My first BOWFIN!

[Kurt Paulsen]

I was up by crosby this past weekend for a friends birthday. One night while I was fishing for perch from the dock I looked down and saw some weeds moving in the water about three feet in front of me. I looked closer and saw the white inside of a mouth breathing slightly. The water in front of the dock was about 2 feet deep. It was pretty dark so I didn't know what it was. I plopped my minnow if front of its mouth and and swallowed in calmly. I set the hook and off it went! 5 minutes later I had this on the dock! What a cool fish! I wanted to try to eat it, but it was a bit large...

[Ralph Wiggum]

First, huh? I've caught my share. They are fun to catch, aren't they?

[Kurt Paulsen]

That they are! I have been eager to catch one lately, and I finally scored. I enjoying chasing fish I have never caught before. There are quite a few I need to get yet, but the top of the list is american eel, longnose gar, and burbot.

[big musk411]

Nice! I caught one when I was about 6 or 7, and have been an avid fisherman ever since.

[cjac]

I've caught a few on the spinnerbait while bass fishing, for a minute you sure think you have about an 8 pound bass on the line! They sure can tear the spinnerbait apart too! Lure ends up trashed!

[Ralph Wiggum]

Amen to that, cjac Them things have t-o-u-g-h jaws. Don't tell anyone, but I wouldn't mind catching one or so this weekend

[Tyler Holm]

KP,

I'm still working on my first one as well. I'd like to accomplish that by mid summer.

[Bobb-o]

kurt, where around Crosby were you? i have a cabin just outside of crosby

[Maashkinoozhe]

Took a Biology of fish class at the U, and got to see a bowfin skull close up (ultra-cool!). They have 2 sets of pointy teeth (kind of like "Alien"). Our instructor told us a story about a time when a group of them were doing a survey and when they were sorting their catch out on land, a hapless individual made the absent-minded mistake of doing a lip hold on a lively bowfin. He found a novel use of the hood of a Ford F150 as a thumb-from-a-bowfin's-jaws-of-death extractor. It still took three or four whacks against the truck to get the bowfin off his thumb.

Dave D.

[hogsucker]

Way to go, man! The Bowfin is truly a unique creature. ~hogsucker

[nitefisher]

nice fish kurt, wish you lots of luck on your list of fish yet to catch.

[nitefisher]

kurt is the bowfin mostly a lake fish or are they in the rivers also? and do you know there region.

[Ralph Wiggum]

I've never seen or caught one in a river. I've caught them from lakes near St. Cloud, near Brainerd, and in the Spicer area. There seems to be a healthy population in Games Lake. We got three in one day last summer.

I've caught most of mine on spinnerbaits, but they'll likely grab anything you toss at them. You need a sturdy hook because I've had many mangle lighter hooks and get away. I see them a lot cruising in the shallows.

Last summer, I was mowing the lawn at the cabin and I spotted one cruising around between our docks. I grabbed a rod and tossed a spinnerbait out. I couldn't hook the darn thing, but everytime I'd toss it out, he would go investigate it, and mouth it just a little. I'll bet I spent 15 minutes toying with him.

Another time last summer, we were fishing sunnies off the dock with my girlfriends nieces. One was gut hooked and died after the release. It sank to the bottom, and pretty soon a nice, big bowfin popped out from under the dock and chomped on that sunnie. It was really cool.

[HuskerBen]

I saw one caught out of the Mississippi at Minnehaha Falls last summer. It was caught on a medium sucker below a float. The thing had a hook and a Rapala hanging out of its mouth, and a treble hook on a steel leader coming out of its... well, an uncomfortable place. They're tough, tough fish.

I finally caught my first while trying to catch bullheads for bait. I was really lucky to land it on my ultralight bait-catching rig. I thought it was a northern for sure, until I got a look at it. I've been hoping for another one ever since.

Ben

[Roughfisher]

I have caught a lot of them in rivers; in the Mississippi below the Coon Rapids Dam on live waterdogs, and in the Sauk River on spottail shiners I caught in the same river with flies.

Congrats Kurt, the bowfin is a tough customer and a fish worthy of respect.

[nitefisher]

thanks for the info from all of you this sight has been so cool and helpful, and i respect all of you as if you are like family. ralph some time when you are at your cabin either email me or let me know because i go by there alot when i go see my mom in bird island i would like to meet you and maybe fish a little. thanks you guys.

[Ralph Wiggum]

I'll try, Nitefisher! I was actually going to e-mail you the other day, but then I looked at my calendar an realized that my June is filled up. We'll try to hook up this summer, though. I'd like to fish the Chippewa with you--it looks like fun.

[nitefisher]

it has really heated up these last couple days on the chippewa. i didn't get out fishing yesterday because my son got married, but i will be out today taking my mom fishing. just drop me an email any time.

[Kurt Paulsen]

We were up on Lake Emily in the town of Emily. The cabin we stayed at was on the Little Pine River between lake Emily and Lake Mary. I don't fish many lakes, but these were very productive! At the mouth of the river where it flows into Emily was very good fishing. There were bowfin and pike ALL over! I caught my first pike and bowfin in the same trip!

[nitefisher]

i use to fish lake emily at the mouth of that same chanel. we would stay at birch beach resort when manard halder owned it. his son lives with me now.

[Frank Rickard]

Since we are sharing some stories,I caught my first bowfin of the year last night on a rattlin' rap. Thought I had a nice northern on until it started to do the croc death roll by the boat. The coolest thing was when I got it out of the water, it had neon green fins. Tried to get a pic, but the bowfin didn't want to cooperate. It was the craziest color scheme I have ever seen on a freshwater fish!

[Sonicrunch]

Eat it?

I'm pretty sure they are poisonous.

[nitefisher]

you sure would think so but after some research bowfin has a lot of good recipes on the net. all i did is typed in bowfin fish and found tons of recipes, some say it tastes better than catfish.

[MidCoast]

I ate a few before.... I like trying new food LOL... I should be on Fear Factor or something.. Anyways, Bowfin aka dogfish doesnt taste too bad.. Everything edible taste good.. It just depends on how you cook it...