A buddy and I went to our favorite lake two Friday's in a row.  The first Friday we (he) caught one bowfin.  It's sort of a novelty in our neck of the woods to catch a bowfin and we thought of it as such.  However, last Friday (in addition to many bass) we hooked and/or caught at least 14 of them (They were hanging out in flooded cattails in about 3 feet of water).  It became sort of a game to  guess what species they were before we saw them.  Has anyone else had such a day as this?

Yes please, would you like my address?

We call em Cypress bass. Nuisance around here.

 

Most all angers carry a mudfish knocker with em. I'll let y'all figure out what that is.

 

State record bowfin for Ga is 15lbs, I caught one that was 1lb shy of the record. Not a record I'd be proud of haha

Sad that people kill them for no reason.  They are an awesome sport fish that has been around since the time of the dinosaurs. 

 

I catch em occasionally. Just let em go. They’re fun to catch either way. Always put up a good fight. But I’ve never seen em in such numbers. Maybe they’re spawning? I don’t have any clue to their lifecycle, since I don’t target them. 

If they were spawning you would know it.  They get crazy fluorescent green colored.  I am pretty sure they spawn around the same time as Bass or close to it.

Yes I have had many days where I have caught many bowfin. They are a underrated fish that fights much harder than a equal size bass and always seem to provide action in many places that I fish in.

I’ve never fished bowfin but have spoken to someone on another forum that loves fishing for bow fin he says they are extremely good fighters and should be considered a game fish.

First time I seen green on a bowfin was in the St.Johns, Fla. I couldn't believe it it was weird 

 

They do fight extremely hard, when you set the hook on them it's like setting it into a stump. They do damage lures. Really slimy

It's only spring time when bowfin generally intersect with bass as far as environments.  Summer, they stick to marchy backwaters that sometimes don't have enough oxygen to support bass.  They can but fun fighting, but they're miserable creatures once in the boat.  Do not lip them, lol.  No reason to bonk them either, they were there before a bass ever existed.

No bowfin in East Tennessee unfortunately but I have caught two and netted several in South Alabama. They call them grennel or mudfish

Awesome, violent fighters.  Hellacious teeth.  Slimier than a Krispy Kreme donut but you won't catch me eating one.  My grandfather used to shoot every one we caught with a .22 revolver.

 

If you still massacre every bowfin you catch, please go read American Wolf.  Draw your comparisons between the coyotes that overpopulated Yellowstone years ago, and realize the Elk did as well..once the wolves were gone, the coyotes decimated the rodent population, the elk were given free reign of the saplings near the water and the beavers were gone, just like that.  The birds of prey were gone because all the rodents were gone.

 

Once the wolves were reintroduced, the balance came back.

 

So go ahead and kill the wolves and allow the coyote to overpopulate and watch your average coyote go down in size because when you tip the scales one way, the other side is comparatively lighter.

 

In short, please stop killing bowfin unless you're gonna eat the nasty rascals.

I thought they were fun to catch (though a few did cut off my crappie jigs).  My friend didn't like them so much but he didn't try to hurt them either.  They fought REALLY hard and they rolled at the boat like an alligator might.  I don't think they were spawning (yet)-if color is any indication-but none of the bass had spawned yet either (we had a late spring).  Anyway, I wouldn't want a lake full of them-to the exclusion of other species-but I don't see that happening.

We got them down in the bayou next to our fishing lake.  And somehow they got into our fishing lake too, either survived in the old ditches that were drained and connected to make the fishing lake or somehow got into it later.  I remove them from our fishing lake, but put them back in the bayou when I catch them down there.  I put out yo-yo's to get catfish and usually at least half catch bowfins.  We put the guts of cleaned fish back in the bayou by our dock, so the bowfin hang out down there for a free meal.  They'll tear up a brand new lure real quick.  

On 5/22/2018 at 10:11 AM, Ratherbfishing said:

Anyway, I wouldn't want a lake full of them-to the exclusion of other species-but I don't see that happening.

As long as the lake is healthy, I don't see it happening either.  Something much bigger and problematic would be going on for that to happen.

Got my first one on Toho last Winter......It was like landing a freight train!

40 minutes ago, NHBull said:

Got my first one on Toho last Winter......It was like landing a freight train!

Say what one wants about their being ugly, slimy, bony, etc. but they do fight like mad!

I wish we have bowfin here in SoCal. SoCal is so pathetic in game fishing, we almost have nothing but bass. 

Got this one yesterday he broke my fish grips and mangled the hooks on my plopper. 

 

We have a ton of them down here in South Florida they put up one hell of a fight and are a big no comparison the fight of a bowfin to a bass same thing with Oscars and snakeheadsuch better fighting fish than bass pound for pound IMHO

2 hours ago, Wurming67 said:

We have a ton of them down here in South Florida they put up one hell of a fight and are a big no comparison the fight of a bowfin to a bass same thing with Oscars and snakeheadsuch better fighting fish than bass pound for pound IMHO

Do your florida bowfin like to spin at the boatside?

 

3 minutes ago, Ratherbfishing said:

Do your florida bowfin like to spin at the boatside?

 

Big time!!I had one on a couple of weeks ago close to 10lbs what a great figh!!!

I have caught   about twenty in my life . I like catching them .