Midnight in the Marsh
Summer in southern Louisiana doesn’t cool down, it just shifts color. Under a full moon and a canopy of cypress, the air hangs thick, and the water glows under bowfishing lights like the eyes of the predators that prowl it. That’s where Tyler B. spends his July nights: in a 16-foot jon boat with a Unity™ arrow in one hand and a cold drink in the other, prowling shallows for longnose gar.
He’s bowhunted whitetails from Georgia to Illinois. But for Tyler, no pursuit rivals the madness of shooting armored gar in the bayou, where the fight doesn’t end when the arrow hits, it begins.
And when it’s gear season, Tyler loads only one point: the Grapple™ 3-Barb from Innerloc®.
What Makes Gar Different
Gar aren’t just another rough fish. They’re relic predators, prehistoric, bone-plated, and built like torpedoes. A longnose gar’s skull is so dense that field tips bounce off if not perfectly placed. Their reaction to getting shot isn’t to dive—they thrash, roll, and rocket into reeds like a gator with a grudge.
Standard points with short barbs or low tension can’t hold. You might get the shot. You might get the splash. But if your point doesn’t lock in, you’re not getting the fish to the boat.
That’s where the Grapple™ comes in.
Grapple Points™: Made for Monsters
The Grapple™ isn’t designed to look good on a peg wall. It’s built to survive what Garr does best: fight.
Key Features:
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Three-Barb System: Long, reverse-angled stainless barbs hold across a massive 2 ¾” fish-holding diameter
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Reduces shaft wobble: Keeps threads tight even in hard-bounce impacts
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Anti-Vibration Engineering: Prevents loosening from boat motor hum, repeated shots, or rough landings.
Tyler put it this way: “You don’t just hit a car. You’ve got to survive the next 30 seconds.”
Bayou Field Report: Night on the Swamp Dart
Tyler’s boat, affectionately named The Swamp Dart, is a floating war wagon. Twin 150-watt halogen lights cast a wide beam off the bow. Dual platforms allow front and side shots. Three arrows are racked at all times: all Unity-Glow shafts tipped with Grapple™ 3-Barb points.
On one full moon night in July, he and two crew members boated:
- 11 Longnose Gar
- 3 Grass Carp
Not a single tip failure. No bent barbs. No lost fish.
Every point was released, reset, and back in rotation within seconds.
Why the Grapple™ Works
The difference in the Grapple™ isn’t just that it grabs—it locks. Each barb measures longer than standard tips and flares out on reverse angles that bite harder the more the fish pulls.
For bowfishers chasing gar, it’s all about:
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Barb Length: Short barbs allow twist-outs. The Grapple’s long barbs resist even violent surface rolls.
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Anti-vibration tip prevents the tip from loosening while in use or being stored in the boat.
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Fast Reset: With no tools required, shooters can remove the tip, fold the barbs, and reload in seconds.
It’s not flashy. It’s just functional. And in a fight with 20 pounds of prehistoric anger, you’ll take functional every time.
Built for Vicious Volume
Some nights, the fish won’t stop rolling. That’s when gear breaks—when threads strip, barbs bend, or tips seize with fish slime and sand.
The Grapple™ was designed for abuse:
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Corrosion-Resistant Stainless: Won’t rust in brackish marshes
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Tool-Free Maintenance: Fewer moving parts, faster reloads
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Fits Both 5/16” and 22/64” Shafts
Pair it with Unity™ arrows and you’ve got a bowfishing system that doesn’t just shoot—it survives.
Gar Gear Checklist: Tyler’s Bayou Loadout
When Tyler heads out in the swamp, here’s what’s in his boat:
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Bow: 50 lb compound with AMS Retriever Pro
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Arrows: Unity-Glow fiberglass shafts with machined steel rear sections
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Tips: Grapple™ 3-Barb; Grapid™ 3-Barb for grass carp and gar
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Cooler: 100-quart fish coffin (he’s not kidding)
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Light Setup: 300W halogens + battery bank + gator clips
His motto? “Load heavy. Shoot fast. Clean later.”
The Grapple™ vs. the Rest
Plenty of tips claim fish-holding strength. But when gar starts rolling in brush at 2 a.m., you find out real quick what holds and what doesn’t.
The Grapple™ wins because:
- It holds through resistance
- It resets without tools.
- It survives impacts from scale, skull, and submerged logs.
It doesn’t need hype. It has field time.
Final Shot
Bowfishing gar is no sport for soft gear. In the southern bayous, it’s a gauntlet—one shot, one chance, one full-throttle fight. When the lights hit the water and the gar flashes sideways, you need gear that doesn’t flinch.
The Grapple™ isn’t for everyone. But for the bowfishers who run through heat, mud, and hard-scaled fury—it’s the only point that holds.
