Bowfin Quest Success

Mack in N.C.

Old Mossy Horns
I don't think I have caught a Bowfin all year so the other day i decided to hit a spot I thought may have some. Never fished it and I doubt anyone else has. The first day I was throwing a Black spinnerbait and the same Bowfin hit this lure 7 times and I was unable to hook it even with a trailer hook. I left empty handed. OUCH!

Fast Forward to yesterday and I went back with Pink Senkos. I hooked 2 and landed one bowfin. I also landed a small bass that when he hit, I thought "Big Bowfin" so I set the hook HARD and nearly sent the poor little bass flying by me

I have spots down East where I can catch 10 plus a day but this was more fun catching them in spot I thought "may" have some. Video on my channel in a few days.

North Carolina Bowfin.jpg
 

Bass-n-Deer-416

Four Pointer
Them bowfins are definitely some fighters....I caught one about 3.5 pounds a few years ago while crappie fishing on Harris Lake....4.5 foot ultralight with 6 pound test line was quite a bit of fun fishing.
 

strut buster

Eight Pointer
Bet that was fun. One about that size literally made me cry when I was about 7 years old, except we call them grinnel (was probably 20 before I heard bowfin). I was "fishing" across the street from my house in MS using a cane pole and worms. Only thing in this little canal besides gar were small sunfish and mud cats but it was fun for me. Anyway, I had one grab on to my hook and you can image the fight I had. I was already pretty tore up from the excitement of the fight (seemed like about a 10 minute ordeal at the time), but when I got that ugly thing onto the bank and saw how big and mean it looked I broke down and started running for the house screaming and streaming tears all the way. Mom and Dad almost whooped me when they found out what had me going since they were sure I'd gotten bit by a cottonmouth.
 
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Soilman

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
My parents and grandparents from Columbus County used to call them "blackfish"...and they used to eat them also. Grandpa used to tell us stories about gong "striking" at night in the swamps around his house. He would take a burlap sack slung across his shoulder, a 2-3 foot long piece of flat iron and a lantern. They would ease along in the water mostly targeting chain pickerels, but wouldn't hesitate to whack a "blackfish" either.

I often catch one while fishing in Brices Creek for bream, here in New Bern. Caught a nice one last Saturday, and boy did he put up a fight!
 

strut buster

Eight Pointer
My parents and grandparents from Columbus County used to call them "blackfish"...and they used to eat them also.

Down in Louisiana they call them choupique (pronounced like shu-pic) and sell and eat the eggs from wild and farmed fished. Call it Cajun Caviar.
 

oldest school

Old Mossy Horns
Down in Louisiana they call them choupique (pronounced like shu-pic) and sell and eat the eggs from wild and farmed fished. Call it Cajun Caviar.

thank you stut buster a new name for a fish that already has about 27 different ones. :)

mack isnt that the eagle nest area?
 

Firefly

Old Mossy Horns
I used to catch them out of the Great Pee Dee River, in the spring of the year at the mouth of just about any creek feeding into the river you could catch a truck load of Blackfish we called them Blackfish as well down in SC...Biggest one I ever hooked in the Great Pee Dee I was fishing off the bank with regular ole red worms when what I thought was a big Catfish hit my line..I finally got the thing up close enough for a look and it was a huge Bowfin, the line broke and away he went..

Nice catch Mack..
 

Downeast

Twelve Pointer
Someone should start a group for Bowfin Fishermen. You could call it BASS! "Bowfin Anglers Sportsmen Society" :cool:
 

Firefly

Old Mossy Horns
The smaller Bowfin's are not bad eating, I almost forgot we also call them Mudfish, the bigger ones taste a bit muddy..
 

darkthirty

Old Mossy Horns
Shot litterally over a ton of those things on Jordan and falls. You think they fight good with a hook in their mouth, they go absolutely bat$h!t crazy when you put an arrow in one. 12 1/2lbs was our biggest outta Jordan and falls but I think there are more in Harris, just won't average as big.
 

Mack in N.C.

Old Mossy Horns
Shot litterally over a ton of those things on Jordan and falls. You think they fight good with a hook in their mouth, they go absolutely bat$h!t crazy when you put an arrow in one. 12 1/2lbs was our biggest outta Jordan and falls but I think there are more in Harris, just won't average as big.

Jordan WAS chock full of them in the late 80's .....still alot in their but un the early stages of Jordan is was just slam full of em. 1 spot we hybrid fished you had better had a good stomach as there was literally a hundred rotting on the bank where people would just throw them out. Biggest i ever caught was 14 lbs at Jordan on Rat l trap.. second biggest was 12 lbs caught in Neuse.

I went today in a Beaver Pond and Hooked 5 landed 2 Fins maybe 3-4 lbs each along with 7~ bass most on black spinnerbait.

bowfin north carolina 1.jpg
 
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Blackwater

Twelve Pointer
Those devils have broken more fishing rods than any other fish known to man, often following a lure before hitting it near the boat and wrecking your gear. Like others we always called them blackfish and if you saw that white mouth open behind your lure we'd try to yank it away from it just to avoid catching it.

They are eaten by some people, and we would occasionally filet the smaller ones, peg them to a length of cypress board, prop the board up near a fire and when the fish was done we'd throw it away and eat the board.
 

DRS

Old Mossy Horns
We got a different name for them, bastard fish. I had a friend that would eat every one I took him. Spoon the meat out and fry it.
 
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Scalf

Eight Pointer
The small ones are actually pretty good eating.. once they get somewhat big their meat is mush... Like Jell-O lol
 
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