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I will admit it right off the bat; I know next to nothing about finding bowfin. I grew up in northern WI, and as far as I know, we really didn't have the species up there. Most of the knowledge I have on the species is from the Bowfin page of this site. The only bowfin I have ever seen in the flesh is at the MN Zoo.
That said, I REALLY want to catch one, but am not sure where to start. My primary fishing grounds of late is the Cannon River Valley, from Morriston to Redwing and any of the lakes and such between.
I am outfitted with a fishing kayak, so I can get on the water and into remote places.
I figure I'll start by trying the shiner on a bobber method mentioned in the site species article.
Can anyone familiar with the area south of the Twin Cities recommend a place to start? I was thinking maybe Cannon, Wells, or Sakatah lakes on the Cannon River, or maybe even some of the weedy shallow lakes here in Lakeville.
Any advice you'd have to point me in the right direction would be hugely appreciated.
The Cannon River and all the reservoirs along it have decent numbers of Bowfin. Fishing cutbait usually does better for me than live. Any shallow, weedy area or slow eddies of the main flow in rivers can work well. There are usually Bowfin in the eddies below the dams on that river (along with a million bullheads). The large shallow backwaters along the Mississippi and Minnesota are my prefered places to catch them. Usually near cover or current or anything that would concentrate baitfish. Marshy mucky areas are good too. Usually very shallow is good, even less than a foot of water. Keep your eyes open if the visibility is good enough to see anything, sight fishing is the most effective way to target them for me
PM Sent!
Thank you everyone for the replies and PMs. I'll let you all know how I do this summer. I have a good list of lifers I am looking for this year, starting with some of the bigger Redhorse (going up on the upper St. Croix for them next week). Sounds like the Bowfin would be better waiting unitl things warm up more, so I'll start targeting them in June.
Thanks!
Life list goals for 2023: Silver Redhorse, Greater Redhorse, and River Redhorse
As Tony mentioned, cut bait (specifically bluegill for me) is a real bowfin finder..... the other day I had a drum eat some though which was a surprise!