Bowfin Ecstasy

 After an extended run of extremely frustrating bowfin excursions, I felt I needed to change my location a bit. I knew somewhere I could almost certainly get bowfin. I also knew my chances of getting a really colored up male there were on the slim side because I never had before and they always seem to show up at this place right after the spawn. The males drop the bright green pretty quickly, it seems. I also encounter far more females at this location. That's not a bad thing because they are always bigger and I would very much like to break the 12 pound mark soon. I've seen them, I know they exist here... I just need to get a fly in front of one. 

The day was bright and hot, and the tide conditions were excellent. I put my kayak in under a high sun an paddled to the flats that usually hold fish. It hardly took any time at all to find a pair of bowfin, a large female and a slightly smaller male, hunting in about 8 inches of water. The larger fish smoked Drew Price's Mr. Bow-regard and so began the bowfin day I'd been hoping to have for well over a month.

For the rest of the day it was pretty consistent action. I got about a dozen shots. Six fish committed, and I got four of them to hand. Three were big females and the fourth was a pretty nice male that wasn't completely lacking color. It was a gorgeous fish, actually, they all were. Just not the crazy emerald green 'fin I was hoping to find this spring. 

I wouldn't call this an ugly fish... would you? It was gorgeous.

I can't get enough of these strange prehistoric monsters. Every encounter feels like meeting some sort of small dinosaur. They're gnarly fish, hitting and fighting with a force that would knock a black bass out cold. To me, bowfin are the original American sport fish... largemouth bass don't even hold a candle. 

Of course there are noteworthy aspects of any day on the water outside of the fish themselves, and on this occasion the turtles were a nice addition. I hand caught a few that were in shallow enough water, including a tiny common snapping turtle and a lovely musk turtle.

Of course I've always been enamored with turtles as I have been all reptiles. If only I'd known about bowfin when I was five years old... 

There is something vaguely reptilian about these air breathing fish. They seem just steps away from leaving the water entirely. I can't wait to do battle with them again soon. 

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.