Bowfin on flies

[loon]

I 've had some success and have developed some specialized flies for Bowfin on Lake Champlain (think Neanderthal freshwater Tarpon). They have two distainct feeding modes. Anyone else?

[albacized]

I 've had some success and have developed some specialized flies for Bowfin on Lake Champlain (think Neanderthal freshwater Tarpon). They have two distainct feeding modes. Anyone else?

How well do they fight?

[E-Glades]

Good to hear you are getting that fish on fly ! Can you describe the area and conditions that you are catching them? I've encountered one or two in the Everglades. And used to get them all the time as a kid in Iowa - though not on fly. They are green and mean - a spunky fighter - though nothing like the stamina of a tarpon. That round tail just wont let them peel off line like a saltwater fish will it ?? most likely they save their energy during the fight to try and bite you when taking the hook out.

[titleguy]

I used to live in VT and caught a few on flies- Dead Creek, East Creek, Little Otter- ate my go-to pike flie- yellow and red seaducer. They could fight. Loon where are you in VT? I used to live in Cornwall, but the taxes and the socialism drove me out. ;)

[ruge13]

I didn't know they had a population of bowfin in the lake that was targetable, I always though they were bycatch. So you sight fish for them? Watch for rises cause they breath air no? I am trying to picture this in my head because I know nothing about them.

[Deerfly]

I fish on Lake Champlain off and on and didn't really see any until last year when I fished up in Alburg. What a nasty looking fish. I bet they fight pretty good on a fly rod. Haven't done anything on a flyrod yet but, I am taking care of that this season! If I find anything that works on Bowfin I will share it with ya.

[loon]

Yeah, as soon as I typed Tarpon I started with the qualifiers. They're similar in breathing both ways and in their initial Berserker reaction to being hooked. After that, different kettle of fish (sorry). The Bowfin are very strong (I've had a couple staighten a # 4 into a harpoon fly, but their favorite tactic after the initial explosion is to dive back into their weed bed and turn your fishing into aquatic dredging. How thick the weeds are sometimes drives your rod weight and leader test, but there's no need for a bite tippet.
I live in the Champlain Islands and mostly fish them in the area 1-2 miles both north & south from the sandbar. The water has always been clear and the Zebra Mussels have made it more so. They come into shallow water and hang out under weed-beds; when they're in this mode the "sight fishing" entails cessing out their spot when they come up and gulp, then repeatedly target that spot with a SLOW (therefore bouyant: I put a strip of foam in the maylar tube body) small streamer. Often when they eat it seems almost like an afterthought. They have another mode which I have observed several times... every time it has been late afternoon on a cloudy hot muggy, almost thunderstorm day... they will come into the shoreline near their weedbeds and aggessively chase baitfish (and hit just about anything that moves). Then it's like Stripers or Summer Snook crowding bait into the grass.

[ruge13]

Interesting, Thanks.