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Old 05-19-10, 10:02 AM   #1
Jrok
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Default Dogfish on a spinner bait

But what a catch. haha. I thought I had hooked a state record bass, but it turns out it was a dogfish? I bet it weighed around 15 to 20 pounds. It broke my rod into 4 pieces ending my fishing for the evening.
Caught in Eau Claire WI
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Old 05-19-10, 10:08 AM   #2
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Nice fish. I'm not tooo far from you. They do put up a good fight, don't they?
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Old 05-19-10, 10:11 AM   #3
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It was a great fight. I was out in my waders and several times it came crashing into my legs, freaking me out at the time because I wasnt sure what I had on the end.
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Old 05-19-10, 10:11 AM   #4
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I hate those things!!!

I caught a 10+ pounder one year when I was fishing Lake Fork - thought I had a giant largemouth until I got it up to the boat.
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Old 05-19-10, 10:13 AM   #5
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Nice catch!! I had one on a couple weeks ago on the Upper Hudson River. I also thought I had a record bass. Mangled my spinnerbait my uncle wanted a picture with it. Nasty suckers they are!!
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Old 05-19-10, 11:13 AM   #6
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Those things destroy spinnerbaits. Literally. They break and mangle wires both during the fight and when you have it up on deck cause they like to flip around so much.

I never liked the idea of slitting trash fish throats, and I dont do it, but I have hit those damn things with a pair of pliers or two just to make myself feel better about losing a $5 spinnerbait. Not that you can hurt them.
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Old 05-19-10, 11:34 AM   #7
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Shame on you guys. I'm usually not one to take the eco-freak greenie's side, but Bowfin are not trash fish.

It always amazes me the perception of gamefish vs. trash fish. What exactly about bowfin is inferior to bass? Let's take a look and compare.

Fight: There's no contest. A bowfin will flat out own a largemouth bass of the same size. Add to that bowfins grow larger than largemouth bass, and you have the possibility of some epic battles.

Catchability: Herein lies the most puzzling point to me. Most bass anglers would think bass have been chosen as the premier game fish because they're difficult to catch. The opposite is actually true. Relatively speaking, bass are easy to catch, even though we can't always catch them.

Of the larger common fish species, bass are probably the easiest to get to strike an artificial lure. Try catching carp, drum, catfish, etc with an artificial. It can be done, but if there were a tournament for those species using artificials, there would be a lot of skunk smell in the air. Other than trout, pike, walleye (all considered gamefish), gar, and bowfin (unfortunately not), no other large fish are very susceptible to artificials.

Eating: I've eaten both, and bowfin is just as good as bass. However, it may be irrelevant, since most anglers these days worship at the ridiculous altar of catch and release.

Just because a fish is commonly held to be ugly, does not make it a trash fish. I would consider catching a 10 lb Bowfin to be a bit of serendipity.
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Old 05-19-10, 11:35 AM   #8
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dog fish??looks like a bowfin or mud fish to me..i have caught a spotted dog fish before on a spinner bait. fishing for red drum...


a 10 pound bowfin is big.


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Old 05-19-10, 12:17 PM   #9
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Bryce, you have eaten bowfin?
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Old 05-19-10, 12:26 PM   #10
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Quote:
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Bryce, you have eaten bowfin?
Yes, I have. It is a bit more dense than Largemouth, more like Striped Bass.

I think the main problem with eating bowfin is people tend to catch them in the summer, out of muddy backwaters with intense algae blooms. In that case, the algae can make them taste bad, but would probably make anything else taste bad too.

However, I would not eat Bowfin caught out of a major river where mercury might be a problem.
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Old 05-19-10, 12:50 PM   #11
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Trashfish or not...I still hate them things!
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Old 05-19-10, 01:54 PM   #12
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I like a good fight soo I'm torn.
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Old 05-19-10, 03:12 PM   #13
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Bowfin are great to catch. Just like the Northern Snakehead. Both are very similar in temperment. I've found that if you don't touch the fish and use pliers to remove the hook (spinnerbaits work best) you can get your baits back with minimal damage. You have to be very quick to do this. Once you touch the fish they start to twist, spin, and go nuts and that damages the baits. I've never filleted a bowfin but snakehead is good eatin'.
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Old 05-19-10, 03:27 PM   #14
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I think bowfin are pretty sweet fish. I think the reason they get a bad rap is because they're considered in some parts to be invasive and can ruin the habitat. Woodcock dam, near where I live, the fish and boat commission advises people to kill the fish if caught.

