Bowfin "Mudfish" @ Mullet Lake Park

Last night it was Kyle, Zack, and myself fishing at Mullet Lake Park. This time I had thawed some frozen cut shad that evening for bait. Cut shad is one of the best baits for catfish, or so I'm told. This is my first attempt with cut shad.
We fished off the boat dock. I was the first one to catch a fish that night, and it was a strange looking fish. One I have never seen before. I thought it was a channel catfish at first, but then I looked at it's dorsal fin, which was very long and extended all the way to the tail. It had a very boney jaw too, which was full of small sharp teeth. The next day I had to know what type of fish it was, so I looked through my book "Sport Fish of Florida" by Vic Dunaway. This an excellent book by the way, has everything you could possibly catch in Florida. It didn't take long to identify the fish we had caught, a Bowfin or commonly known as Mudfish. Here's a drawing of the bowfin:



I ended up only catching one bowfin that night, but there was alot of activity on the lines. Just like the Longnose Gar, the boney jaw makes it difficult to set a hook. The one bowfin I caught was 3 lb 9 oz. Kyle caught one too that was 2 lb 9 oz. I learned something interesting about the Bowfin as well. It has an air-bladder that functions somewhat like a lung. They are often seen gulping air when they are out of water. I didn't notice this myself, but thought that was interesting.

Here's a picture of the 3 lb 9 oz Bowfin I caught that night. The poor lighting at the dock makes it difficult to get a good picture. I used the Carolina Rig which cut shad as bait.