Thay are fantastic fighters. I caught a 7.26# bowfin while fly fishing at Lake Tyler last year and that thing fought better than the 9# bass I caught fly fishing at Fork last year. Rarely do I use the reel on my fly rod to fight a fish, 99.9% of the time the rod is all I use to bring a fish to net, even the big bass. But that bowfin stripped line off my fly reel like it was a 15# redfish and I was forced to fight it off the reel. It took me about ten minutes to get it into the boat. It was a great fighter! It was also a state fly fishing record.

Geez, you Texas guys will eat anything! Bowfin? Yuk! Up in MN these are called dogfish and rated even lower than a sheepshead or drum or even a gar.

I've never ever heard of anyone up here eating one although I suppose some of the Iowa tourists have tried.

I catch em in the pads quite often and it's such a dissapointment when you think you've finally got a really good bass bite!

I like to slam dunk em off the prow of my boat. Don't miss though because you may not kill the ugly damn things!

I hate em even worse than eel pout

Next post, best way to kill a gar. stay tuned

I've caught a bunch of those things at Lake Fork --- even caught one once at Gibbons creek. They'll hit most anything a bass will hit from soft plastics, to top waters to crank baits to spinner baits.

I crossed paths with one at Fork once that I'd bet would have been a state record! He bit a Tx rigged Power Worm and I couldn't have handled him even if I wanted to. I got a really good look at him in the very clear water and would bet anything he would go over 20#. He was a real monster and broke off 25# Big Game like it was nothing!

I don't even bring them into the boat when I do catch them -- too messy and also prone to breaking stuff in your boat when they thrash around! I just lean over the side to shake them off or unhook them.

When you catch one on a spinner bait, you may as well trash the bait! It will be bent completely out of shape such that it will never run right again, even if you do try to straaighten it out.

C.

Beef - This is probably totally off topic, but I don't really understand why you'd want to kill them for no reason. They get bigger and fight harder then bass, and hit just as aggressively, so why are they a lesser fish? They're just as much fun to catch, right? If you were blind you wouldn't know the difference, lol. People are just biased against "ugly" fish and I never understood why they would want to kill them and waste the fish for no reason. At least try eating it or something rather then killing it and leaving it too rot. Have you ever tried eating it? If you knew how to cook it properly you might find yourself enjoying it.

I'm sure you know plenty of people in MN icefish for Eel Pout every year and many consider them a delicacy, do you look down on them too? I hear they taste very much like cod, lingcod.

Drum/sheepshead make excellent eating as well, very firm, clean white meat with a mild, almost lobster like flavor. Much more like a saltwater game fish. They too, fight harder and get bigger then bass.

Sorry, I just don't get it. As long as a fish is fun to catch, why hate it, why kill it for no reason?

Imagine if you saw someone fishing for catfish, or carp, or salmon, something large and strong, who caught an 8 pound largemouth, got angry and bashed it against a rock then tossed it back. You'd be pretty pissed off cause it's a waste of a good fish, right? Well I feel that way about all fish, I think it's a total waste to just kill them for no reason, just because you caught it by mistake. If I wouldn't do it too a bass, I wouldn't do it to any other fish either, unless the law demanded it.

If you check out the thread where people are talking about why they prefer the largemouth, many of them answered that it's the thrill of the hunt, and the thrill of tempting an aggressive fish to hit a piece of plastic, then fighting it in.

Well, if you catch a bowfin like that you just did the exact same thing. You tempted a large, strong, aggressive fish into hitting a piece of plastic, and it probably gave you a lot better fight then a bass would have.

They're every bit as aggressive as bass, and they get a lot bigger and fight a lot harder, and are quick to take atificials, they're just not as "pretty".

So why kill it?

Ok. That's my rant for the day lol. Sorry to bug ya.

C - Sounds like an awesome fish. Too bad it broke your line, bet it gave you a nice adrenaline boost though hehe.

Hold em just like a catfish, and use some plier to get the hook out.

Actually, as I think back on it, the Bowfin(Grinnel) has provided several "firsts" for me over the years.

Back in the 60's in Fla., the first fish I ever caught on a plastic worm -- ~4#

Some years ago at Lake Fork, fishing a Senko for the first time -- ~8#

A few years ago, finally gave in and bought the high $ Yellow Magic topwater-- you guessed it, first fish was a Grinnel; ~ 6#

Had a friend down from Conn. to fish with we at Lake Fork a few years ago. He had never heard of nor seen one. I caught one on a plastic lizard; ~8#. My yankee friend got a good look and declared that he "wanted no part of them"!

