Every fishing license sold should require passing a simple test of native and invasive fish. Somehow people got to thinking bowfin are snake heads and kill them.
@K Moore1 You'll always have those types of people that want to kill anything that eats game fish. They'd be surprised how many of the game fish cannibalize the young.
I've seen many people mistake them for invasive snakehead and leave them on the bank. We definitely need more education as fisherman on the difference between snakehead and bowfin.
Alot of fishing pages on Facebook someone will post a pic of a bowfin they caught and atleast a couple idiots will say it's a snakehead kill it lol I see it all the time
@@kylephillip6433 , in some vases, bowfin and snakeheads share similar markings, down to the spot on the tail. The obvious difference is the elongated anal fin (Dad joke: "Long ass fin"). Bowfin teeth are needle like, whereas snake head teeth are spikes. I'm looking forward to my first snakehead, I understand they're delicious!
People have unhealthy views on “trash” fish that they even know are native. The only time a fish is undesirable to me is if I’m ONLY catching them and want variety, or if it’s simply not what I wanted to catch during that cast. Otherwise, any fish is a good fish
You have to keep them alive. They have an enzyme in their flesh that softens it after they die. So keep them in water alive up until right before you are ready to clean. Next, make a mixture of vinegar and water and put the filets in there initially. This will help firm it up. They are probably best in a fish patty but are ok just as filets.
Bowfin are hands down my favorite fish to catch this time of year. I feel like lately they've been getting a bit of attention which I'm glad to see. They really are awesome fish. If you're fishing for them though, I've found that the smaller males will go for the night crawlers, but the big females really tend to prefer cut bait and you really have to give the big ones a bit of time to eat then set the hook hard and prepare for a hell of fight. The bigger ones have a tendency to run straight towards you at an angle and launch themselves well clear of the water. A net is also really nice for landing them because 3 times out of 4 they thrash hard enough to break your line or the hook off in their mouths when you try and pull them out of the water. Amazing animals.
I’ve literally only caught one in my entire 40+ years, and it was by far my most favorite. Will stick with me forever. Caught it in this little muddy slough type area, after I had been catching these little sunfish and catfish by the dozens. Bam, it hit and I had no idea what I had caught. It was a great experience, but unfortunately where I live, don’t really see them.
@@ryanmac3134 They're probably more common than you think. They can be finicky about what they bite. I had never so much as seen one in 20 years of living in Michigan until a couple years back. By me the big females will ONLY bite on fresh cut bait (chopped up bluegill or perch) and I only catch them in very specific areas.
Bowfins are great! Living fossils, and the last living representatives of a line that's split off from their closest living relatives way back in the Triassic, before the Dinosaurs even were a thing
I don't live or fish in the USA but to me a Bowfin is basically an American snake head. like the snakehead it evolved to live in low oxygen environments. It can breath air if needed and even evolved a very similar body style with that long torpedo shape.
@@Fishinginbangkok hope you make it over here,the Delaware river in Pennsylvania is where I catch them.thailand is quite far away,it would be very expensive to get here.have a good day sir.
@nl8999 Bowfin or, as called locally Grinnell, they fight above their weight for sure. They will ruin your tackle ofter. They love to spin when hooked and usually destroy your favorite spinner bait. They bend it enough so it is never the same. They hit like you just caught at 10 pound bass.
bowfin are an absolutely underrated sport fish. pound for pound one of the hardest most agressive fighters in freshwater, and they get huge in some lakes!
The most thrilling fishing experience to this day was catching a bowfin when I was around 12 years old, in a kayak by myself. The thing dragged me up and down the river for at least 10 minutes like it was nothing. When I finally pulled it out, I was convinced it was a snakehead, as they were in the news a lot back then. It looked unlike any fish I had ever seen before, and put up a hell of a fight.
Bowfin or grinnell as we call them in east texas are an excellent sport fish ,one of the strongest fighters around . It will average 5 to 10 lbs on most lakes & streams. My largest is a 13.6 , 33 inch fish on a black lizard . As far as eating they are a little cottony and will get mushy if not eaten hot . But overall there are no fish that aren't good to eat . Peoples opinions usually are based on what someone else said not personal experience. Carp ,buffalo, bullhead catfish and drum are also good eating ,contrary to what is put out there. Great video young man !
You should also mention that bowfin are a native species and at least here in Michigan are often mistaken for Snakehead. I've seen more than one angler kill them because of it. Also use cut bait or live gills and you're almost guaranteed to catch them constantly. I just use an egg sinker with about a 12-18 inch lead down to size one circle hook.
@@raptortamer1478 exactly, seen so many people kill them because of it. Like dude we don't even have snakehead here. Bowfin have a special place in my heart lol, they are one of my favorite species to target, just caught a seven pounder two nights ago going for channel cats out in Whitehall
Great video on a great fish! Down here in Louisiana they're called choupique. I've caught a few when fishing for panfish, including a 26-incher - biggest fish I've ever caught.
