Bowfin Tale

Saturday, April 12. Metro Beach, Mt. Clemens, MI. Temp:low 40's, windy. Overcast skies. ~2:00PM

I had spent about an hour casting various lures, testing out my new rod and reel combo when I decided that I would try to fish a second line using a worm on a bobber. I set up the line and casted it out about 30 yards into the choppy channel off of Lake St. Clair and proceeded to go back to casting with my other rod and reel. I happened to glance at my second pole and noticed the rod tip bending way over. I looked out at my bobber and it was still floating along the surface, undisturbed.

Meanwhile, my rod tip was bobbing and bending away. I picked up the rod off from its holder and could feel the tug on the line. Glancing out, I saw the bobber still riding the choppy surface without any signs of a struggle below.

I started reeling in the line and could feel a heavy resistance. Not seeing my bobber moving, I suspected that I had let my line go slack and it had tangled itself on one of the concrete slabs thrown in to make a man-made point. Thinking I had a snag, I walked to my left to free the line but instead of the line coming free, the snag moved to the right further. Then, the snag started taking line out from the reel and I was convinced that I must have snagged a passing log that was being carried by the current in the channel. I tightened up the drag a bit and started reeling the line back in, slowly. All of a sudden, I saw a fish break the surface in the vicinity of my "snag". I reeled in some more line and saw that the fish was, somehow, tangled in my line. After about a minute of fighting to reel the rest of my line in, I had finally gotten the bobber close to shore. When the fish slid down to the bobber, I was able to haul the rest of my line to shore. As I lifted the fish out of the water, my line broke and this ugly fish fell at my feet. Not knowing what kind of fish it was at the time and being a catch and release fisherman anyway, I decided to just watch it regain its senses and swim off instead of grabbing it and flipping it up on the shore.

I, then reached down and recovered my bobber and the leader with an earthworm still attached, intact. Somehow, the fish had swam into my line's slack and had gotten itself tangled up in it bad enough that I was able to land it without the hook ever being closer than 5' to it. I would have never believed it was possible to catch a fish without a hook, but I now know differently. This 3-4 pound, 20-24" long bowfin gave this old angler quite a story to tell.

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