Bowfin

[Tig]

Anyone ever caught one? My wife spotted one near the boat lift last week and I saw him again Sunday. Pretty nasty looking beasty. Heck of a set of teeth.

 

[Huron Angler]

Re: Bowfin

I've caught several Bowfin...great fighters

Best to release them back into the water rather than let them flop around the rig. They will snap their teeth and make audible sounds(hence the Michigan name, we call them Dogfish).

Keep some steel leaders tied on because they have some sharp teeth and will take your lures easily with monofilament only.

I have some photos I can post if you are interested.

We caught them on cut Bluegill bait and worms on jigheads played off the bottom.

This site is a good source for more info on these fish. They are 300 million years old and are considered living fossils. Pretty neat species.

http://www.bowfinanglers.com/

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: Bowfin

That is an interesting link ....... I had no idea that people fished for them specifically.

 

[Tig]

Re: Bowfin

Thanks for the link Huron.
I'll probably leave him be. I got a good enough look the first time. But maybe when kids come fishing I'll send them after mr Fin.
He's hanging around near the spot where I was bit last week while working on the lift. Since my waders do not leak it obviously wasn't him that bit me.

Edit: I just read that they are also called Lawyers. One more reason to stay away from them.

 

[LongLine]

Re: Bowfin

I've caught a few bowfin. in the bays off Lake Ontario. Fight a little more than Largemouth. They inhabit same water as the LM & love crayfish.

Lawyers is a slang term for the Great Lakes Burbot. (Probably because they're slimmy & will wrap themselves around your arm)

Tom B.
(LongLine)

 

[cedarjunki]

Re: Bowfin

I've caught several Bowfin...great fighters

8-12 pounders on light action rods is a blast!!!! i fish them quite a bit each year.

That is an interesting link ....... I had no idea that people fished for them specifically.

who wouldnt want to catch a dinosaur????

there actually tasty too. but only if fried fresh or used in chowder.

 

[JB]

Re: Bowfin

Caught a monster bowfin in the C5 canal in the Everglades back in the 70s. Dang thing must have weighed 20#.

It pulled my little SportYak all over S. Florida. It was so big and so ugly I didn't even try to bring it in that little pram. I wrenched the hook out and escaped (me, not her).

 

[jdsgrog]

Re: Bowfin

I never caught one, but I was in the boat when my fishing partner did. We never saw one before and didn't know what kind of fish it was. It wasn't huge, maybe 6-8 pounds, but boy did it put up a fight. We thought he had a monster pike or a musky. In fact, it broke the guy's rod right in half (give it it was an old rod). It was the ugliest and scariest fish we ever saw...and the teeth...we didn't want to touch that sucker.

But now that I know what it is, I can say that I have a very healthy respect for them. Wouldn't mind pulling one in just for the sport of it...it's a tough fish.

 

[RicMic]

Re: Bowfin

I've caught LOTS of them, sometimes fishing for catfish, they were actually a nuciance. I think they are actually kind of cool looking, sorta prehistoric. We used to bowfish for them also, I've seen them up in the cattail marshes, in just a few inches of water and in places where I had to wonder how, they could even get in there!

 

[Huron Angler]

Re: Bowfin

One other cool thing about Bowfin is that they can breathe air quite well for a fish. This is one of the reasons that they have survived for 260+ million years.

They can also bury themselves in mud and enter stasis much like a frog or toad to suvive cold weather and extreme drought.

When conditions that are more favorable for their existence they spring back to life and commence eating everything that they can fit in their jaws

Their colors when spawning are pretty incredible too as shown on that website I linked to.

JB that sounds like quite an experience! Huge bowfin

 

[CN Spots]

Re: Bowfin

aka: grennel. Nasty buggers. All cartilage, no bones. One of the few fish that will legitimately try and bite you if given the opportunity. If it's a small lake or pond they could pose a serious threat to, well, everything else living in it.

 

[lncoop]

Re: Bowfin

We refer to them as Cypress Trout.

 

[CATransplant]

Re: Bowfin

I keep hoping to catch one. They're in a couple of the lakes I fish. But I don't target them. I suppose I'll catch one eventually while fishing for something else, but no luck so far.

 

[scipper77]

Re: Bowfin

Here is one from last summer

 

[fishrdan]

Re: Bowfin

Those things were in a couple lakes where I grew up in WI. One of the lakes was infested with them and you rarely saw anyone fishing that lake because of it. My dad and I fished for them 1 day and they were fun to catch on light pike gear. We brought 1 home, fried it up and it tasted nasty, so bad we didn't eat it,,, so bad the cat wouldn't even eat it...

Most of the people who caught them way back when (30 years ago) would throw them up on shore as they were considered trash fish, I would see piles of them while walking though the woods.

 

[Huron Angler]

Re: Bowfin

I keep hoping to catch one. They're in a couple of the lakes I fish. But I don't target them. I suppose I'll catch one eventually while fishing for something else, but no luck so far.

If you happen to take your time when reeling in one of the Bluegill or Sunfish you catch...a Bowfin may try to take it and get himself hooked

 

[Tig]

Re: Bowfin

We brought 1 home, fried it up and it tasted nasty, so bad we didn't eat it,,, so bad the cat wouldn't even eat it...

Most of the people who caught them way back when (30 years ago) would throw them up on shore as they were considered trash fish, I would see piles of them while walking though the woods.

@ the taste test. You're a braver man than I.

I have a fishing magazine from the 50s. The beer add on the back has a sportsman's pledge that goes on about destroying nuisance fish and animals. How times have changed. Invasive species really change the perspective.

 

[EMM]

Re: Bowfin

We catch them all the time while bass fishing here in south Louisiana. We call them choupique.

 

[Tig]

Re: Bowfin

Although I do respect the food chain and the balance of nature, Mr Fin is hanging out around a lot of spawning bass and blue gill. Maybe it's the weather but my normally overloaded turtle log is no longer a popular hang out either. I have not seen a turtle in two days. They may have not liked the new neighbor and moved on. Which I suppose is not all bad since those turtles are probably dinning on pickerel fry in between tanning sessions. Perhaps the big snapper I saw a few weeks back will show up and run the fin out.

 

[mommicked]

Re: Bowfin

I believe bowfin have a lung like gars.I saw a big one on the bank at Grifton N.C.years ago caught by shad fisherman it was"hog food".and was covered in sand and its eyes had sunk into its head in the heat and sun.it looked quite dead but as a friend poked it w a stick it thrashed violently and scared the %$#&* out of him! and we had a good laugh!!