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Bowfin!

2K views 11 replies 9 participants last post by  The Mad Duck 
#1 ·
Was out at Panther Lake last week and caught a huge bowfin on a whopper plopper. Man, this thing was a beast! 7+ pounds. Didn't even know what it was at first. It gave me a crazy fight, luckily I had my heavy rod, a net and my fishgrips handy. I did some research on these fish, they are prehistoric. Really cool stuff!
 

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#4 ·
I love em because they put up a good fight; yet I hate em because they are so toothy for a fresh/brackish water fish and tear up the lures and line. I don't go fishing with a good set of fish grippers.
I caught a 5# on White Oak River a couple weekends back on a worm.

Nice catch! Keep it up!
 
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#9 ·
Thanks! It tried 3 times to hit my whopper plopper. The 3rd time was a charm. I just stalled it and left it there and he slammed it.

Found this info...

The average length of a bowfin is 50 cm (20 in);females typically grow to 65–70 cm (26–28 in), males to 50–65 cm (20–26 in).Records indicate bowfin can reach 109 cm (43 in) in length, and weigh 9.75 kg (21.5 lb).Young of the year typically grow to 13–23 cm (5.1–9.1 in) by October.Females tend to grow larger than males.
 
#10 ·
I actually got some video of the Bowfin struggle.
https://youtu.be/xm-THdf9HgI
Skip to around 1:40. I wish I was wearing the hat mount, and I wish I had audio. I was laughing my *** off as my cousin was trying to grab it with the fish grips. My whopper Plopper hooks were stuck in the net so he was being careful.
When he finally did take it out of the net he tried to hand it to me and I said, "I don't want it!!!". [emoji28]

Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk
 
#12 ·
We catch those all the time down east. Most of them are 5 pounds or under.
When I was a kid, we visited family on a lake in NW Michigan. My dad was pike fishing and I was armed with a cane pole and worms. I caught a Bowfin that weighed a little over 12 pounds on that cane pole. The rest of the family could hear me yelling half a mile away as we were riding back in the boat.
My best fish, as an adult was a tad over 7 pounds on a 5 wt Fly rod. Nice fight and a little more difficult since I had a cast on one arm at the time.
They are fun to catch and yes, they will bang up some tackle!
 
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