Not sure how many of you fellas are familiar with this type of fish, but I recently had an opportunity to catch a few of these pugnacious fish in Florida. They can fight pretty hard! I was fishing with minnow for crappie, or as they are known in Florida, speckled perch. Anyhow it was quite the surprise when I caught one of these toothy suckers. I was informed by the locals that this pre-historic looking fish is considered a "trash" fish.

I was wondering if these fish exist in this state? Or if anyone has tussled with this worthy "trash" fish. I would speculate that maybe in east Texas but I am unsure.

Bowfins are pretty awesome! I think GG has a pic of one he caught from Caney Creek. It may have been a carp though...

Sulla,

The bowfin is an awesome species and a very aggressive predator. Texas has world class bowfin with Lake Fork being the state record holder at around 18 lbs. This is only a few pounds away from the world record.

They have beautiful colorations in the spring.
http://www.bowfinanglers.com/science.html

Bowfin is popular enough to have its own club and forum.
http://www.bowfinanglers.com/index.html
http://www.websitetoolbox.com/tool/mb/gassbag

Congrats on the capture! I hope to catch my first bowfin soon.

always called 'em grinnel, cajuns call 'em chopique (shoepick).. fight like hell and a mouthful of teeth, I think its a prehistoric fish too, looks a lot like those fish they had trouble with on the east coast...cant remember the name now, damn gettin old sux.

Your right Badassbaits. The snakehead and the bowfin do look similar.

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/species/exotic/snakehead_bowfin.phtml

The snakehead is an invasive species from Asia. The bowfin has been here for 100,000,000 years, according to the Bowfin Anglers Group.

When I first got a glimpse of this fish I thought snakehead as well.

It's great to see that at least some do not consider this fish to be "trash", and that there are anglers dedicated to this type of fishing.

I probably caught and released 15 or so of these fish over a 2 day period on Lake Mikkosukkee in Florida. The largest was 24" long and prolly around 6 lbs, very fun to catch.

The colors of this fish as shown in the links are amazing! The fish I captured were almost pitch black. They were so dark that the spot on the tail was barely visable. I was informed by the locals that it was because of the large amount of cypress trees in and around the lake that turns the water very dark.

Thanks for all the great info on this very unique and ancient fish!

A fish I have yet to catch. I may have to target them on Fork one weekend

Scott,

If you come by the fish-in we can take the bass boat to White Oak Creek. It's full of salad and it's within visual distance of the boathouse.

awesome, I'll tie some big azz minnow patterns and bring my new 8wt

I've only caught one bowfin. It was a little one at about 2 lbs.


They have a slimecoat that would embarrass a buffalo.

ive seen some caught on several occasions at whiterock lake .one time someone left 3 on the bank to die sorry basstages

I had never seen these fish until my family took a bass fishing trip to the St. John's river in Florida my sophomore year of high school. We caught many many "mudfish" on live shiners while targeting bass. They were so fun to catch that by the 3rd or 4th day, we just gave up on the bass in favor of the 'fins.

They are indeed unfortunately considered a nuisance down there. One of our days out we took a bass guide and he would bludgeon every mudfish caught to death with one of those miniature baseball bats, then throw the fish back in the water for the gators.

Years later, we caught them from time to time bass fishing the Mississippi river backwaters in northern IL.

Awesome fish IMO.

I've caught quite a few Bowfin.... Looking for pics now. Will post when I find them.

Here's one...

and the other...