Niagara County Bowfin

[Joel Spring]

Last Saturday on ultralight gear in my kayak -- catch & release.   One of my favorite fish.  What a fight on 4# test!

[lowaccord66]

Nice one!  I can tell by the lack of response that these are still under appreciated fish!

[RIVERRAT2]

great fin,nice photo, i also like to catch them,fight like hell,what did you use to catch
that one,
i have tried cooking them but i did not do it right and it came out mush
how do you cook them??
thanks for sharing
 
RAT

[trapper2000]

the meat is greyish and slimmy  rat best way is toss them in the field and shoot the buzzards that land on them  ....probably taste better
 

but they do fight  great 

[bigredfishing]

Man I love bowfin!   There was a couple that used to live in the pond behind my old apartment.   I must have caught each of them a half-dozen times in the one summer I lived there.   Always a hard fight!  Much respect for one of our living fossils.

[Mac Attack]

Man I love bowfin!   There was a couple that used to live in the pond behind my old apartment.   I must have caught each of them a half-dozen times in the one summer I lived there.   Always a hard fight!  Much respect for one of our living fossils.

You really made me nervous Lance.
I thought you were going to tell us how you pan fry them.

 


 

[greensider]

great fin i travel 3 hours north to fish for them wish we had them near me

[Raquettedacker]

Welcome to the site Joel..   Great BF...

[trapper2000]

well they are ugly....mean....... but they do fight!

greensider if i traveled  3 hours it wouldn't be to catch a  bowfin ..... we need to introdouce you to mr walleye   or mr northern

joel nice to have  you aboard

[lowaccord66]

You really made me nervous Lance.
I thought you were going to tell us how you pan fry them.

 


 

Im sure he has a recipe on some hidden blog somewhere!   

[greensider]

trapper i fish for them when i travel as well champlain is where i go we do have more eyes here now

[trapper2000]

when I was a kid we would catch them in sage marsh fishing for pike ...they are a hard fighting fish at night when we speared bullheads we would see big ones in the back washes

[Joel Spring]

Thanks guys -- they've always been one of my favorite fish since the first time when I was 13, a friend and I landed one in our canoe that was possibly a state-record.   Not knowing what it was, we released it!

Since then I've targeted them a lot.   I enjoy steelhead, pike, bass fishing, but nothing fights quite like a bowfin.     I always release them.   Not sure about how they are to eat (I've heard they are terrible) but I do know that, being a high-end predator, they tend to be loaded with mercury... 

Went out again last night, but managed only a couple of rock-bass and a perch.   You never know....

[bigredfishing]

Im sure he has a recipe on some hidden blog somewhere!    

quiet you! I've already got my freezer full of wild trout , besides, there's always a way to make anything tasty if it at least starts out not nasty...except for bluefish...

[lowaccord66]

quiet you! I've already got my freezer full of wild trout , besides, there's always a way to make anything tasty if it at least starts out not nasty...except for bluefish...

Dude...lies...smoked bluefish, done right...epic.  I think my interests in bowfin are more sporting in nature rather than sustinance.