Life of the Bowfin and How to Fish for Bowfin
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ต.ค. 2024
- The bowfin, also known as the mudfish, dogfish, choupique, and grinnel, is an uncommon predator of fresh water lakes, ponds, and rivers with abundant vegetation. Bowfin eat fish, frogs, and crayfish, and will viciously strike a wide variety of fishing lures. This video showcases the fascinating life and life cycle of the bowfin including spawning activity and parental care of the young fry. It also includes how to catch a bowfin with common fishing baits.
My setup when targeting bowfin is a medium-action spinning rod with 20lb braided line and a short monofilament leader. I mostly use topwater frogs, spinnerbaits, weedless swimbaits, or a bobber with a chunk of fresh fish on a 3/0 circle hook.
Pflueger Supreme spinning reel alnk.to/bPcZOih
Sufix 832 braided line alnk.to/8EJm9AE
Lunkerhunt frog alnk.to/5FattKE
River2Sea Colorado/willow spinnerbait alnk.to/cSHxHdG
Thill slip bobbers alnk.to/58qcxgb
Gamakatsu circle hooks alnk.to/gVKYfTL
#fishing
#fishingvideo
#learntofish
#bowfin
#dogfish
#amiacalva
#choupique
One of the most underrated fish in the US in my opinion!
It's such a neat fish
They’re a blast to catch, but destroy lures and don’t taste good to me.
@@revolvermaster4939 People have mixed reviews on the taste. They certainly will destroy lures - they are ferocious.
If you ever catch a surprise bowfin, don't make the mistake of lipping them!
Good tip! Lots of sharp teeth in there.
I did it, a Brit who did not know better, lost the tip of my thumb!!!
@@tonysicily2687 A lesson learned the hard way!
haha just like snakeheads
This is why I’m always cautious handling a species I’m unfamiliar with. Don’t wanna find out it’s venomous or has sharp teeth or spines the hard way.
Good video. Hooked a monster bowfin while bass fishing in Florida a while back. Jumped three times and snapped my spinnerbait in half. Great fighters, overlooked and underrated.
For sure. They are vicious fighters and are good at destroying lures.
One of my favorite fish hands down
They are very neat and poorly understood
Love catching these guys. Some of the best fights you can have in freshwater
That's for sure. They are ferocious.
I caught a huge one a couple weeks ago and had no idea what it was - I thought it was a snakehead at first. Awesome fish; caught it on a Texas rig curly tailed worm.
@@hanburgundy4317 Cool - they will hit a wide variety of baits.
I wish the one icaught faught hard lol. Caught he same one 4 times and just yanked him righ out pretty much. 28 inches too
Just caught my first bowfin today a hefty fight from a 5ib fish
I've never heard of these fish before, they look really neat. Thanks for the video!
Glad you enjoyed it. They are very cool fish.
Someone was showing me his light rod setup with a 8 LB line, he told me let me catch a quick rock bass to show you how I throw it/work with it in 30-40 cm water . suddenly a giant Bowfin was on, the rod was completely bent he managed to land the fish tho. IT WAS AMAZING! cant wait to catch one myself.
Awesome - that must have been a big surprise!
I was using that size line with a 1/32oz beetlespin to catch some bluegill and a 6lb bowfin snatched it right at the bank. I scooped it up in the net immediately. It was a wild experience.
@@austinhernandez2716 That must have been a surprise. Sounds like the bowfin hardly had a chance to run before it was in the net!
Very cool species.
Definitely.
I'm in the NW Ohio region and have been having a ball catching these out of a fairly shallow creek system close by. I've been having a lot of success fishing with a dropper rig using size 4 to1/0 octopus hooks with nightcrawlers as bait. Great video!
Awesome. They are so much fun. Thanks for the comment 🙂
I love these life cycle/how to catch videos. They’re my favorite
Glad you like them! Thanks for the feedback.
I almost caught one of these today, and the fight was intense until it came off. Buddy of mine landed one and got a look up close. These have to be one of my favorite fish to try and catch now!
They are a blast to catch and very challenging in most areas.
Thanks for sharing the vid, planning to target some of these mud nuggets with my son soon. God bless 🙏💞🕊️
😂 Mud nuggets! That's a new one to me.😂
Great video! I really like these. I remember catching my first bowfin (Great Lakes Region) as a rookie angler. I had no idea what it was and my fishing buddy helped me ID it. It put up a good fight which was really exciting. Tore my hot n tot up really good, too!
They can really do a number on lures. That's cool that you got one on a Hot N Tot! I love the way those things wobble and flash.
Incredibly well made video, thankyou
I appreciate that - thanks
The best way ive recently found to catch bowfin is to use a slip bobber rig with 40lb braidnmainline and 30lb fluoro for the leader. I caught 8 a couple days ago using the rig and chunks of creek chub and sucker minnow.