I caught several of these fish in North Carolina when i was in the Marine Corps. Locals called them mudfish. They are very aggressive, hit quite hard, and fight like crazy. Had more than one spinnerbait completely destroyed by these fish. They are definitely fun to catch.
Grew up catching these guys in central Minnesota. They sure are prehistoric motherfuckers! I always thought of them as “trash fish”, many folks naively leaving them in the banks as if returning them would harm the lake. They are a crazy intense catch with how they thrash; they are more intense than many largemouth bass I’ve caught! Great to see a respectful retrospective on them!
When I was up at my cabin last year I may have caught a Minnesota state record dog fish. It was prolly well over 13 lbs. And I caught 6 or 7 of um. They are hell of a fighter!🎣❤😁🙌🙏 since me and my sister and brother were little we always looked forward to see who would catch a dogfish at our cabin. Praise Jesus God bless.
Beautiful and bowfin don’t go in the same sentence 😂. We had a few down in the bayous on the Mississippi gulf coast where I was raised. I’ll never forget one absolutely destroying my dads favorite top water prop bait, a frog colored spin-i-diddee. We call them grinnels in the Deep South and won’t think of eating one unless starving to death. 😂
Try a ned rig with a yoga pants colored trd. Bowfin in GA love it. They must forage on a lot of small fish becuase I’ve even cut a trd in half then rigged it and ripped there faces off.
Bowfin are my nemesis, I've fished for them multiple times and I haven't caught one yet! They always elude me. Personal vendetta aside, they're some of the coolest fish that swim in the US, and they're native. No fish is a trash fish, and bowfin are some of the best in my opinion
Im from Louisiana a tip my grandfather and dad told me was to put the meat in water with ice and a lil bit of vinegar it keeps the meat from falling a part or getting to soft
Bowfins belong to the same clade as gars. They are living fossils beeing arround already for 250 million years. Please be sustainable so they will still be arround when we might be long gone. ❤ Awsome Fish! Greetings from Europe.
I've never even saw a bowfin... as I am from across the Atlantic, but as a general rule, oily fish go to the charcoal. It will be interesting to see you grill the next one and taste the difference. Mushy fish flesh, like tench for example, are horrible when fried but excellent if baked in the oven. Please try that too, put it in the oven with butter, carrots, onions and pumpkin. I'll subscribe now just to see if you try these out. Cheers.
I caught a bowfin when I was younger! It was honestly the coolest thing I ever caught because nobody knew what it was so it was a really cool experience. Definitely hope to have more like it! I can't believe those things can survive at the bottom of Lake Superior. Insane!
Never seen one with neon fins ...en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amia_ocellicauda. There's 2 species! The word I heard was yellow belly has mushy meat and white belly has firmer meat down in SC but thats prob only for the Southeast species.
I caught one of these when I was 14 here in Indiana...at first we thought I had a log...lol then we thought oh man it's a turtle...took me about 25min to land it...biggest fish I ever caught and when it fought finally it was the best fish I can remember catching. Also have fished that same spot for many years and only ever caught the one.
Pro tips for cleaning and cooking bowfin: cut the spine and let them bleed first. It greatly improves the flavor. Also, scale the fish but leave the skin on. It will hold flavor and make the filet firm enough to grill.
My first dogfish was big, like 37 inches. it was the length of my whole leg. I had no idea what it was. It put up one heck of a fight. I would love to catch some more, but they aren't in my state, colorado. I grew up in indiana
Bowfin are amazing fish if eaten in the right conditions. If you cannot keep the fish alive or on good ice, trying to eat one could end your fishing trip because their meet quickly decays compares to others. If it dies and you eat it at the end of the day you start getting an ammonia taste or smell.
I had some white sucker for the first time recently and it was good. The roe was absolutely delicious however. I like to roll it in flour and pan fry in lots of butter.
Only time I ever caught a bowfin was super fun. Let him go obviously, I know what they look like compared to snakehead. It hit a whopper plopper, was really freaking cool
Down south mostly we don't eat drum, buffalo, carp, gar, bowfin, because there are too many bones in them little bones that will choke you and the fact they will eat dead rotted fish which is a(no)for me, but people eat possum and ive seen them eating their way out of the south end of a dead cow thats also a (no ) for me..... 👍
A 'Snakehead," looks very similar to a Bowfin. The heads are a little different, but the body is very close... Bowfin are predators, (hence the teeth), not scavengers. You'd get better results with live baits, and moving lures. I've caught bowfin with goldfish...
