowth. 
My girl and tag teamed this one, she got a dart in it and I whopped him with the bow, this size is hard to control with just a dart.
These all went to a leather plant, so they will be used. I'm not concerned if they don't get used either, they are invasive and create havoc down here. Where we got fuel, the marina owner stated that he had to replace a seawall at his condo community at the tune of 190k.....all because the iguanas dug behind it and it blew out after a big rain storm. Not to mention they have almost destroyed the humming bird population, they are egg eating machines. Imagine one of these pretty ladies down here, in a fancy house on the canal, babysitting a bunch of orchids in her back yard, only to have a grumpy lizard mow them off in a few hours, lol. I'm perfectly fine just shooting them, knocking them in the head and feeding them to the other critters, but if guys want to cut the legs off, that's great too.
Curried iguana over jasmine rice is da bomb
—Jim
The smaller ones are easy to handle with the blowgun, still they are so strong, and the bush is so think you have to pick your shots, it's best to stick the ones that are facing the canal, whop them and pull them into the water. They are great swimmers and they know it, so they aren't reluctant to jump in, but they can be handled much easier there.
Good shot placement here.
The darts never cease to amaze me. With a good stout blow, you can sink one clear through a decent size lizard.
Got to see a manatee.
The big boys came out mid morning, we smacked some toads.
I try to head shoot them if possible, if not I try to at least get the front shoulder so you can steer them a little, quite a few I knocked clean out of the tree. They go from glaring at you and head bobbing to show their dominance to flying through the air, kinda funny to see their eyes get big, but they waste no time going from zero to max speed!
We saw a manatee when we were there too! Pretty cool.
—Jim
Thanks JT, I think my kid is actually a little better shot than me, but I get more in the boat, I can shoot farther and obviously have a little more experience in finessing them off the trees and into the water, but she's darn good. Perhaps because it's fairly new to me, but for some reason the blowgun is my favorite method, the bigger ones are almost impossible to land though, that's where the bow and the Innerloc heads shine.
The good news is, they are making them as fast as we were shooting them ! ;
Dock pic, we got 30 that day, had more shots taken than that, you can't land them all.
More smaller ones this day, as we blow gunned more, but we had quite a few that measured 5' 6". The pure 6'er was not seen however, good excuse to go back in a few months!
That reminds me, I need to order a bunch of arrows..
Hope you all enjoyed the pics and thanks for the kind comments, I encourage everyone to go down and give it a whirl, absolute blast!
Bow shots: The bigger males feel pretty safe higher in the trees, I've shot some as close as 4 yds, 5-8yds will cover quite a few of the encounters. Rarely do you have to shoot more than 15 yds. IMO, it's a precision game, I use a peep, single pin sight and drop away rest, just like on a hunting bow, and shoot a caliper release , I have this particular Athens Ace tuned very well, for the carbon or carbon splined shafts...the regular fiberglass fish arrows, I'm not a big fan of.. DW should be 35-45 lbs, more than that and you get hard pass-throughs and you have line on both sides of the lizard, they spin when contained, not unlike a gator,( but a lot faster, 25 turns is not uncommon) so it makes a mess. The ideal would be a 35lb bow and head shoot them, with just the tip sticking out the off side, much cleaner, IME. Although it might be tough to get a fish arrow to fly correctly at that DW...just have to tune for it and see how it does.
Guys that are much better instinctive shooters can feel free to use a recurve, I just found I was missing too much and losing arrows in the brush. I used JP's ( the guide) recurve the first trip, for the bigger ones, but wasn't happy with my performance, that's why I set up a bow and leave it down there.
The AMS type reels are friendlier to use, line is bigger, you can grab it with your hand, and you can stop the arrow with the trigger if you are quick enough on a miss. I don't feel they shoot as clean as a big spinning reel. However the 150lb braid or 200lb dacron line for those types of reels will cut you to the bone if you don't wear gloves, so there are trade-offs.
This looks like a blast, thanks for sharing
michael
One of here bigger ones of the day.
Pretty decent haul for day 1.
I like to use my own bow also.
Typical blowgun size male. As you can see from the pics here, some areas are heavier wooded, some are bare banks. Archery gear can't just be used anywhere, do the proximity of people. Some shots have to be taken with the blowgun for safety, other times you can launch an arrow.
I like the blowgun just as well as the bow, perhaps even more, it's so primitive feeling. Being able to shoot a projectile with just your own breath is pretty cool. I ran this steel dart all the way through this one. Complete pass through.
The detail on the iggies is amazing. Very neat critters. Look at the colors in the eye alone.
Although they are invasive and cause numerous problems in S FL, I find myself thankful for their presence, as it's another quarry to pursue, and can be done anytime, unlike regulated game seasons. The pellet rifle crowd has thinned them out considerably in the last two years that I've been chasing them. One has to find new areas that the BB gun folks haven't' cleaned out. I'm of the opinion now that good hunts with archery gear for trophy sized Bulls will be harder and harder to come by. I wish I would have mounted one of the big ones from 2019. Oh well, gives me a reason to go back and keep chasing.
This one was close to what I was looking for, but just a little shy.
Got my kid a gator too. She fought it like a champ, made her dispatch it herself with a knife. She was quite proud, as am I. No bang stick involved..... Eight foot two inches. She's already talking about a 10'er lol. We will put in for seasonal tags as well, now that I have more contacts. I have a 12'4" one from 2005 on the wall, it will be very hard for me to top that, but I'm not going to let that keep me from the chase.
Looking forward to next time, will be doing some actual bowfishing in the Glades for invasive species.
Was watching on youtube a seen one guy kill a small black bear with one and another killed a wild goat with one, and am sure there are other medium size game taken with one videoed just haven't taken the time to search.......
JTreeman's Link
—Jim
huntinelk's Link
