Bowfin Agony

 Bowfin are not always easy to catch. They're often pegged as being a dumb, overly aggressive fish. While it is certainly much easier to approach a bowfin in a small watercraft, that does not mean they are easy. I spent an exceptional amount of my available fishing time this spring looking for bowfin and not finding them or finding very few and getting my butt handed to me by them. 

I wanted an early season male bowfin in spawning colors. Bowfin have perhaps the most unique spawning colors of any fish in CT. They turn green. Not vaguely green, not olive, not light green... male bowfin turn a deep emerald green, mostly on their fins and stomach. I've caught one bowfin that had some nice green coloration, but never a fully lit-up one. It is something I badly want to have photos of. Unfortunately this might not be my year for it. May went by without any bowfin for me, and as June trickles along they just get less and less colorful. I had one shot that didn't pan out. It was a moderately warm day and cloudier than I would have liked. I'd hiked my kayak into a backwater that a friend had been absolutely slamming bowfin at just days prior. I got the first one I saw to eat, and he was a stunner: the most green, most reticulated, most brilliant bowfin I'd ever seen. And I lost him. I couldn't get an eat from any other bowfin I saw that day (and I didn't see many). The handful of football shaped largemouth and small small pike I caught were not a good consolation. 

My next bowfin hunt started out hot and sunny- nearly ideal -and ended cloudy and rainy, with some gnarly cloud to ground lightning barrages in between. I only saw two bowfin and I didn't really get a shot at either one. I fished two different water bodies and got one good carp at each... no predator fish at all.

These long kayak outings without a bowfin to hand were starting to get obnoxious. I was burning gas, hauling my kayak in and out of nasty bodies of water, and just not accomplishing what I'd set out to. It's pretty hard not to get discouraged. Soon though, my agony would be swept away. 

Until next time, 

Fish for the love of fish.

Fish for the love of places fish live.

Fish for you.

And stay safe and healthy.

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Leo, C, Franky, Geof, Luke, and Noah for making Connecticut Fly Angler possible. If you want to support this blog, look for the Patreon link at the top of the right side-bar in web version. 

Edited by Cheyenne Terrien