In louisiana the bowfin is also called a shoepic and Grinnell !! They live in clear clean creeks as well .....their meat is similar to gar !!! You can catch them on artificial lures.....they will destroy lures with their ferocious bite....a jerk bait such as a red fin and shallow diving crank baits work well....any plastic lure and spinner baits work well...you can have a big time catching them on lures due to the ferocious attack on lures !!!🙃😉🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲
This is an awesome catch ( cotton fish) natives called it devil fish. Aggressive it will take your finger and aim for you. The meat to me is cotton like. THIS IS NOT A TRASH FISH.
Dogfish are perfectly fine to eat, I've started convincing other around me and forcing family members to try it in MI. I've only recently started eating them last year, I caught a bunch of them out of a nice clean river. They bite really well on minnows, just a leader, hook and of course the minnow. In terms of meal prep, definitely keep them alive until you are ready to cook them up. Hammer to the head and bleed them out, then fillet as you normally would. I never bother with removing the darker flesh unless it's from a smelly fish (looking at your sheep head/freshwater drum). A quick rinse in cold water, dry well with paper towel, slice to size, season, flour, egg wash, panko bread crumbs then deep fry. They end up looking like chicken tenders and taste great, plus NO BONES! The ones I've eaten are more on the flavorless side, not off putting or fishy, not super flavorful, but add some tartar sauce and it's the bomb. I never noticed them being particularly fatty, not like trout or salmon anyways. They eat a lot of crayfish in the rivers so sometimes you get one that has a sweet smell and almost orange flesh. Too bad people kill and leave them to rot, they are no worse/better than northern pike based off of their diet and fight. No native species should be seen as an unwanted pest. Maybe they wouldn't be so plentiful if people found out they actually taste good.
We call them Grinner or Grinnel here in Mississippi. In Louisiana they call them Shoepic. You have to eat Bowfin as fast as possible. An old creole man I knew said: You have to cook them warm. No fridge, no next day.
choupique in Louisiana and they are eaten...like almost everything else. Special handling required for consumption like bleeding them out. Can get mushy quick.
Next time cooking fish. Soak your fish in kosher salt and lemon juice. Not too much lemon juice. You don't want the lemon juice to cook filets. Works with all fish. Never have "fishy" tasting fish. Not mushy either.
Bowfin is good eating. You just have to cook them fresh and do not freeze them. Catch one, get it home, (DO NOT FILET) just scale, gut and head it then grill it. You have to use charcoal or an open fire. Season with lemon pepper to taste when you put it on the heat.
Catfish are very mucousy even some of it gets on your leader but they're delicious. I appreciate bowfin as a native species and I caught one once in Arkansas which was fun but I heard the texture and flavor ain't very good. I don't like eating crappie or sunfish but many people do. And likewise I've heard people tell me they don't like trout and i love trout especially pan fried in butter with lemon or smoked. Basically what im saying is its all personal preference. Also red meat on a trout/steelhead or salmon is a good thing its pigments from the krill/shrimp and other prey they eat. Those are fresher better tasting fish vs fish that lose that rich colors from spawning and being in freshwater for too long. Dark beat up salmon =white meat,bright silvery salmon =rich red meat. The farm raised bullshit is artificially dyed pink or orange
LOL when I was a kid, me and some friends went to some swampy quarry to fish and there was bowfin in there, my friend was like ew no... Don't touch that fish...LOL. They like 4 inches of mud water to live in.
I'm half convinced that people who don't like "muddy" fish are just the fish version of the wine snobs that fail 2buck chuck tests. I can understand not liking all the bones in a carp or tilapia, thats a physical thing but hating muddy fish and then going out for fried catfish.....
Ref 'Trash Fish' : Bass Tackle Companies push propaganda about Carp for financial reasons. They do not want Carp fishing getting popular in the states because almost all well established carp tackle and bait is from Europe.
+1 on your conclusions. I have only kept and eaten one. The flavor was fine. Very mild. The texture was a put off for me. Too mushy for me to want another. I’m happy to catch and release them. Great fighters!
Caught a good sized bowfin on the St. Lawrence last summer, hit my whopper popper HARD, bent the crap out of the treble hooks and put up a really nice fight
Carp and suckers are delicious. I've fished for white suckers for years. I don't live where the bowfin does so have no experience with it. Have you done any videos on the burbot? They are often regarded as trash fish but in reality they are close relatives of cod. Edit: Just subscribed!
The key to fishery management is catching and eating the fish. Carp and Bowfin will take over a water body if people don't see them as edible. Perhaps we should get a Top Chef on the carp and bowfin and make them great. BTW...a Chardonnay could cut that oily feeling in the mouth.
You go right ahead catch all of them you want and you can come to Texas where I live and get the ones down here.😂 Now to the other fish you called trash fish I'll take those any day than a grinder aka bowfin, so let's keep the other trash fish on the low low. And I'm only 17miles from Louisiana and you can stop there and load up on all the bowfins you want to. 😂 yes
Bowfish are mushy and not worth anyone's time, best bet is fish for the Snakeheads that are invasive. Succulent, restaurant quality white flaky meat. Do yourselves a favor, toss the Bowfin back into the water.
