nice river shot, one of my favorite places to fish

You are holding it kinda funny, just go ahead and lip that fish, LOL. They have some dang sharp teeth.

Bowfin in the educated world, Mudfish in Florida & Georgia, Choupique in my native state, and Grinnel in Arkansas and Missouri. And put them all together and you have one bad a** fighting fish, that will totally destroy a lure, won't quit fighting until it has been dead for 2 days and has a slime on it that will stink up like you would not believe. They also love to eat fingerling bass. I usually put a Phillips screwdriver thru their head and feed them back to the turtles and gators

SHOOT EM Elizabeth!!

Lake record?

they grow to almost 20 lb in Florida. that looked to be about half that size.

there range is pretty much in all freshwater in North America. I caught one in Champlain some years back.

You dont want to lip one of those rascals

It is possible that the fish was a record ray hubbard

yes I think the record is only around 8 pounds

They have a choupique tournament once a year down here in my home town. You probably wouldn't believe it but they can actually be very good eating. Trick is to fillet while still alive and not to ice em down in a cooler. If you ice down and let them die the meat will get mushy. These ole boys at that derby have a cleaning table set up and as soon as they come off the weigh scales they are being cleaned and cooked shortly thereafter. They either batter and fry the fillets or mix with seasoned potatoes and make deep fried patties. People come from all around just to drink a few beers and eat every year. Good stuff.

Here's the video
https://www.facebook.com/carnadasbaitlurereview/videos/1754643691445417/

I have been trying to catch one of those for a while. Without giving away any of your bass spots how far up river would you guess that was? I tried in my kayak way up near the damn but struck out. Thanks, John.

That looks like a monster Bowfin. The lake record is 8.38. Looks like you may have destroyed it.