Trash Fish Bucket List?

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

Here's something only my fevered mind would dream up.
Every angler wants to catch the big name fish. Big bass, Massive salmon, trophy bluegill, arapaima in South America (my personal quest), and so on.

But what about those other fish, the "trashy" ones we don't admire nor talk much about? If you were to target them, which ones would you go after?

In other words, what would a "Non-game Fish Bucket List" look like?

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

Well thanks, Allen. I should probably say that they are perhaps more prominent in Southern climes - but that I am certainly no expert!

Perhaps it is that they get so big here....

Heck I dont know for sure. LOL

[Allen Morgan]

"Big".....hehehehehe

Ever seen the old tin-type picture of an Alligator Gar that's like 10' long?  BIG!!  Earlier in this thread I mentioned the "Caddo Lake Monster".  It's a rumored Gator Gar that's 15 ft long......

[Charles ( wolf ) Gibson]

Ok now I don't feel too smart I see y'all talkin about bowfin n I'm thinking a bowfin ????? So I look at some of the photos of the fish then it was boy am I dumb well back when I was 12 - 13 years old me and my youngest brother use to go to a pond and catch them large ones 5-8 lb range but we call the fish either a dogfish or a mudfish we never kept them but they sure do bend your rod real good lol I guess I was in the south to long ppl look at me strange when I talk about specks and brim ie crappie and bluegill lol

[Lord of the Fly , Rods]

 In our part of the South the bowfin is called a ' Grinnell "   , still ugly looking. LOFR

[Rick King]

In Indiana a Bowfin is called a Dogfish

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

Ive heard that one, LOFR. As Rick says below, another name is "dogfish."

But my favorite name for amia calva comes from the bayous of Louisiana: "choupique"

Pronounced, "shoe-peek," it just has that appealing ring most Cajun names have.

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

'Mudfish" is what the first one I saw was called. Their air bladder serves as a crude sort of lung, a hold over from their prehistoric ancestry. If I recall correctly, the fossil record shows they haven't changed in over 160 million years.

This vestigial lung allows them to live a long time out of water, or in less than ideal circumstances. Most known as a creature of swamps and backwaters, I'm certain they got this name once spring flood waters receded and left them, well, "in the mud."

[Rick King]

Smoked Mooneye/Goldeye

[Nathan]

Big mountain whitefish would be /are, going to try and catch them this year. :)

[Dusty Schelbitzki]

Alligator Gar, Bowfin, Eel, Snakehead

[Leo Nguyen]

You know what, what happen to the old fashion crocodiles and gators (small 2ft to 4ft length). That will be fun to haul in, and if allow, skin and eaten. Taste like tough chicken.

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

Alien, five Feet of gar, all tooth and razor scale, well.... Brother that's big enough for me!