All fish are edible. Never eaten Bowfin because they aren't here in Oregon but I've eaten common carp and lots of other so-called "trash" fish. All good.
I mean..if your only method of cooking fish is fried fillet, some of the fish are gonna taste bad. For example the boney asian carp, usually here in Thailand, it's chopped and ground to avoid pin bones and mixed into a spicy salad to mask the muddyness.
They really love cutbait especially fresh cut up bluegill! Toss some cutbait by a weedline or even near the shore weedline and you'll hook one eventually. They fight like crazy and the big ones are a real challenge! They are supposed to be good smoked due to all the oils. Turned into a dip after is good due to the mushy meat. They also make good fish patties/cakes and asian style fish dumplings and fishballs for soup due to the meat texture making normal methods hard. You can get firmer meat if you wait to clean them but its a race against time as it breaks down fast!
Anyone else here from Ohio? I’ve been looking to catch a bowfin. It’s on my list of fish I haven’t caught yet. Anyone know any good general areas for them? I hear Lake Erie marshes but that’s about it.
Here in finland, where i live, almost all of the carp family fish are considered trash fish, and pike too, trout, salmon and other related fish along with perch and zander (european version of walleye) are most sought after, and i lived that way for a long while, until couple years ago i tried roach, it was good, then i tried smoked tench, it was good too, but then i got to try smoked european bream and i couldnt believe how good it was, bream is so underrated, it immediately jumped to my top 5 favorite tasting fish, i always liked pike, and smoked pike is also great, but bream is awesome smoked
The honestly no such thing as a trash fish. Soany fish considered trash by Americans are eaten with glee everywhere else. It's just uninformed and illegocal.
Bowfin-roe caviar is very good, not up to sturgeon quality but with a good texture and flavor. I think it’s the only part of a bowfin I’ve eaten, though.
I think you are only the 2nd one I remember seeing try eating those. The other one wasn't a fan of the texture but also said it tasted muddy. He caught it in a ranch pond down here in FL, not flowing water like yours. That might make a difference in the flavor.
I've eaten bowfin and thought it was great.. found this when I looked up the recipe Bowfin and several other fish are great table fare but overlooked by many anglers
Every fishing license sold should require passing a simple test of native and invasive fish. Somehow people got to thinking bowfin are snake heads and kill them.
Bro I literally saw a video where a dude stumbles across like 20 dead boffin on a bank
It’s real bad with alligator gar too
@K Moore1 You'll always have those types of people that want to kill anything that eats game fish. They'd be surprised how many of the game fish cannibalize the young.
Right saw 10 dead gar and 1 bowfin on the bank
There are no bad fish, there are stupid people.
I've seen many people mistake them for invasive snakehead and leave them on the bank. We definitely need more education as fisherman on the difference between snakehead and bowfin.
It pisses me off when I see that
Alot of fishing pages on Facebook someone will post a pic of a bowfin they caught and atleast a couple idiots will say it's a snakehead kill it lol I see it all the time
@@kylephillip6433 , in some vases, bowfin and snakeheads share similar markings, down to the spot on the tail. The obvious difference is the elongated anal fin (Dad joke: "Long ass fin").
Bowfin teeth are needle like, whereas snake head teeth are spikes.
I'm looking forward to my first snakehead, I understand they're delicious!
People have unhealthy views on “trash” fish that they even know are native. The only time a fish is undesirable to me is if I’m ONLY catching them and want variety, or if it’s simply not what I wanted to catch during that cast. Otherwise, any fish is a good fish
You have to keep them alive. They have an enzyme in their flesh that softens it after they die. So keep them in water alive up until right before you are ready to clean. Next, make a mixture of vinegar and water and put the filets in there initially. This will help firm it up. They are probably best in a fish patty but are ok just as filets.
Bowfin are hands down my favorite fish to catch this time of year. I feel like lately they've been getting a bit of attention which I'm glad to see. They really are awesome fish. If you're fishing for them though, I've found that the smaller males will go for the night crawlers, but the big females really tend to prefer cut bait and you really have to give the big ones a bit of time to eat then set the hook hard and prepare for a hell of fight. The bigger ones have a tendency to run straight towards you at an angle and launch themselves well clear of the water. A net is also really nice for landing them because 3 times out of 4 they thrash hard enough to break your line or the hook off in their mouths when you try and pull them out of the water. Amazing animals.
They are a blast to catch. I've fished a lot of canals for them with lures. They can trash your tackle, but the fight is great. Topwater is crazy.
