Bowfin

[Roughfisher]

Caught a nice bowfin in the Miss, thought you guys might like to see it:

[OptiMax]

Sweet looking doggie!

[Kurt Paulsen]

No kidding! That is a sweet fish!

[Andrew Erickson]

awesome colors on that fish

[LEECH21]

Nice beautiful fish, Roughfisher!!!

[catman71]

where is the spot that looks like an eye on the tail???

[Dan Thiem]

Hey roughie! Nice catch ya got there mister.

I should dig up a picture of one I caught on Lake Pepin. Brightest dang green ya ever saw! And it has the spot on the back too. It was a fish that was caught in the spring time on a jig and crawler.

[Mike89]

ok one question. does anyone eat this rascals? they are awsome smoked.

Mike89

[Dan Thiem]

Okay I found it and scanned it. I guess it aint that bright. But it does show some bright green and that spot.

[mplspug]

Huh, I thought they all had spots?

[MN-Catfish]

I seem to have noticed that Bowfin I catch up north, or in a nice lake seem to have the "spot", and ones I catch in or attached to a river seem to have diff colors and no spot. Like the river ones are a sub-species?

Anyone else have a similar experience?

[PanfishSeeker]

Quick note about the eye spot on the bowfin. . . males have it, and females do not, and that is a really nice fish. Bowfin is one of my favorite species of fish to catch. In my opinion they are one the best pound for pound fighters.

[Roughfisher]

Panfishseeker is right, only male bowfin have the spot on the tail. Females don't.

[sparcebag]

Spring time fishin crappie we catch a few I've caught them with up to 3 spots,good fighters! Of course I live on DOGFISH BAY Wonder how it got that name??

[ricqik]

Actually females do have a spot but only during juvenile stage. As they get closer to or reach maturity it disappears.

[brian6715]

Do you guys think these fish are good for a lake? I have heard many people say they kill them because they eat anything that is put in front of them, and a lot of guys claim that they kill a lot of sunfish when the sunnies spawn. I think they are wrong because every lake I know of that has a lot of doggies also has a ton of panfish. Another thing I have found is that if you can get a good tough skinned hot dog and get it on a phelps floater you will pound the doggies on the outside of a deep weed edge in mid summer! Not joking there either!