My First Bowfin Catch

[gsemeraro8]

Caught this beast on a Purple Essence Rapala Shadwrap in Butterfield Lake in Upstate NY...we were trolling for Walleyes and I thought I got snagged on a rock until this monster started to rip line off my reel...what a fight! According to the locals they are not native in these waters

 

[pharmaecopia]

Nice size girl.

The locals don't know what their talking about. Bowfin are native to those waters.

 

[MonsterFishCreeper]

Nice size girl.

The locals don't know what their talking about. Bowfin are native to those waters.

Yup they should be native to that area for sure. I had an interesting experience recently involving bowfin. I was shown an old picture from the early 1960's of a kid at my works yearly fishing derby holding a wopper bowfin at the pond on our property. The pond has been there since the early 1900's and I'm very curious to know if they're still there.

 

[tlindsey]

Nice catch, and those are some serious chopper's.

 

[jpcampbell123]

nice did you release it?

 

[gsemeraro8]

nice did you release it?

No...my first thought was a snakehead when I pulled it out of the water...not until later looking at the fins that I realized it was a bowfin

 

[sledge760]

Awesome catch!