Awesome. I've had good luck with bobbers and cut bait too.
i would kill for some lifecycle/how to catch vids for Saltwater species!! Great stuff man
I live a long way from saltwater, so I'm not able to go out and get underwater footage and fishing footage for those species. Maybe I'll take a saltwater trip with that goal one of these days.
I didn't realize SC held the bowfin record! Love your videos, vert informative 👍
Thanks - yes, SC has some monsters!
I live in lowcountry South Carolina. I have caught several in the 36" or better range. Good fight and fun to catch but I wasn't impressed with them as food. Some people really like them though.
🤔🤓🍻
@@alsaunders7805 I haven't eaten one myself, at least not yet. I've heard mixed reviews from other people who have tried them. 36" is a beautiful bowfin!
@@FishingwithNat I almost caught one that looked like it was about 4 foot on a top water lure that I was just playing around with. The hook straightened out and it got loose right next to the boat.
😢🤓🍻
@@alsaunders7805 Amazing. I'd love to see a 4 foot bowfin.
I caught a 21" female when I was fishing for bluegill.
3 times I hauled her in, because she would NOT quit biting on my pink grub crappie rig. Helluva fight too
Cool. I caught the same one twice in a row too. Your crappie rig must have looked tasty!
These are my absolute favorite fish to target in May and June. They tend to get a little bit more difficult to catch as the water warms up where I am, but for a month or so they will absolutely go to town on the worm balls and fresh blue gill. Use a steel leader and be prepared for a great fight!
I agree - they are much less active here in midsummer too.
Caught a couple for the first time today on cut bait. Was fishing for catfish but got bowfin instead. I tell you what, it’s one tough fish to fight!
Awesome. They are always a fun surprise when fishing for cats, and they are happy to take cut bait.
Nice video! Very interesting! I've caught many of them while bass fishing, but never look forward to it. They fight like crazy and are as strong or stronger than any of the other fish, usually in the body of water I'm fishing! Good job sharing this!
They are very strong for sure.
In Louisiana we call them shoe pic!! You have to cut a split in the tail when you plan on keeping one. That stops the flesh from becoming too soft and mushy. We usually take the meat off the bone and make cubion soup
It's a fish of many names!
Choupic, couillon
I’ve been waiting for this video. Always have wanted to catch one just never knew how
They are challenging to catch but it's so exciting when you finally get one!
I got a video on my channel of me catching one on a whopper plopper
I’ve caught quite a few a few here in Georgia. My smallest was 3 half pound biggest recently at 9 pound 11 oz.
Very nice!
I LOVE chasing these fish, not a trash fish by any means
Me too
I catch these all the time with my buddy here in central Florida. It seems all we catch are these and Gar. I’m struggling trying to find the bass near me 😂
If you're catching mostly gar and bowfin, you probably need to go closer to a main river channel or main lake. Places where gar and bowfin are the dominant species often have low oxygen conditions that most other species avoid.
Do Trout Next! I would love to see the life cycle differences between landlocked and stream trout!
Thanks for the suggestion. More to come...
Nice job. I like these videos. Probably not one I'll find too often but cool to see :)
Thanks
We call them choupique (shoe pick) in New Orleans and I caught my first one todaayyyyyyy on a worm 🪱 🥳🥳
Very cool.
I think I may have spotted one of these when I was fishing in the Georgian bay 2 days ago. I didn’t know what it was but it looked a lot like a bowfin. Too bad it swam off when I casted towards it.
It definitely could have been a bowfin
This is a very interesting video. In Mississippi, everyone throws these on the bank when they catch them because they think they’re dangerous to the ecosystem. Never caught one but I’ve seen people catch them in heavily weedy beaver ponds
Thanks. They're not dangerous and they've been living there for millenia without harming the ecosystem.
That's cool looking fish
I agree
Awesome video and awesome fish
Thanks
Right on nice video
Thanks
Very good and informative
Thanks
Great video.
Thanks - I appreciate it
Cool underwater footages of bowfin. Snakehead are also known for their parenting behaviors. Not sure if this is due to convergent evolution of the back water niche.
A lot of animals are protective over their offsping to make sure their genetics get passed on to future generations. Others just spew thousands/millions of eggs and hope for the best!
Good job sir!
Thanks!
Never caught one of these, even when using electricity! I was just going to comment about the common confusion with snakehead and burbot but, as per usual, you've done a great job at covering the animal thoroughly while still managing to be concise. It's not an easy task, thank you.
Also, did you take that footage of the fry? It's amazing footage.
Yes, I use all of my own footage and photographs except in rare cases where I cite the source (like the bowfin/snakehead/burbot comparison). I was excited to have the chance to capture those videos of the fry.
