Do you love big bluegill?

Small Predator…..Bowfin……9/21/2024

These fish are aggressive and very strong…..almost prehistoric….

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Comment by tracy willis on September 27, 2024 at 6:31am: nice fish. we have a lot of grinnel here in the backwater and they get pretty big. fun to catch and pretty good to eat occassionally but you have to be carefull when you filet them. the guts will ruin the meat and water will ruin the meat. you basically have to filet them, dry them with a paper towel and fry them the same day.

Comment by Jeffrey D. Abney on September 24, 2024 at 2:27pm: Agree John……I’ve only heard of a few chance encounters with snakeheads and that was an amateur bass tournament guy fishing the Potomac River…….all I will say is anywhere I experience great bluegill fishing either size or numbers, there’s also a bowfin population so my belief is they help balance the population and help to avoid stunting fish…..

Comment by John Sheehan on September 23, 2024 at 1:15pm: New Jersey record Bowfin is an 11 #, 8oz. caught by an 8-year-old Boy in 2017.

I sure hope Bowfins aren't being destroyed because of misidentification with Snakeheads which are invasive and pretty numerous in the Delaware River and its tributaries.

SNAKEHEAD – Channa spp.

Bowfin are native species, actually dating back 250 million years and should be released unharmed. However, snakeheads are invasive and should be destroyed and submitted to Fish and Wildlife for verification.

Snakeheads were first found in the lower Delaware River and its tributaries in 2008. The species is now widely distributed throughout the Delaware River basin.

Comment by Jeffrey D. Abney on September 22, 2024 at 8:23am: In North Carolina there is no size limit or creel limit on bowfin but their sale is strongly prohibited…..

Comment by Jeffrey D. Abney on September 22, 2024 at 8:20am: I was exposed to bowfin fishing as a kid…..Louisiana would offer bowfin rodeos similar to a tournament but people were allowed to fish where they wanted too and faced a deadline for bringing their fish back to a certain location for official weights…,to my knowledge the largest bowfin rodeo is held in southern Alabama drawing over a hundred boats annually…..

Comment by Jeffrey D. Abney on September 22, 2024 at 7:51am: My biggest bowfin in North Carolina was the fish pictured at 11 pounds….caught on a 1/32 ounce Popeye jig tipped with a live cricket…..the North Carolina state record is over 17 pounds……saw quite a few double digit bowfin growing up in Louisiana where the state record is over 20 pounds……the world record was caught in South Carolina at 21 pounds 8 ounces…..typically you have to exceed 12 pounds locally to win the bowfin tournaments……..

Comment by John Sheehan on September 22, 2024 at 6:40am: My only Bowfin grabbed a 16th oz. Black Leech style grub, black jig head with yellow eyes. A May 2016 catch.