Caught this from a creek in 4-6 feet of water on shad. I have no clue what it is. Its dorsal fin runs nearly the whole length of its body.

Can somebody please fill me in?

that would be a bowfin not everyday u see one of those

Put up a hell of fight for about 10 seconds then they turn into dead weight. They are also referred to as Cypress Bass or Grinnel. Heard they are related to the snakehead that is causing so much of a problem with the bass population on the NE.

I ain't never caught one, but I have seen enough articles about them, it is a Bowfin/Grinnel/ Bad-A$$ S.O.B., basically, whatever you want to call it. If they were as good eating as they are at fighting, they would be a Hell of a fish.

Yeah, definitely a bowfin. I have yet to catch one but have heard they can make pretty good fighters and tend to be very aggressive. Never eaten them myself so I can't tell you if they are any good to eat or not, but I've heard there are good ways to cook them, you could try looking up some recipes and stuff. I've seen one on the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, I think, let me see if I can find the link.

Here it is, I found it:

http://www.agfc.com/pdf/brochures/agfc_recipes_roughfish.pdf

Check out that link, they have recipes for all kinds of rough fish, found the site while looking for buffalo recipes, and some of them look pretty good! They have one for bowfin as well.

You sure dont want to lip them do ya! I caught one once and had the phone in hand ready to call tpwd because I thought I had a lunker on. Those things will just straight FIGHT! Oh yea, the one I caught only went about 8lbs.

JP, aka Phil Peoples, catches them somewhat regularly at Ray Hubbard, or at least he was semi regularly catching them there for awhile

Rudy

They are also refered to as dogfish.Up north they are highly disliked.They tend to eat any and every thing around.That includes all sports fish.But they do put up a good fight.

Thanks for the quick responses. Lots of gar here as well are displacing the bass and cats I should be catching.

Yep you got yourself and ol "Grinner"

We used to catch them back in the swamps and creeks in Arkansas. One Hellofa fighter and will eat ya alive if given the chance. Ya need to skin him like a cat and bake him seasoned well.

I'm tellin ya. Trash fish are good eatin too ya just got to know how to cook them.

I keep hearing that. But my first attempt at cleaning one broke my fillet knife! I hear shears are in order.

We catch bowfin down in Florida regularly. I can always tell when I get one on it starts to roll and roll and roll.. Mostly a nuisance, but still hit a worm like a bass and make you think you got a good one.. until it starts to roll..

Rick

I have caught a couple of them at Fork. They really tear up a spinner bait.

B0xii - That website I posted the link too also offers tips and stuff on cleaning and preparing rough fish. Or you do some other online research you should be able to find some tips and things as well.

What did you break your fillet knife on, a gar?

When we filleted the buffalo, we already knew the knife was way to small, wouldn't even fit halfway through the fish, so we got a big cleaver type knife and made to cuts, one from the top, one from the bottom, and met them in the middle lol. Though we had to use a hammer to knock the knife through some of the bones they were so thick, lol.

Grinner / Bowfin