I’ve literally only caught one in my entire 40+ years, and it was by far my most favorite. Will stick with me forever. Caught it in this little muddy slough type area, after I had been catching these little sunfish and catfish by the dozens. Bam, it hit and I had no idea what I had caught. It was a great experience, but unfortunately where I live, don’t really see them.
@@ryanmac3134 They're probably more common than you think. They can be finicky about what they bite. I had never so much as seen one in 20 years of living in Michigan until a couple years back. By me the big females will ONLY bite on fresh cut bait (chopped up bluegill or perch) and I only catch them in very specific areas.
Bowfins are great!
Living fossils, and the last living representatives of a line that's split off from their closest living relatives way back in the Triassic, before the Dinosaurs even were a thing
I don't live or fish in the USA but to me a Bowfin is basically an American snake head. like the snakehead it evolved to live in low oxygen environments. It can breath air if needed and even evolved a very similar body style with that long torpedo shape.
Your right,I never thought of it that way.i still treat them like all other fish and release them alive.
@@edbrown6985 sure. i would love to catch one one day. just need to get to the USA
@@Fishinginbangkok hope you make it over here,the Delaware river in Pennsylvania is where I catch them.thailand is quite far away,it would be very expensive to get here.have a good day sir.
Bowfin are definitely underrated fish they hit top waters worms and live bait they fight hard get big
Caught a pretty big boy last year on a big buzzbait, close to 4 lbs. Fought waaay harder then heavier Pike that I've caught forsure!
@nl8999 Bowfin or, as called locally Grinnell, they fight above their weight for sure. They will ruin your tackle ofter. They love to spin when hooked and usually destroy your favorite spinner bait. They bend it enough so it is never the same. They hit like you just caught at 10 pound bass.
bowfin are an absolutely underrated sport fish. pound for pound one of the hardest most agressive fighters in freshwater, and they get huge in some lakes!
Used to eat snakehead all of the time in China, and I assume this is similar. Love the channel. Just discovered you.
Shoutout Brendan for giving some love to America’s native fishes!
The most thrilling fishing experience to this day was catching a bowfin when I was around 12 years old, in a kayak by myself. The thing dragged me up and down the river for at least 10 minutes like it was nothing. When I finally pulled it out, I was convinced it was a snakehead, as they were in the news a lot back then. It looked unlike any fish I had ever seen before, and put up a hell of a fight.
Bowfin or grinnell as we call them in east texas are an excellent sport fish ,one of the strongest fighters around . It will average 5 to 10 lbs on most lakes & streams. My largest is a 13.6 , 33 inch fish on a black lizard . As far as eating they are a little cottony and will get mushy if not eaten hot . But overall there are no fish that aren't good to eat . Peoples opinions usually are based on what someone else said not personal experience. Carp ,buffalo, bullhead catfish and drum are also good eating ,contrary to what is put out there. Great video young man !
There's no such thing as a trash fish to me. If I have a fish on the end of my line, I'm happy.
I guess you never caught a toadfish.
you should come down to Maryland and go fishing for snakehead
You should also mention that bowfin are a native species and at least here in Michigan are often mistaken for Snakehead. I've seen more than one angler kill them because of it. Also use cut bait or live gills and you're almost guaranteed to catch them constantly. I just use an egg sinker with about a 12-18 inch lead down to size one circle hook.
What’s crazy is we don’t have snakehead In Michigan yet people insist we do 😂
@@raptortamer1478 exactly, seen so many people kill them because of it. Like dude we don't even have snakehead here. Bowfin have a special place in my heart lol, they are one of my favorite species to target, just caught a seven pounder two nights ago going for channel cats out in Whitehall
@@jroc6110 I target them quite often this year the goal is on the fly. Thankfully my summer spot is a kept secret
I have really enjoyed watching your channel for awhile now keep up the good work bud!!
Great video on a great fish! Down here in Louisiana they're called choupique. I've caught a few when fishing for panfish, including a 26-incher - biggest fish I've ever caught.
11:09
That’s really with every species of fish. Bigger fish are older fish so there’s always a risk of high mercury levels.
Love all these creative new series!! Really enjoying them, keep up the good work!!!
I caught several of these fish in North Carolina when i was in the Marine Corps. Locals called them mudfish. They are very aggressive, hit quite hard, and fight like crazy. Had more than one spinnerbait completely destroyed by these fish. They are definitely fun to catch.
Grew up catching these guys in central Minnesota. They sure are prehistoric motherfuckers! I always thought of them as “trash fish”, many folks naively leaving them in the banks as if returning them would harm the lake. They are a crazy intense catch with how they thrash; they are more intense than many largemouth bass I’ve caught! Great to see a respectful retrospective on them!
Best caught out of cold water if you want to eat Bowfin.
