A buddy of mine recently found a large shallow pond off a road that I have driven by dozens of times and never noticed. We decided to launch his canoe early Sunday morning and had to bushwhack our way to get through an opening in the hedges surrounding it. He and his son had previously fished it once and saw several bowfin during their trip, but didn’t hook any. However, this trip would be different.
The pond was pretty shallow, ranging from about 1’ to perhaps 3’ with a lot of weeds. For a while, we attempted to cast weedless frogs and other topwater baits into the weeds to entice a bite, but couldn’t draw any reactions. We actually drifted onto resting bowfin twice. The first one dashed off before we could drop a bait in front of it, but the second was a bit more stationary. I actually managed to get it to bite a chunk of cut bream I bounced into its snout, but wasn’t able to connect when I went to set the hook.
I decided to soak the cut bait along the weeds while making some casts with a spinner. After a little while, I thought I noticed the rod twitching a bit, so I picked it up and watched it as the line began to move. I set the hook hard, and while there was a weight on the end, it didn’t move. I couldn’t tell if I had a fish or a stick. As I started to reel it in, the stick came to life and started to peel off drag. Then it jumped on the opposite side of the canoe. Yup, definitely a bowfin.
After going through a bit of a Chinese fire drill with my fishing buddy, we eventually netted it. It was a nice 28”, 7 lb specimen. We snapped a few photos and released it.
A short while later, after getting my bait rod hung on a stump in the middle, I went to make a few more casts with the spinner (my favorite, a #6 size Panther Martin Deluxe Fly in orange and gold). A few seconds into the retrieve and *wham*, fish number two. This one was a little smaller and more gnarly. It looks like a turtle had taken a chunk out of his tail fin at some point.
A little while later, I hear my fishing buddy exclaim “Oh jeez!” as he watched a fish wake behind and smash his spinner. After a good fight, he managed to boat the biggest bowfin of the day, a beautiful 8 lb, 29” citation.
We paddled around for another hour or so, but didn’t have any other takers. I’m not sure if there are any other gamefish in this pond, but frankly, I don’t care. I enjoy having my baits blasted by these toothy critters the leap like bass and pull like carp. We’re already planning our next trip back to the magic bowfin pond.
Here’s a link to the action:
https://youtu.be/RsYNbsRZQXY
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The pond was pretty shallow, ranging from about 1’ to perhaps 3’ with a lot of weeds. For a while, we attempted to cast weedless frogs and other topwater baits into the weeds to entice a bite, but couldn’t draw any reactions. We actually drifted onto resting bowfin twice. The first one dashed off before we could drop a bait in front of it, but the second was a bit more stationary. I actually managed to get it to bite a chunk of cut bream I bounced into its snout, but wasn’t able to connect when I went to set the hook.
I decided to soak the cut bait along the weeds while making some casts with a spinner. After a little while, I thought I noticed the rod twitching a bit, so I picked it up and watched it as the line began to move. I set the hook hard, and while there was a weight on the end, it didn’t move. I couldn’t tell if I had a fish or a stick. As I started to reel it in, the stick came to life and started to peel off drag. Then it jumped on the opposite side of the canoe. Yup, definitely a bowfin.
After going through a bit of a Chinese fire drill with my fishing buddy, we eventually netted it. It was a nice 28”, 7 lb specimen. We snapped a few photos and released it.
A short while later, after getting my bait rod hung on a stump in the middle, I went to make a few more casts with the spinner (my favorite, a #6 size Panther Martin Deluxe Fly in orange and gold). A few seconds into the retrieve and *wham*, fish number two. This one was a little smaller and more gnarly. It looks like a turtle had taken a chunk out of his tail fin at some point.
A little while later, I hear my fishing buddy exclaim “Oh jeez!” as he watched a fish wake behind and smash his spinner. After a good fight, he managed to boat the biggest bowfin of the day, a beautiful 8 lb, 29” citation.
We paddled around for another hour or so, but didn’t have any other takers. I’m not sure if there are any other gamefish in this pond, but frankly, I don’t care. I enjoy having my baits blasted by these toothy critters the leap like bass and pull like carp. We’re already planning our next trip back to the magic bowfin pond.
Here’s a link to the action:
https://youtu.be/RsYNbsRZQXY
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk