BIG HILL RESERVOIR _ It's date night for the Whiteheads. The nearly full moon, soft lights and sounds are all as they crave at the end of a blistering mid-July day.
As any good husband should, Doug Whitehead defers when the first fun arrives.
"Nice spot heading your way, Trish, take it," he said, staring into glowing water.
His wife of 16 years drew her bow and sent a heavy arrow at the spotted gar a foot or two below the surface. The arrow barely passed above the fish and the gar was gone. She used a special reel to crank the line attached to the arrow back to the boat.
"Sometimes it takes a fish or two to get your shots going," Trisha Whitehead said. "There will be more coming up."
For five hours, they stood in a high platform on their 21-foot boat, staring at where 20 LED lights cast a soft glow into the lake. The Whiteheads talked often, but at times the only sounds were the singing of frogs, buzzing of insects, once the yodel-like calls of coyotes and the hum of a gas-powered generator.
By the end of the night, a plastic box aboard the boat held a dozen arrowed fish. Some would be used to feed their family. Others would be buried for fertilizer. All were from fish populations that can negatively impact the reservoir near Parsons.
Raised in a family where both parents were avid bowhunters, Doug Whitehead has been shooting carp, buffalo, gar and other rough fish most of his 40 years. It's his favorite kind of fishing because it closely resembles bowhunting for deer and wild turkeys. He prefers night to day shooting because it's cooler, less traffic on the lake and the fish can be easier to see under the water with the lights.
His wife started going with Whitehead as a way to stay comfortable and save money.
"We started bowfishing, quite a bit, not long after we were married. I was laid off and she's a teacher, so she was off for the summer," he said. "It didn't cost hardly anything to go to the river and shoot gar. It was a hot summer and that was a whole lot cooler at the river."
Since, the Whiteheads have eaten lots of gar. Kansas has several species of gar and all are known for their tough, armor-like skin and scales. They use either electric or manual tin snips to lay the fish open. All's good from there.
"The meat's real white and good," said Trisha Whitehead. "It's one of my favorites."
They also target buffalo, a native fish that can overpopulate a lake and compete with sport fish for food and cover. They also hunt common and grass carp. Both are invasive species that can compete with native fish, and lead to water quality issues. Common carp often root on the lake's bottom, like hogs, and keep the water turbid. As their name implies, grass carp are vegetarians and can damage native aquatic plants that other species of fish need.
No matter the species, both Whiteheads can hold their own
"There's nothing out here she can't do, from backing the trailer down the ramp like a pro to making tough shots," Doug Whitehead. "Shes the best partner I can have in a tournament."
Their best haul for a night is 736 pounds of rough fish at a Big Hill tournament several years ago. He shot their biggest fish, a Texas alligator gar that weighed about 140 pounds and was about 7 { feet long.
There were no monster fish shot that hot July night, when the Whiteheads hunted until about 2 a.m., though Doug Whitehead shot a buffalo of about 20 pounds. They didn't see as many as they'd hoped, either.
But both seemed happy just to be afloat, their world seemingly confined to the dome of light cast by the spotlights aimed at the water. The soft, yellowish light brought every stick, leaf and rock above the surface out in great detail. Ghost-like great blue herons sometimes flew at the edge of the glow. There was enough light to see the small rack of a young whitetail buck staring at them from well up the shoreline.
At 12 and 14, the Whitehead's daughters like the outdoors and could be wanting to come along more in the future. Doug Whitehead knows they might want to bring boyfriends someday, too. No problem, he said.
"That's one of the reasons I built this boat so big," he said. "It's big enough you can dance all over it and still have room."
But for themselves, Doug and Trisha Whitehead will take an evening on the water, over any dance, anytime.
