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Posts: 731
| Already have three of them in my boat, from 7-12lbs. Caught them while chasing northerns and bass in shallow weedy areas. Of course they destroyed the spinnerbaits I was throwing, bending the wire to the point where I couldn't re-adjust it so the bait would run right. Glad I had long nose pliers to twist the hook out so my fingers would not get near those razor sharp teeth. Prehistoric fish for sure, the northern version of a snakehead. Eat almost anything that can fit in their mouths. Bowfin/Dogfish, whatever you call them are a mean hombre. Just wondering if anybody else is seeing or catching more of these critters where you fish? The population on my chain seemed to have increased. Kdawg |
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Posts: 20178
Location: oswego, il | I've caught two musky fishing the first I seen it flipped a musky spinnerbait to it then chomped it and them turned it into a pretzel. The second was much bigger ate in the second go round on a figure eight with a cowgirl. That one bit my thumb sunk it's teeth in and would not let go. They are the honey badgers of freshwater and I bet no other fish F with them.
Edited by ToddM 5/28/2023 12:51 PM
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| Many years ago when I was young, we used to fish northern pike in the "ditches" of the cranberry marshes of central WI. We would put a sucker minnow under a bobber and let it float out with the water moving through the culvert. One evening, my dad's bobber went down and he hooked into something big. He fought it on the light spin caster and it got into the weeds where it hung up. He thought it might be a dog fish, but my uncle who was with us was sure it was a big northern pike. My dad took off his shoes, socks waded in. Well, he got out thigh deep in the lilly pads, and found the fish. It was a huge dogfish over thirty inches long. He gave my uncle a dirty look but said nothing, just unhooked it, held it up for us to see and released it. We caught a lot in the 5 to 10 pound range, but that was the biggest I ever saw. |
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Posts: 309
Location: Selkirk, Manitoba | Very cool fish - a holostean fish (jaw not flexible, like gar), so very much an early dinosaur era fish. The lack of flexibility in the jaw is why the wicked biting power - different that teleost fishes (pretty much all other bony fishes, including snakeheads, where the flexible jaw allows for more types of predation such as engulfing and using suction, filtering and so on). |
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Posts: 480
Location: NW WI | Basing off memory mind you.
I believe the WI hook n line record was 31" 13lbs.
They are not related to snakehead nor should be hazed,hated,feared, killed as such. They eat and compete as many fish out of the water as any other.
Some regard them as a satellite species.
Awhile back Illinois was looking into making Bowfin and some species of gar a game fish. Not sure what came of it.
Just a theory, not sure where your fishing. But 2 factors come to mind for your recent increase in first hand encounters.
1.: All that snow shading and weird spring has weed growth back a few weeks. So where your targeting predators, areas are congested with a variety of large predators. Whereas typically your esox would have pushed out further leaving bowfin the dense slop.
2: Only water I've seen that I've noticed has a growth in Bowfin has been decimated by zebra mussels. Now there might not be a population increase in population per say. But clear water and no veg makes it a heck of alot easier to see em.
Have you noticed any other changes to your system that might be correlated to increase their population?
How many were males and were they spawn green'd.?
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Posts: 166
| I assume we're talking about Bowfins as there is no pic posted, but someone said 'snakehead' a few posts above. Always get a few during pike opener up here, they'll eat anything and fight like crazy. Just gotta watch your fingers lol. |
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Posts: 731
| I live on a shallow, eutrophic, very weedy chain, that I have been fishing for 40 years. Over those 40 years, I have probably caught maybe 6 Bowfin, not counting the three I caught just this year. As stated, the weed growth does appear to be maybe 2-3 weeks behind schedule, as in some of the areas I would normally have to use a weedless spoon have no weed growth at all. As far as whether the fish were male or female, could not tell. I respect all fish, even carp, as the fish were all released unharmed. But as I stated, if you catch one, the lure will suffer some damage. Interested to know if the population has increased or not because they have always been a species that were present or very limited in my chain. Kdawg |
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Posts: 480
Location: NW WI | kdawg - 5/29/2023 11:18 AM
I live on a shallow, eutrophic, very weedy chain, that I have been fishing for 40 years. Over those 40 years, I have probably caught maybe 6 Bowfin, not counting the three I caught just this year. As stated, the weed growth does appear to be maybe 2-3 weeks behind schedule, as in some of the areas I would normally have to use a weedless spoon have no weed growth at all. As far as whether the fish were male or female, could not tell. I respect all fish, even carp, as the fish were all released unharmed. But as I stated, if you catch one, the lure will suffer some damage. Interested to know if the population has increased or not because they have always been a species that were present or very limited in my chain. Kdawg
Males have the spot. Up in the north they should still be green'd from spawning. Males are the nest guarders. They'll hit ya similar to how bass will in the spring. Could be strikes motivated by nest protection. The other tid bit I personally believe they are similar to muskie s in the sense that certain blades vibration and grinding will trigger em and others will not.
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Posts: 20178
Location: oswego, il | On the general fishing FB pages the bowfin is mistaken for a snakehead and killed or someone posts what did I catch and the first response is snakehead. Same thing happens to the sculpin. |
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Posts: 103
| Have only caught one, and don't care to catch another. Rough fish that can actually breathe atmospheric air when the water quality is so bad that there's no oxygen left. Wouldn't surprise me if they could slither on land like a snake from one swamp to another. |
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Posts: 76
| My grandfather caught one on Little Arbor Vitae circa 1980. Pretty big fish somewhere around 6-8 lbs. Gave him a big fight. Of course we were mighty let down at the time when we saw what it was. |
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Posts: 20178
Location: oswego, il | R/T - 5/30/2023 3:39 PM
My grandfather caught one on Little Arbor Vitae circa 1980. Pretty big fish somewhere around 6-8 lbs. Gave him a big fight. Of course we were mighty let down at the time when we saw what it was.
Little Arb has a good population of them. Hooked a couple there but never landed. Built like pit bulls. |
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Posts: 20178
Location: oswego, il | Here is the one that ate a cowgirl and bit my thumb and wouldn't let go.
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Posts: 3774
| I was taught dogfish were one of the few fish that are fine to thin out on a lake. We used to spear them at night. When a kid, with a spear head from Coast-to-Coast hardware that grandpa attached to a broken cane pole, I was wading in April at midnight with the spear in one hand and a flashlight in the other. I was King of the Lake. Teens and 20's was a serious spear head on a Home Depot extendo aluminum pole rowing a duck boat with a Q beam and a headlamp. 30s and beyond was a fish basket with a couple bluegill hanging 3' next to the end of the pier. Just walk down every hour or so with headlamp and a bowfishing rig. Dogfish will nose a fish basket like a muskie will nose a sucker, they don't spook till you shoot. Spook 'em and they'll be back sooner or later. They are one tough fish, prol just behind catfish. |
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Posts: 609
Location: Seymour, WI | The first dogfish that I ever caught crushed the blade on a Mepps #5 so hard that the blade was perfectly imprinted with the body of the Mepps lure. Impressive bite force. |
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Posts: 359
Location: SW Ohio | Used to catch them all the time while bass fishing in the everglades back in the 80's. What a pita the are, tearing up everything they eat, rolling like catfish. The lake behind my daughter's house in FL is loaded with them. Couldn't stand the things. Still can't... |
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