Bowfin!
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!
Hate catching those toothy critters. I fished a tournament on the Roanoke River with a buddy a few weeks back, we probably caught 10 between us.
Take a Bass Boating!!!
Life Jackets and Kill Switches save lives.
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!
Just keep swimming...ahem... fishing... just keep fishing...
Proud Red X Angler Member
Nice fish, They sure do fight good. Plus they are not bad eating.
Biggest I have managed was 46" in a canal in south florida.
~Michael
That's a nice one!
I feel the same way about Pickerel!
I was actually pretty excited when we caught the Bowfin. The LMB bite was tough so it was nice to find something, and something big!
Originally Posted by Neilslure
How big to those things get? Wow nice catch.
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.
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!!!".
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That's a big one alright. I sometimes fish for them at Merchant's Millpond when I want a good fight.
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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