On my recent introduction to the sport of bowfishing I learned why most fish hunters heading out with a bow choose these jug type reels for safety, accuracy and ease of operation. The guys who took me on my first trip explained the advantages of the AMS reels and that night I experienced their trouble-free ease of operation.

The alternative to the jug type reel is to attach what looks like a miniature fishing rod to the stabilizer hole on the front of your bow and then mount a spincast reel to that rod.

When using a spincast reel you would have to remember to press the thumb button each time before you shoot. With the AMS jug, the line is free flowing and actually you have to pull a small lever with your finger to put any tension at all on the line. This lever moves a mechanism that grabs the line and piles it back into the jug while you are turning the crank handle. Having that free flowing line and not needing to remember to press a thumb button before shooting allows faster shooting, which is great when you are in areas with groups of fish.

I have talked with several bowfishermen who shared stories of bad experiences they had while using a spincast reel setup, due to the line snagging in, or not flowing smoothly out of the reel. The snags resulted in an arrow coming back and striking them, their boat, and luckily just several close calls. The design of the AMS reel allows the line to flow freely out of the jug as opposed to unspooling from a reel. And the line in the jug is 130# braided Dacron not a lighter monofilament that you would be limited to using with the spincast reel.