June 24, 2023
Somewhat surprisingly, I had not caught a Bowfin on a topwater fly yet, and that was one of my goals this year. Normally, Bowfin will quickly gulp air at the surface and return to the bottom. Doing so, in most of the places I fish for them, stirs up mud, so the water is very muddy. On this day, I had already tied on a Tuscan Bunny fly, and had made a few casts with it. A couple bowfin surfaced to gulp air, and one began swimming just under the surface not far away. That doesn't happen often. I put the fly by him once, and it followed. I put it by it once more, and it took 2 gulps to get the fly completely in its mouth. Goal achieved!
I switched to subsurface flies and caught 7 more Bowfin. A few were caught after I'd switched to a carp fly pattern, where they had NOT been hitting a larger fly I typically use for Bowfin. Like Bass, they don't always want a big fly, apparently.
Speaking of carp, I made some casts to a Common Carp I could see, but didn't get a strike. Several casts later, I got a strike from a fish I couldn't see...and it was a carp! Might've been the same one.
Also caught a Largemouth Bass, some Green Sunfish, a couple Freshwater Drum:
And a couple Yellow Bullhead.
I lost a few additional Bowfin and several Shortnose Gar as well. All very glamorous, colorful native species today, for sure (except the carp). HA!
David Merical
St. Louis, MO
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Originally Posted by iaflyfisher