When I was up at my cabin last year I may have caught a Minnesota state record dog fish. It was prolly well over 13 lbs. And I caught 6 or 7 of um. They are hell of a fighter!🎣❤😁🙌🙏 since me and my sister and brother were little we always looked forward to see who would catch a dogfish at our cabin. Praise Jesus God bless.
Beautiful and bowfin don’t go in the same sentence 😂. We had a few down in the bayous on the Mississippi gulf coast where I was raised. I’ll never forget one absolutely destroying my dads favorite top water prop bait, a frog colored spin-i-diddee. We call them grinnels in the Deep South and won’t think of eating one unless starving to death. 😂
I will never forget my first bowfin. This guys will fight you until they get put back into water. I thought I hooked the largest bass of my life.
They will ruin a good spinner bait too. :)
@@rtshort indeed they will. Love to bite right through your fishing line too lol
I would say the texture is more like McDonald's chicken nuggets soft and good flavor
it's called dogfish in wisconsin, hits lures and mean as hell!!
I was frightened when I caught my first bowfin. It looked was very ferocious and scary looking. I wouldn’t even consider eating it.
Try a ned rig with a yoga pants colored trd. Bowfin in GA love it. They must forage on a lot of small fish becuase I’ve even cut a trd in half then rigged it and ripped there faces off.
It's funny because catfish are bottom feeders and a bit on the slimy side, yet no one considers them trash fish.
I do
I literally caught a bowfin an hour ago, and this pulls up on my recommended. I'm on to you youtube
These things piss me off for one reason and one reason only because every time I catch them, I’m trying to catch catfish
Loved the format of this you really put the effort to make a great watch, hope to see more trash
I heard mudfish were disgusting to eat but my grandma knew how to cook them and it's a pretty good tasting fish of cooked right
One man's mushy is another man's melt in your mouth. Good video...thanks.
weird, but i heard that the caviar from this fish is really good!... i think ive even seen it for sale and it was a little pricey.
If that bad, use em for fertilizer. Corn grows taller that way.
Bowfin are my nemesis, I've fished for them multiple times and I haven't caught one yet! They always elude me. Personal vendetta aside, they're some of the coolest fish that swim in the US, and they're native. No fish is a trash fish, and bowfin are some of the best in my opinion
WV here, never caught a bowfin....another rabbithole 🤣
Tip for bowfin try to use bigger hooks I use size 4 to 5 circle hooks
Im from Louisiana a tip my grandfather and dad told me was to put the meat in water with ice and a lil bit of vinegar it keeps the meat from falling a part or getting to soft
Worms I used as bait when I was fourteen, today it is beneath me. 🤮
Bowfins belong to the same clade as gars. They are living fossils beeing arround already for 250 million years. Please be sustainable so they will still be arround when we might be long gone. ❤ Awsome Fish! Greetings from Europe.
250 million years! 😂😂😂
I’m with you! Bowfin are one of the best tasting fish!
So is shoe leather lol 🤣
I've never even saw a bowfin... as I am from across the Atlantic, but as a general rule, oily fish go to the charcoal. It will be interesting to see you grill the next one and taste the difference.
Mushy fish flesh, like tench for example, are horrible when fried but excellent if baked in the oven. Please try that too, put it in the oven with butter, carrots, onions and pumpkin. I'll subscribe now just to see if you try these out.
Cheers.
You really need to work on your filleting skills bud.
I liked when the excavator went over the bridge.
I caught a bowfin when I was younger! It was honestly the coolest thing I ever caught because nobody knew what it was so it was a really cool experience. Definitely hope to have more like it! I can't believe those things can survive at the bottom of Lake Superior. Insane!
Never seen one with neon fins ...en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amia_ocellicauda. There's 2 species! The word I heard was yellow belly has mushy meat and white belly has firmer meat down in SC but thats prob only for the Southeast species.
I caught one of these when I was 14 here in Indiana...at first we thought I had a log...lol then we thought oh man it's a turtle...took me about 25min to land it...biggest fish I ever caught and when it fought finally it was the best fish I can remember catching. Also have fished that same spot for many years and only ever caught the one.
Pro tips for cleaning and cooking bowfin: cut the spine and let them bleed first. It greatly improves the flavor. Also, scale the fish but leave the skin on. It will hold flavor and make the filet firm enough to grill.
another pro tip is, throw them back in the water and fish for the snakeheads
These are my absolute favorite fish to catch. They can be pursued like bass or waited on like catfish. Very cool animals and they fight hard.
I've heard of people eating bowfin here in MI (very few though) I've heard of more people eating burbot here. Its supposed to taste good grilled.
I don’t hate carp, what I do hate is pleco, they’re all around florida and they ruin ponds and lakes everywhere
Bro Well I live anything that Swims. Is food😂
My first dogfish was big, like 37 inches. it was the length of my whole leg. I had no idea what it was. It put up one heck of a fight. I would love to catch some more, but they aren't in my state, colorado. I grew up in indiana
Bowfin are amazing fish if eaten in the right conditions. If you cannot keep the fish alive or on good ice, trying to eat one could end your fishing trip because their meet quickly decays compares to others. If it dies and you eat it at the end of the day you start getting an ammonia taste or smell.
