I used to fish at a bayou about 10 miles from my house. There were catfish, gars, carps, BIG alligators (saw a 7ft + the other time, better watch where I step heh?) and a whole lot of turtles. I was reading some articles and obviously there were people that had had some luck with big bowfins. How do you catch them though? Hook, line, and most importantly, baits? Will my current bass setup (MF, 10# test) work? That place is well overpopulated with gars, I'm just tired of hooking on them and having to get the hook out of those toothy mouths.

The only time I've ever caught a dogfish I was using 10# mono and threw a large hook with the tail end of a bluegill on it and he sucked it right in.   I'd just use baitfish or crawlers on a hook with a split shot about a foot up from the hook.

Just wanna add, this brings back the memory of my snakehead fishing time back in Vietnam. We would throw top water baits into the heaviest cover there was, and the fish, esp the females guarding the nest, would just go crazy. They went for the bait without hesitation and would put up quite a big fight, even those the size of your big toe. One time I ran out of bait and decided to test my luck with a piece of cork, successfully . Good ol' memory.

Back home in Florida we used to use large, bright colored grubs (white with a red or pink tail)t-rigged with about a 1/4oz. or smaller weight.  Shaky heads rigged with a bubble gum colored trick worms always worked pretty well too.  They seem to like the bright colors.  A buncha people hate the mudfish, but on a hot summer FL afternoon when the bass are nowhere to be found u can almost guarantee you can get on a mudfish somewhere, and it's a fun fish to catch (until u gotta get your hook outa that mouth!).  Hope this helps!

Try to use the search feature using bowfin as a topic and in the other fish species section only going back a year. I have seen several posts on them since I joined.

Also try http://www.bowfinanglers.com/

Google "bowfin fishing"

8-)

i have caught 2 one on a sinko and the other on a spinnerbat, i hear that they like white spinner baits so.. both were 27 inches on 8lb fireline.

I, like Evan Sharp, catch them on white spinnerbaits in the James River.

Also have got them on Senkos and a crankbait.

If they are hungry they will strike just about anything.

They are fun to catch but their mouths are too soft and tear easily which gets me upset since I let them go.