Awesome video even if I believe in a young earth. 😀
Thanks - glad you enjoyed it
They're very fun to catch, they put on a huge fight. But they will destroy your precious lures like pike do. So use cheap disposable lures. Here in south Georgia they're very easy to catch. Go to any roadside creek, vegetated pond or swamp, or backwater river tributaries with low current, and it can be guaranteed to have a bowfin. I'm not sure about up in the Apps but here on the flat gulf coast they're everywhere. They can survive low oxygen levels because they can breathe air so they will likely be found in shallow waters where other species can't survive. They're like catfish.
They are vicious fighters and will definitely tear up lures.
i love catching them and they taste good too. gar balls are junk compared to grinnel balls.
Cool. I haven't tried eating bowfin yet but I've had gar and it was pretty decent, just more dense than a lot of other species.
I had no idea these were in GA where I live . I’ve never seen one here
They are pretty secretive so it can be hard to find them. A lot of them are caught on accident when targeting bass or walleye.
Good vid
Thanks
I was bass fishing in a bayou off the Wisconsin River once and it was loaded with bowfin, but I only had 8lb test and they'll bite right through that so I left that section of the lake, lures are too expensive for that!
Some of the sloughs of the Wisconsin River and Mississippi River are packed with them. Yeah, 8lb test is tough to catch bowfin with.
I've caught them occasionally when fishing for bass
Yep a lot of them get caught on accident when fishing for bass, walleye, or pike.
Any bass lure works for them too
@@austinhernandez2716 Agreed
i fish for bowfin and gar as well as bass in a small canal that runs through my neighborhood, its swampy and i swear ive landed a few 10+ pound bowfin and once i hooked the biggest one i ever saw and fought it for a long time it was talnged in weeds i got it in my net and it snapped my net in half and unhooked, swam away 🤦♂️and it had to be close to 17 pounds, im trying to catch a 20 pounder someday
That would be amazing. Even a 10-pounder is a very nice bowfin!
Is this also called a dogfish?
Yes
Caught one last weekend didn’t know what it was never caught one before was surprised with the fight thought was a big bass I almost lipped and was like oh no not doing that it has little teeth
Cool. What did you catch it on?
I live in sarnia Ontario and I just yesterday caught a male bowfin about 10 pounds in the St Clair river
It was hanging out in a weed bed by the shell gas plant in an area with both gar and panfish
It’s the only one I have ever caught and I had no idea what it was
My grandpa who had been fishing for 40 years had never seen one and couldn’t believe I got one in the St Clair of all places 😂
Sadly my grandpa didn’t have his phone on him and my phone was dead so I only have the memory and my grandpa as proof 😂
Cool memory for both of you! I have seen lots of them in bays of Lake Michigan so I'm not surprised to hear of them in St. Clair too.
What is your binges bass ?😅
My biggest bass was a bit over 7lbs.
Can you do cycle of a pime if you didnt already, i love your videos btw
Thanks. Did you mean pike? I did a similar video on pike earlier this year th-cam.com/video/iK2D93FlbjA/w-d-xo.html
Called Choupique (shoe pick) in S Louisiana, a lot of people eat them, but I don’t care for them.
Yep, one of their many names!
20 years ago I was in USA and got to fish in Wisconsin. Mid day, temperature mid 90s' my crankbait was eaten by thick , golden brown snake shaped fish with tough scales and large pointy teeth that scarred the lure. I thought it was bowfin, but now I think it might have been a snakehead. What do you think?
Snakeheads are not known to exist in the wild in Wisconsin, except for an isolated finding in southern Wisconsin about a decade ago. So it was almost certainly a bowfin.
Today i caught one just by using a white beetle spin and gawd that thing destreyed it
Yep, that sounds about right
They fight!!!
You bet
Catch them quite often when I fish the back waters and tributaries of the IN portion of the Kankakee river also one smaller oxbow lake near my home has a good population of them as does the very near river that formed the oxbow lake.
Fight like hell and Ive caught them on every moving luer I use to catch bass and they are quite the surprise to catch when slip bobber fishing the bluegill spawn with #6 hooks and 6lb test line
Their mouths are full of small needle like teeth so I need to use both my needle nose pliers and my 8" hemostat to safely (for both of us) remove the hook before being released never fished for them on purpose but biggest I ever caught was about 8lbs but seen ones up to 12lbs get caught from the back waters of the Kankakee guys usually freaking out thinking its a trophy monster walleye till it brakes the water and see its a bowfin
Very cool. I fished the Kankakee for smallies and channel cats when I was a kid. What I remember most was walking up a little tributary and catching nonstop creek chubs and rock bass!
Only dogfish I ever caught was in the Kankakee in Indiana!
