I caught this Bowfin on a plastic worm at a pond in a remote area by my house. It was about 22" long, and only my second Bowfin ever. My first one was about half its size.

sweet fish! we catch them in ray hubbard back by the creeks and the smallest we have caught was 4 pounds. havent caught one yet where we didnt have to trash the hook cause they bend the heck out of them. nice fish, bet it was a fun fight.

Yep, was a heck of a fight! I initially thought I had hooked into a 7 or 8 pound bass! Did also bend the heck out of my 4/0 hook.....

Very cool; looks like a nice fish. Are they good eating, or did you throw him back?

PS: Welcome to TFF.

Thanks. No, we threw him back. From what I've heard, they are not good table fare at all.....They are so called "trash fish". The fight they put up is spectacular though!

Cool looking fish!

them fish have teeth!

Your right, they sure do, sharp as hell too! For those of you that do not know much about these fish, here is a brief description of them:

Bowfins are an order (Amiiformes) of primitive ray-finned fish. Only one species, the bowfin Amia calva, family Amiidae, exists today, although additional species in six families are known from Jurassic, Cretaceous, and Eocene fossils. These included the huge Leedsichthys, probably the biggest fish that ever existed. The bowfin and the gar are two of the freshwater fishes still extant that existed, almost unchanged from their current form, while the great dinosaurs roamed the earth.

Bowfins are found throughout eastern North America, typically in slow-moving backwaters and ox-bow lakes. When the oxygen level is low (as often happens in still waters), the bowfin can rise to the surface and gulp air into its swim bladder, which is lined with blood vessels and can serve as a lung.

In the creeks at Gibbons you can catch one. However I don't know why you would want to.

Caught one at Fork about 5 lbs a few years back, thought I had a nice bass. It did fight good.

because they fight harder than any bass except maybe a hybrid

Cool looking fish!

You didn't happen to catch that fish from the pond behind Pappadeaux restuarant did you?

Don't throw them back. They make good fertilizer in your gardens.

i always wanted a bowin in my aquarium