# Bofin



## Riverfan (Apr 5, 2015)

Dogfish aren't considered beautiful but chic out the colors on this guy.


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## Boardfeet (Sep 27, 2007)

In Arkansas we call that a Grinnel.


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## jack2 (Mar 19, 2010)

those things will tear up your gear if you're not careful. they fight like hell. i tried to eat one on time. it's good hot but the cooler the meat gets, the wad of cotton in your mouth gets bigger. that fish is only survival food. lol.
jack


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## DLo (Oct 2, 2007)

jack2 said:


> those things will tear up your gear if you're not careful. they fight like hell. i tried to eat one on time. it's good hot but the cooler the meat gets, the wad of cotton in your mouth gets bigger. that fish is only survival food. lol.
> jack


I want to live as much as the next guy, but come on, sometimes you have to draw a line and accept it's your time.


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## Bodupp (Oct 3, 2007)

Snakehead?


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## kingfish501 (Oct 7, 2007)

jack2 said:


> those things will tear up your gear if you're not careful. they fight like hell. i tried to eat one on time. it's good hot but the cooler the meat gets, the wad of cotton in your mouth gets bigger. that fish is only survival food. lol.
> jack


I made the mistake of trying to eat one, too, back when I was a kid.


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## Boardfeet (Sep 27, 2007)

Bodupp said:


> Snakehead?


Not a Snakehead.
Bowfin
Cypress bass
Grinnel
several other names.
A native fish to North American waters.









Bowfin - Wikipedia







en.wikipedia.org


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## SurfRidr (Apr 24, 2012)

Grunnel or Grinnel depending where you're from
Mudfish
Bowfin
Fun fight but man will they tear up your terminal tackle and make a mess of your boat if you put a green one inside!


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## FishWalton (Jul 22, 2010)

Plenty of these things in the Choctawhatchee River system. They love spinner baits but will tear them up eventually.


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## kingfish501 (Oct 7, 2007)

SurfRidr said:


> Grunnel or Grinnel depending where you're from
> Mudfish
> Bowfin
> Fun fight but man will they tear up your terminal tackle and make a mess of your boat if you put a green one inside!


Add Cottonfish to the list of names, although Papa Sam who taught me how to bass fish, always referred to them as " another one of those damn SOBs". Used to be a ton of them in Escambia River, mostly in the quietwater in sloughs and such around stumps and cypress knees. When I was a kid, I liked the fight they put up, jumping and then bulldogging for cover. Then, again, the Rapalas they were trashing belonged to Papa Sam.


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## Try'n Hard (Oct 23, 2008)

Cottonfish! Dont lip ‘em


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## lastcast (Oct 12, 2007)

We had them in the canals behind the house in N.C. I would go take a leak and the darn things would come up and try to eat where I was pissing. Fed one to the Ex one time and she said it was like a ball of cotton that kept growing! Laughed my ass off, hard fighting self survival fish!


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## Yellow River Cat (May 3, 2008)

Yellow River has plenty of them.
I’ve caught them on worms and crickets and yep they are rough on artificials


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## lsucole (May 7, 2009)

In Louisiana it is called a choupique ( pronounced shoe-pick ). Our bayous and swamps are full of them. They have an air bladder and thrive in low oxygen " stagnant" water. They have bad attitudes and will destroy a spinnerbait !


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## kingfish501 (Oct 7, 2007)

You cajuns farmraise bowfins for the meat and roe. I knew y'all would eat anything, but dayum man!


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## SurfRidr (Apr 24, 2012)

lsucole said:


> In Louisiana it is called a choupique ( pronounced shoe-pick ). Our bayous and swamps are full of them. They have an air bladder and thrive in low oxygen " stagnant" water. They have bad attitudes and will destroy a spinnerbait !


They do live a long time out of water. They look a little prehistoric to me when I've caught them, which as you said is often in lower oxygen areas and more stagnant water, although they certainly aren't limited to those places. The last two I caught were in the Carolinas, where I grew up... one in the flow of water out of an old rice field coming through a break in the levees on the East Cooper River in South Carolina, the other in the back of a shallow pocket in a creek feeding a lake in Piedmont North Carolina. They are toothy bulldogs and make a glorious mess of things.


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## DLo (Oct 2, 2007)

Nothing will make you think you’ve hooked an 8lb bass like setting the hook on a 3lb grinnle.


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## lsucole (May 7, 2009)

kingfish501 said:


> You cajuns farmraise bowfins for the meat and roe. I knew y'all would eat anything, but dayum man!


Nope , not gonna try this even if you clean and cook it for me !


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## jack2 (Mar 19, 2010)

isucole,
i've seen videos of people in la. grilling garfish. have you done this? is it good?
jack


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## kingfish501 (Oct 7, 2007)

lsucole said:


> Nope , not gonna try this even if you clean and cook it for me !


Sorry, but I didn't know you Cajuns did that until I looked up some bowfin history. You guys make fish balls out of them...and turn the roe into cavier.


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## polhlor (May 8, 2014)

Have read their roe is better than russian caviar.


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## lsucole (May 7, 2009)

jack2 said:


> isucole,
> i've seen videos of people in la. grilling garfish. have you done this? is it good?
> jack


No but there is ( or used to be ) a pretty famous Garfish and Catfish Rodeo in August down on Blind River which is kinda between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. I t was hosted by a bar that is only accessible by water, the bar would then take the caught gar and catfish and fry up " gar balls" ( kind of like hushpuppies) and of course the catfish and feed them to the crowd -- which was always several hundred people . You haven't lived until you have seen Alligator Gars of up to 140-150 lbs. being cleaned and filleted with machetes and actual chain saws !! Unfortunately the bar "accidently" burned down ( after new owners bought it ) and then Covid .


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## jack2 (Mar 19, 2010)

isucole,
not quite 140lb. gar but i have seen them on the grill whole (gutted i assume) and then when they are done, you peel off the skin and eat the meat with hot sauce. i've always wanted to try it.
jack


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