At a club T some years ago at Toledo Bend, a friend caught one and not knowing what it was, brought it to weigh-in. I actually felt kind of sorry for him --- he caught a BUNCH of grief from the other club members for bringing it in!

I think its a blast catching them (especially if bass fishing is a little slow). I don't kill them, just turn them loose to continue to grow and terrorize unsuspecting bass fishermen.


C.

Hey Eagan, we dont eat "LUTIFISK?" down here, in the stupid O'south? We ar sow ignirant, that we jus' drop outta skool, and lern to fish for a livin'. Ever notis, how minny fish pro's are frum Texas? They shur make a lotsa munney

Please don't kill the Choupique, grinnel, bowfin or otherwise. They are a fine fighting fish and very contrary to popular belief, they do not ruin any body of water. They are one of the most efficient predators on earth meaning they make little waste for what they take in. Which translates to they don't eat as often as other fish. They are prehistoric and actually have a crude lung that allows them to survive in places where other fish can't.
Growing up in La, I was always taught that they ruined the water and to kill every one of them. Turns out they don't ruin a thing, it's just that they can live in slop and mud holes that no self respecting bass would be caught dead in.
So if you are lucky enough to catch one of these guys, please return him to the water to fight another day.
Signed, A Reformed Cajun Killer of Choupique

TBendTexasSide - Frickin' Hilarious.
Oddly enough, I lived in Apple Valley, MN, which is very near Eagen, for four years before I moved back down here.

Texcajun - I totally agree with you, it's sad people tend to kill the fish they don't like or understand. If they'll eat them or something that's one thing, but killing them for no reason is a total waste. And bowfin are fun to catch, too, very aggressive predators, maybe even more aggressive then a bass, with a lot more fight.

Starless, my mom and sisters live in "MInneesota", that experiment wasted 10 years of my life in St Paul. My brother wasted 12 years of his life in Farmington/St Paul. Most Minnesotans have "never" left their homeland, and they dont understand anyone outside their Border. I could tell you a zillion stupid southerner stories, misconceptions, notions, etc. Most hate the south, anywhere south, and have never even been to the places they discriminate against. They think that they are the "most educated" people on the planet. Funny thing is...I dont think there has ever been a Minnesotata President. I can think of numerous Southern Presidents. Jimmy Carter, George Bush, Bill Clinton, George Bush2....hmmm, I bet they might have eaten some gross rotten fish at sometime of their stoopid retartid ignirent lyfe. Soory fur tha missspellin.

Instruction: What I do. I keep extra .39 stringer in my boat for them. (Don't put them in your live well, they really stink.)First tree I pass he becomes bird food.

To be honest, I didn't understand half of what that yankee said.

The sun has risen and the sun has set, and we ain't outta' TEXAS yet! DONT MESS WITH TEXAS!

This was the first fish I ever caught as a kid using an artificial bait. I still remember it was a small black and yellow spinner bait. I was about 9 years old and the grinnel was about 3-4 pounds. Caught it out back behind my grandparents' house out of a 2 acre cattle pond.

It fought like heck!!! I was so proud... I drug it about 600 yard through a pasture, through a bob-wire fence, through my granddad's garden and onto my grandmother's screened-in backporch... all the while, still attached to the line and lure. My grandparents' were surprised I caught anything since I had just learned how to throw a baitcaster and they didn't think there were any fish in the pond.

My dad told me it was a grinnel and that it wasn't any good to eat. So, rather than let it go to waste (it was pretty much dead from its brutal trek across the landscrape), he used it as another opportunity to show me how to fillet fish.

We fed it (the whole thing - body, head, fillets, backbones, and tail) to my grandmother's huge, scary cat... bigger than a bobcat and looked just like Morris-the-Cat of that catfood commercial fame - that thing caught and killed squirrels, possums, and even a raccoon.

I was so proud of myself... I fished that pond every chance I got. I caught another 3 or 4 grinnel over the years... each time I drug it to my grandparents' house, "cleaned" it and fed it to my grandmother's cat.

I never did like that darn cat, it was mean as hell! But you can't help but respect a cat that can catch squirrels and raccoons!

Every time I've caught a bowfin (that's what I call them nowadays) since, I just smile, release it and hope some young 9-year-old gets his fishing experience off to such a rip-roaring, exciting start as I did.

That's a really cool story, Txn.