Choupique!
Yes!
Is a Bowfin also known as a fresh water Cod??
Nope, that's a burbot. The burbot is truly in the cod family.
Hi can you do a catfish video?
It's on my list!
Hey fishing with nat i wanted to ask how to fish a snake head im not from USA im from Indonesian so?
Topwater frogs, spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, and live bait or just a piece of fresh fish on a hook are all good options for catching snakeheads.
@@FishingwithNat yooooo thank you
Sorry I didn't comment earlier, but can we get gar next?
Gar are super cool and I do plan to do one on gar at some point
@FishingwithNat I haven't caught any yet, but I live where there are some even saw one!
@@OlympicProjectMC I've caught lots of them and I think they're fun to target, but very frustrating because they're so hard to hook with that bony mouth! Sometimes I'll go on the Mississippi River with friends and we'll have a contest of who can land the first gar. Sometimes it involves hours of time and lots of cursing over fish that got off just before going in the net. 😂
I'd imagine I've heard their difficult fish to catch, and I can see the cursing a gar's boney jaw ruining a hook set 😂
@@OlympicProjectMC A lot of times they will clamp down on a hook so you'll think they're hooked well, and then at some point they decide to open their mouth and the hook falls out. That's the most frustrating part. Some people use "gar jigs" with frayed rope pieces but then you have to untangle that mess from a few hundred teeth.
Tubular nostrils, dude 😎🤙🏻
Totally tubular!
Just caught a 9lb one, lake st Clair, on a hot dog
Awesome. They will eat just about anything when they're hungry.
@@FishingwithNat 🔥🔥🎣
I fish I fish I fish fish and I still can't get a bowfin they are illusive
That's a common story. They can be hard to find and even harder to get to bite.
I've had em blow up on frogs before it's a crazy strike
@@dee6338 And other times they will just gently pop the surface on a frog. Just depends on their mood that day I guess.
Not here in south Georgia, they're very easy to catch with cut bait.
@@austinhernandez2716 Cut bait under a bobber or on the bottom is a good way to target them
the only reason one over 20 lbs. haven't been caught they will break your rod line or brake your hook ive lost some over 25 lbs
I would love to play with a 25lb bowfin
Man what are the odds I never knew the record bowfin was caught in South Carolina and I’m in South Carolina trying to catch them because they love to bend my spin baits😭
Get out and break that record!
@@FishingwithNat I got a 18lb yesterday he was a monster
@@williamself1401 Awesome - that must have been a battle.
@@FishingwithNat man I promise you if was I was afraid my 50lb braid was gonna pop he fought until the shore the best lure for them is a spinnerbait with a swimbait trailer they love it
@@williamself1401 Awesome. I'm always impressed with the damage that they can cause to a spinnerbait!
The bow fishermen near me target these along with the carp and just pitch them into the woods, so infuriating
Yeah that happens here too, because they're labeled as rough fish and therefore legal to shoot along with carp. Some bowfishermen leave the bowfin alone and focus on the carp.
Funny I caught one on Georgian Bay one night, my buddy lipped it and payed the price. Don’t lip then
Agreed!
I see so many people fishing with heavy rods and 40 lbs lines, and I think buddy there are no sharks here. Scale down.
@@dontink7217 Most of my "big fish" reels are spooled with 20lb braid, but there are cases of super heavy cover that can require stronger than 20lb. It's not usually due to the weight of the fish itself.
@@FishingwithNat Actually I was referring to people up in Canada fishing for panfish with musky equipment. I see it all the time. . Ridiculous,, Anyway I enjoy your content, always. Be well. Wear sunscreen
@@dontink7217 I've seen that too. I think they are inexperienced and underestimate the strength of fishing line, despite its thin diameter. Same with the rods maybe?
Their is only one place I can go to catch them from NC they fight hard
Maybe you could take a trip to SC for a chance at a trophy!
i have one as pet
Awesome. How big is it and what do you feed it?
@@FishingwithNat he is 7inch now and i feed him with shrimp and fish fillet, they are expensive fish in my place😅
Bowfin seem to be the exact same as snakeheads.
Not the same - two different fish. One (bowfin) is native to the United States, one (snakehead) is native to Asia.
200mil...got proof1!
Thanks for watching
Choupique
Yep, another name for the bowfin. It has many names!
@@FishingwithNat the Delcambre Choupiques was the last fantasy football team I had named. 😅
@@VisualAFMedia Best name I ever heard 😆
Bowfin outfight a largemouth bass easily.
Absolutely. They are one of the hardest fighting fish species.
Only the males have the spot on the tail.
Correct. The female can have a faint spot, especially early in life, but the male's is far more vibrant and more commonly observed.
@@FishingwithNat yes your right