These visual experiences are what fly fishers find so stimulating.
When hooked, bowfins are incredibly strong, and they make wild, acrobatic jumps. In their spawning colors, bowfins rival the beauty of brook trout, cutthroat trout, dorado, or bluegill. During their spawn, male bowfins change colors to a brilliant neon green, the color of antifreeze. They are spring spawners and create nests in shallow water.
Like tarpon, arapaima, and some other fish, bowfins can breathe both air and water, which allows them to survive in stagnant, less oxygenated water and in warm water. Their diet consists of crayfish, amphibians, small mammals, minnows, and other fish species. This makes them great targets for fly fishers, as much of the time you can sight-fish for them. They prefer shallow water, as they are ambush feeders. They prefer lowland rivers, lakes, swamps, vegetated sloughs, and bodies of water with lots of downed timber. Their wide range makes them widely available to many fly fishers. They are native to North America and are found from the Upper Midwest, throughout the Northeast, and along the East Coast down to the Gulf of Mexico. They are considered primitive fish as they still have many characteristics of their ancestors. Bowfin (Amia calva)īowfins are ancient fish dating back to the Jurassic and Eocene eras. I call them “the forgotten ones.” Their aggressive eats and acrobatic leaps can beat or at least equal any gamefish on the planet, and they can change the way you look at your home waters. Bowfins, paddlefish, gar, and sturgeons are all aquatic dinosaurs-megafish that have gone mostly overlooked or ignored by fly fishers. They need a spotlight, and our respect for these gamefish is long overdue. The coronavirus pandemic in 2020 restricted travel for everyone, making it an opportune time to highlight the ancient megafish of North America. to chase exotics in or near our own backyards. There are many opportunities for fly fishers in the U.S. For most of us, these fish are only dreams-amazing to read about but not actually feasible or possible.
In recent years, many thousands of fly fishers have set out across the planet traveling to faraway destinations to target exotic freshwater fish like arapaima, wolf fish, payara, taimen, peacock bass, black bass, and many others. This story was originally titled “The Forgotten Ones: These giant, native fish need some love and attention.” It appeared in the Feb-Mar 2021 issue of Fly Fisherman.
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