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You may have heard of the old hunting rules, "Kentucky windage" (whereby a rifle hunter on land aims into the wind) and "Tennessee elevation" (whereby he aims higher at more distant targets). Let's coin a new term to describe the technique of shooting across the air-water interface. Since the aim in such cases must be lower than appears proper, how about calling the corrective lowering "swamp depression"?

Now, the actual amount of "swamp depression" required for a true shot depends on one factor: the angle between the line of sight to the fish's image and the horizontal (call this the "sighting angle"). If the hunter can estimate the sighting angle fairly accurately—within 10 degrees—and learn how much to alter his aim in each case, he'll be almost guaranteed a hit with every arrow.

Table 1 lists a series of probable "sighting angles" with their corresponding "swamp depression" angles and approximate distances from hunter to fish. In composing this table I've assumed that the archer is 6 feet tall, wading in water 14 inches deep (so that his eye is 54 inches above the surface), and aiming at a fish through 8 inches of water . . . the maximum depth at which Reed recommends shooting. (My calculations—involving the use of Snell's law of optical refraction and relevant trigonometric functions—are likely to be of little concern to the general reader and aren't included here. If you're interested in the figures, send a stamped, self-addressed envelope to P.O. Box 272, Blue River, Oregon 97413.) Fig. 4 presents the data of Table 1 in graphic form.

The results summarized in the table and graph are grounds for a few simple generalizations that may assist those who stalk the marshes for carp, or other hunters in related aquatic situations:

[1] "Swamp depression" is always negative: that is, the hunter always aims slightly lower than the image of the fish.

[2] The proper amount of "swamp depression" is never great. It ranges from zero for "straight down" shots to a maxim mum of less than 2 degrees for a sighting angle of approximately 25 degrees (the fish is then about 10-1/2 feet away), and falls off to zero as the distance between hunter and prey lengthens. Thus, the archer should gradually increase the "swamp depression" as the range approaches 10-1/2 feet and gradually decrease the angle of compensation as the quarry moves farther away.

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