I had some white sucker for the first time recently and it was good. The roe was absolutely delicious however. I like to roll it in flour and pan fry in lots of butter.
There is no trash fish in the world(execpt pleckos😂)... Only americans put these wierd tags on fish💯
prehistoric looking things!!
It would be dope to catch a bowfin!
I always say there's no such thing as a trash fish just trash anglers.
People don’t want to take the extra minute to prepare different kinds of fish, so they just say it’s trash lol
Loved the music at the 1 min mark
Only time I ever caught a bowfin was super fun. Let him go obviously, I know what they look like compared to snakehead. It hit a whopper plopper, was really freaking cool
Down south mostly we don't eat drum, buffalo, carp, gar, bowfin, because there are too many bones in them little bones that will choke you and the fact they will eat dead rotted fish which is a(no)for me, but people eat possum and ive seen them eating their way out of the south end of a dead cow thats also a (no ) for me..... 👍
catfish eat dead stuff...
What part of Ohio are you from?
A 'Snakehead," looks very similar to a Bowfin. The heads are a little different, but the body is very close...
Bowfin are predators, (hence the teeth), not scavengers. You'd get better results with live baits, and moving lures.
I've caught bowfin with goldfish...
In louisiana the bowfin is also called a shoepic and Grinnell !!
They live in clear clean creeks as well .....their meat is similar to gar !!! You can catch them on artificial lures.....they will destroy lures with their ferocious bite....a jerk bait such as a red fin and shallow diving crank baits work well....any plastic lure and spinner baits work well...you can have a big time catching them on lures due to the ferocious attack on lures !!!🙃😉🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲
This is an awesome catch ( cotton fish) natives called it devil fish. Aggressive it will take your finger and aim for you. The meat to me is cotton like. THIS IS NOT A TRASH FISH.
Dogfish are perfectly fine to eat, I've started convincing other around me and forcing family members to try it in MI. I've only recently started eating them last year, I caught a bunch of them out of a nice clean river. They bite really well on minnows, just a leader, hook and of course the minnow. In terms of meal prep, definitely keep them alive until you are ready to cook them up. Hammer to the head and bleed them out, then fillet as you normally would. I never bother with removing the darker flesh unless it's from a smelly fish (looking at your sheep head/freshwater drum). A quick rinse in cold water, dry well with paper towel, slice to size, season, flour, egg wash, panko bread crumbs then deep fry. They end up looking like chicken tenders and taste great, plus NO BONES! The ones I've eaten are more on the flavorless side, not off putting or fishy, not super flavorful, but add some tartar sauce and it's the bomb. I never noticed them being particularly fatty, not like trout or salmon anyways. They eat a lot of crayfish in the rivers so sometimes you get one that has a sweet smell and almost orange flesh. Too bad people kill and leave them to rot, they are no worse/better than northern pike based off of their diet and fight. No native species should be seen as an unwanted pest. Maybe they wouldn't be so plentiful if people found out they actually taste good.
We call them Grinner or Grinnel here in Mississippi. In Louisiana they call them Shoepic. You have to eat Bowfin as fast as possible. An old creole man I knew said: You have to cook them warm. No fridge, no next day.
choupique in Louisiana and they are eaten...like almost everything else. Special handling required for consumption like bleeding them out. Can get mushy quick.
Next time cooking fish. Soak your fish in kosher salt and lemon juice. Not too much lemon juice. You don't want the lemon juice to cook filets. Works with all fish. Never have "fishy" tasting fish. Not mushy either.
Bowfin is good eating. You just have to cook them fresh and do not freeze them. Catch one, get it home, (DO NOT FILET) just scale, gut and head it then grill it. You have to use charcoal or an open fire. Season with lemon pepper to taste when you put it on the heat.
Catfish are very mucousy even some of it gets on your leader but they're delicious. I appreciate bowfin as a native species and I caught one once in Arkansas which was fun but I heard the texture and flavor ain't very good. I don't like eating crappie or sunfish but many people do. And likewise I've heard people tell me they don't like trout and i love trout especially pan fried in butter with lemon or smoked. Basically what im saying is its all personal preference. Also red meat on a trout/steelhead or salmon is a good thing its pigments from the krill/shrimp and other prey they eat. Those are fresher better tasting fish vs fish that lose that rich colors from spawning and being in freshwater for too long. Dark beat up salmon =white meat,bright silvery salmon =rich red meat. The farm raised bullshit is artificially dyed pink or orange
LOL when I was a kid, me and some friends went to some swampy quarry to fish and there was bowfin in there, my friend was like ew no...