They're prehistoric fish too, some 150,000,000 years old.

Some call it an ugly fish? It's a fish... all fish are kinda goofy looking.
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Old 05-19-10, 03:42 PM   #15
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Boyo, where do you live? The bowfin is native to a lot of the U.S., so unless you live in one of the other areas, they shouldn't be recommending you kill them.

By the way, I totally dig their "dinosaur" style brutish appearance and attitude. I also hear they can be colorful during spawning season, though I have never seen one that wasn't just sort of chocolate brown.

Man....now I want to go catch one and put it in an aquarium. I've been reading up on how to make your own big acrylic aquariums, and I love native species. So it's either a Lepomis Megalotis (Long-Eared Sunfish) tank, an Ameiurus natalis (Yellow Bullhead) tank, or an Amia Calva (Bowfin) tank. Such a shame none of these three species will co-exist happily in a home tank. (On second thought I figure the Bowfin would be quite happy with the other two. )

Sorry to hijack the thread LOL.
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Old 05-19-10, 03:46 PM   #16
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Hey, Boyo....in my usual style, I figured out where you live, did a little digging, and found the following!

http://www.fish.state.pa.us/images/p...ish/bowfin.htm

Good news. Turns out you should not be killing those bowfin at all!
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Old 05-19-10, 04:04 PM   #17
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Quote:
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Nice catch!! I had one on a couple weeks ago on the Upper Hudson River. I also thought I had a record bass. Mangled my spinnerbait my uncle wanted a picture with it. Nasty suckers they are!!
Just for the record this fish was released unharmed!! Quick pic and immediately back in the water. They do fight like beast's in my 30 years of fishing I have never seen one up close and personal. At first I thought I discovered a new species of fish thought I was gonna get rich!! Little did I know they have been around for thousands of years.

Still nasty suckers!!
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Old 05-19-10, 06:01 PM   #18
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Nice fish! Kinda seem like a sheepshead!
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Old 05-19-10, 06:20 PM   #19
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Cypress trout...

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Old 05-19-10, 11:31 PM   #20
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Quote:
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dog fish??looks like a bowfin or mud fish to me..i have caught a spotted dog fish before on a spinner bait. fishing for red drum...


a 10 pound bowfin is big.


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a dogfish IS a bowfin
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Old 05-19-10, 11:32 PM   #21
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Bryce, I couldn't agree with you more. I pretty much believe in the, "if you aren't going to eat it, don't kill it" philosophy. I realize that there are occasionally extreme circumstances with non-native species but otherwise why kill something for the sake of killing it?

I've never caught a Bowfin but I have Carp fished in the past. They are considered a trash fish but they get really big and are fun to catch....and release.
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Old 05-19-10, 11:45 PM   #22
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Absolutely, Joe!

I have gotten so sick of not having fresh fish lately, I busted the drum I caught last year out of the freezer tonight and fried it up for dinner. Some would consider them trash fish, but I have to say, he was pretty tasty. Firm white flesh, not overly fishy.

A bit ironic that they were a major food fish back in the day, and I recall accounts of them feeding the Union army a lot on drum and buffalo (another so-called "trash fish").

Okay....I am preaching now.
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Old 05-20-10, 12:02 AM   #23
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Weird how certain fish species were at some point put into the "trash fish" category. All the fish in our lakes and rivers, with the exception of those that aren't really supposed to be there in the first place, play a roll in the delicate balance of their ecosystem. Doesn't really make sense to put greater value on one over the other, without one you might not have the other.
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Old 05-20-10, 12:08 AM   #24
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The most hilarious instance of this I can think of, is back in colonial times, only peasants ate lobster. The well to do wouldn't touch those "trashy" things. Can you believe it?
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Old 05-20-10, 09:29 AM   #25
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Embrey View Post
a dogfish IS a bowfin
dog fish are kin to a shark...


http://www.google.com/search?q=dogfi...e7&rlz=1I7GGLF


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