Bowfin in Outdoor Life magazine

20 Monday Mar 2017

Posted by Henry Veggian in Fishing for Bowfin

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amia calva, Bowfin, dogfish, Fishing, grinnel, living fossils, native species, primitive fishes, rough fish

The latest issue of Outdoor Life magazine (April 2017) contains a short feature about Bowfin fishing. The article is largely based on an interview with yours truly. For some reason, the editors chose to place it on a page entitled “Ugly Fish.” Look at the Bowfin I am holding in the photo – it’s a beauty. Nonetheless, it’s always good to grab some positive press for this under-rated and misunderstood native species, and I am particularly honored to be included in a magazine that I have read since I was a child. Thank you, Outdoor Life!

Bowfin Country Fishing Journal: Landing a Bowfin from a Kayak

04 Monday Jul 2016

Posted by Henry Veggian in Bowfin, Kayak Fishing for Bowfin, Kayak Fishing Posts

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amia calva, Bowfin, jordan lake, Kayak Fishing Posts, Kayaks, Landing a big fish, living fossils, rough fish

Battling an angry, powerful fish from a kayak can be a nerve-rattling experience. Anglers must first contend with the thrill of the fight and the steps required to land the fish. Those steps include adjusting the drag setting on the reel, preventing the fish from running into and being wrapped on underwater structure, and any number of other movements (such as holding the rod in one hand while using a landing net with the other). In some cases, a large fish can haul a kayak into dangerous water.

Small, less bruising fishes such as Bluegill, Crappie or White Bass may not prove a great test of strength or kayak management but the motions required to land the fish remain the same. My topic here is how larger sport fishes – Alligator Gar, Muskellunge, Steelhead, giant Largemouth Bass or Bowfin – amplify the mechanics of landing a big, angry fish by requiring added strength as well as attention to detail. And all these movements are amplified, sometimes to deafening volume, by a tangible risk of physical harm to the angler and the fish.

What will happen when I pull this large fish into the kayak, and its powerful jaws, teeth or tail are in my lap?

Continue reading →

Bowfin in KBF Magazine

04 Monday Apr 2016

Posted by Henry Veggian in Bowfin, Bowfin in Journalism

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Bowfin, Fishing, Kayak Fishing Posts, living fossils, rough fish, science

The latest issue of KBF magazine mentions the Bowfin in two separate articles and quotes yours truly in one of them. The one in which I am quoted is a feature story by angler Drew Haerer on the topic of fishing for primitive fishes. The article “The Forgotten” (p. 96-99) also features a photo I took of a friend and fellow angler while we fished for Bowfin at Core Creek, N.C., in 2012. You can read it free here:
https://issuu.com/chrispayne94/docs/spring_2016_kbfmag

Video

How to Lose a Bowfin

29 Monday Feb 2016

Posted by Henry Veggian in Bowfin

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Bowfin, Fishing, living fossils, rough fish

It’s late February, a time for the Bowfin angler to remember the taste of defeat.Winter lulls the senses, and our memories of last year’s battles with fish dissipate – mercifully – with the cold. Yes, we recall the one that got away. It grows larger with each telling. But we forget how we lost it, and that defeat is often an angler’s fault.

Late winter Bowfin are experts in reminding us of our errors.

I will dedicate this blog post to a typical late winter event: the loss of a large fish from the end of the line. First, a few points about how to set a hook in a Bowfin’s bony mouth. Continue reading →

Decorous Techniques: A Review of Largemouth Bass: An In-Fisherman Book of Strategies

01 Monday Feb 2016

Posted by Henry Veggian in Book Reviews

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Bass Fishing, Bowfin, Environment, fish biology, Fishing, Gar, In Fisherman, Largemouth Bass, rough fish

Decorous Techniques: A Review of Largemouth Bass: An In-Fisherman Book of Strategies (1990)

Look at the photograph below. It was taken by Dr. Solomon David, a biologist at the renowned Shedd Aquarium. Dr. David is not a scientist to miss the significance of this grouping, which he caught with his eye and then his camera. The fact of the matter is that it represents something many bass anglers wouldn’t easily admit: the Bowfin (Amia calva), Largemouth Bass (Micropterus salmoides) and Spotted Gar (Lepisosteus oculatus) co-exist in the wild. They share waters where they are born, they share food they chase, and they share graves. And here they are, hanging out like three old friends. Very old friends (well, at least the Gar and Bowfin are).

Why the photo, you ask? I posted it because I’d never seen the Bowfin mentioned without scorn in a book about Largemouth Bass. If you listened to Bass anglers, many argue for the eradication of the Bowfin (to be fair, others secretly confess they prefer catching Bowfin, but they chase Bass for the money). Anti-Bowfin-scorn is simply inherited ignorance. And that is where Largemouth Bass: An In-Fisherman Book of Strategies stands apart from the crowd….

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Proteus and the Bowfin

15 Thursday Jan 2015

Posted by Henry Veggian in Bowfin

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Bowfin, caviar, Environment, fish biology, Fishes, Fishing, living fossils, rough fish

January 2015

It was eight years ago this week, on a warm January day, that I landed the Bowfin in the photo below. I was recently arrived to the North Carolina Piedmont, and if you look closely, you will see that I’m wearing a hat from Lock 3 Bait & Tackle. It’s my favorite tackle shop on the lower Allegheny River, just down the road from where Rachel Carson was born and raised in Western Pennsylvania, and a little reminder of how anglers cling to the superstitions of their old haunts. That hat didn’t last much longer after I landed that Bowfin. It wasn’t because I gave up on the Allegheny – I still fish it about once every year – but because this fish marks a break in my life: there is before the Bowfin Era, and after. Continue reading →