Don't touch that fish...LOL. They like 4 inches of mud water to live in.
I'm half convinced that people who don't like "muddy" fish are just the fish version of the wine snobs that fail 2buck chuck tests. I can understand not liking all the bones in a carp or tilapia, thats a physical thing but hating muddy fish and then going out for fried catfish.....
Ref 'Trash Fish' : Bass Tackle Companies push propaganda about Carp for financial reasons. They do not want Carp fishing getting popular in the states because almost all well established carp tackle and bait is from Europe.
+1 on your conclusions. I have only kept and eaten one. The flavor was fine. Very mild. The texture was a put off for me. Too mushy for me to want another.
I’m happy to catch and release them. Great fighters!
Caught a good sized bowfin on the St. Lawrence last summer, hit my whopper popper HARD, bent the crap out of the treble hooks and put up a really nice fight
Carp and suckers are delicious. I've fished for white suckers for years. I don't live where the bowfin does so have no experience with it. Have you done any videos on the burbot? They are often regarded as trash fish but in reality they are close relatives of cod.
Edit: Just subscribed!
Ah, you mean a choupique. I remember some group having a choupique festival back when I lived in Louisiana.
The key to fishery management is catching and eating the fish. Carp and Bowfin will take over a water body if people don't see them as edible. Perhaps we should get a Top Chef on the carp and bowfin and make them great. BTW...a Chardonnay could cut that oily feeling in the mouth.
I Love Bowfins, AKA Dogfish, which are amazing fighters. They are an ancient species and are genuine native fish. Please catch and release them.
You go right ahead catch all of them you want and you can come to Texas where I live and get the ones down here.😂 Now to the other fish you called trash fish I'll take those any day than a grinder aka bowfin, so let's keep the other trash fish on the low low. And I'm only 17miles from Louisiana and you can stop there and load up on all the bowfins you want to. 😂 yes
Bowfish are mushy and not worth anyone's time, best bet is fish for the Snakeheads that are invasive. Succulent, restaurant quality white flaky meat. Do yourselves a favor, toss the Bowfin back into the water.
All fish are edible. Never eaten Bowfin because they aren't here in Oregon but I've eaten common carp and lots of other so-called "trash" fish. All good.
I mean..if your only method of cooking fish is fried fillet, some of the fish are gonna taste bad. For example the boney asian carp, usually here in Thailand, it's chopped and ground to avoid pin bones and mixed into a spicy salad to mask the muddyness.
They really love cutbait especially fresh cut up bluegill! Toss some cutbait by a weedline or even near the shore weedline and you'll hook one eventually. They fight like crazy and the big ones are a real challenge! They are supposed to be good smoked due to all the oils. Turned into a dip after is good due to the mushy meat. They also make good fish patties/cakes and asian style fish dumplings and fishballs for soup due to the meat texture making normal methods hard. You can get firmer meat if you wait to clean them but its a race against time as it breaks down fast!
Anyone else here from Ohio? I’ve been looking to catch a bowfin. It’s on my list of fish I haven’t caught yet. Anyone know any good general areas for them? I hear Lake Erie marshes but that’s about it.
Here in finland, where i live, almost all of the carp family fish are considered trash fish, and pike too, trout, salmon and other related fish along with perch and zander (european version of walleye) are most sought after, and i lived that way for a long while, until couple years ago i tried roach, it was good, then i tried smoked tench, it was good too, but then i got to try smoked european bream and i couldnt believe how good it was, bream is so underrated, it immediately jumped to my top 5 favorite tasting fish, i always liked pike, and smoked pike is also great, but bream is awesome smoked
You said it coated your mouth in fat…Dude you dipped it in a bunch of flour and crumbs and fried it in oil….
The honestly no such thing as a trash fish. Soany fish considered trash by Americans are eaten with glee everywhere else. It's just uninformed and illegocal.
Bowfin-roe caviar is very good, not up to sturgeon quality but with a good texture and flavor. I think it’s the only part of a bowfin I’ve eaten, though.
I always heard they were poisonous.......
They also stink too.... One time I caught really big one..he was about 3and a half or 4 pounds
I like your videos but I would like them even more if your intro music wasn't 5x your speaking volume
I think you are only the 2nd one I remember seeing try eating those. The other one wasn't a fan of the texture but also said it tasted muddy. He caught it in a ranch pond down here in FL, not flowing water like yours. That might make a difference in the flavor.
The DNR in Michigan (the fishing police) said that it was poor Man's lobster and that it tasted exactly like lobster meat. I haven't tried it yet
I've eaten bowfin and thought it was great.. found this when I looked up the recipe
Bowfin and several other fish are great table fare but overlooked by many anglers
Try Manns baby 1- crank. Use a medium action rod. Looks like a tadpole, bowfin love tadpoles.