Backwater Bowfin | Sight Fishing Prehistoric Bowfin on a Fly Rod
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 มิ.ย. 2022
- For this episode, I wanted to show off the rough fish of the South. My dad took me here a lot when I was younger, so it holds a special place in my angling heart. It also happens to hold some of the oldest fish in North America, the Bowfin (aka. Amaia calva, cypress trout, mudfish, blackfish). It also happens to be a terrific fighter on a fly rod; interestingly enough, no one fishes specifically for them, despite their reputations as hard fighters. In the summertime, the flows drop substantially and this spring fed creek clears up enough that you can safely walk the bank and sight cast to these ancient fish as they cruise the bottom. More often I spot them tight against cover in the creek, such as logs and rock formations.
As a side note, I am moving to Montana this summer since the opportunity arose, so I'll be changing gears a little and target trout more often. I'm pretty excited about the move, and hopefully I'll be able to upload more often.
Setup: Orivs 9 foot 6wt Clearwater with sinking line, 20lb mono leader to a small crayfish fly
If you decide to target these fish, bring pliers (I don't recommend lipping these fish), a large net, and a few backup flies. They readily take anything resembling a crawdad or small fish, but they will have trouble seeing it. Casts must be accurate and close to their line of vision.
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Hey man these videos are amazing! Just getting into fly fishing and so glad your channel got recommended to me. I’m in west Michigan so the trout fishing is king but I can’t wait to catch some carp, small mouth and hopefully some bowfin!
Glad you liked it and welcome to fly fishing! Carp are pretty fun if you can get the to cooperate, same with bowfin. Thanks for the follow!
Biggest one I ever caught was 7 and some change its the Juliette lake record awesome catches tho man
Congrats on the record! They are pretty cool fish, we have a lot of them in the state
We really do theyre overlooked a lot just like shoalies are overlooked by quite a few people too (but im ok with that)
Great video. Hope you enjoy Montana.
I'm sure we will have a blast, thank Timothy!
Awesome video! I just discovered we have bowfin in Michigan when i caught one on a topwater frog the other day for the first time ever!
Michigan has a ton of Bowfin, some large ones at that. When the water clears up it's much easier to target them
Love how clear that water is! I live and fish for bowfin in south carolina and its on my bucket list to catch one on a fly rod. would love to see you explain your setup for catching them!
Certainly man! It’s relatively simple, the hard part is finding fish to cooperate. I used a six weight in the video, eight weights work too. Use a strong bite tippet, like 20lb mono, on the end of your leader. Bowfin have pretty sharp teeth. As far as flies, it really depends on visibility. If you can see them, crawdad style flies work great. Murky/dark bowfin water tend to take flashy flies better or flies that push a lot of water. Hope that helps!
@@halfmoonflyfishing gotcha, so if i under stand correctly instead of using a tapered tippet your going to attach a piece of 20lb fluro or mono leader? I currently have a 6wt sage so im confident in the rod. ive got dark water here but do fairly well on trd crawz for them on bottom so will likely try to find something similar in profile and put a tiny dab of crawfish procure
@@halfmoonflyfishing or would i be looking for a tapered mono tippet rated for 20lbs?
@@rocknut88 The 20lb tippet attaches to your existing tippet/leader. Most people call it 'shock tippet.' So, whatever 20lb mono or fluro you have that bowifin can't bite through will work.
@@halfmoonflyfishing so your splicing it in... I assume with either loop knots or a uni to uni?
thats insanely cool man. I just caught a giant bowfin in michigan on fly and i think its a fly state record. New favorite fish to say the least. Gonna post the video soon. Also too- idk if you want to tell me but what is the general area of this creek? Im sure other water bodies around it have some too and this looks like my fishing heaven. Anyways tight lines.
This is actually in Southwest Georgia, Michigan has some true giants on the Great Lakes though. Congrats on the on fly record!
@@halfmoonflyfishing thank! Unofficial but it was 29 inches and i couldnt find anything bigger on fly
Cool spot and awesome fish! I recommend trying a strip-set on bigger fish like these ones instead of using the rod to set the hook. Orvis rods are strong, but using the line to set the hook will result in a better hook set and will be safer on your rod.
Thank you for the tip Johnathon. I have yet to break a rod trout-setting a bowfin or any fish for that matter, but strip sets do indeed give a better hook set with these fish because of their boney mouths. Probably didn’t help I was excited either. Thanks for watching and enjoying the content!
Thank you for the tip Johnathon. I have yet to break a rod trout-setting a bowfin or any fish for that matter, but strip sets do indeed give a better hook set with these fish because of their boney mouths. Probably didn’t help I was excited either. Thanks for watching and enjoying the content!
@@halfmoonflyfishing Right on. If it works, it works-and sometimes if the fish is real close in tight quarters it’s the only option-just wanted to make sure you had all options available. ;)