Bowfin

What a hot miserable day today was. It was in the 90's and extremely humid. I ran into Houghton Lake to do some shopping and when I got home I decided to go try to catch some small panfish for my little pond.

I dug out my pole and rigged it up with a hook, sinker and bobber. I was going after some little guys, maybe two inches long or so. Bluegills and sunfish.

I drove out to the lake, actually a very shallow flooded area called Backus Pond. It must cover a couple hundred acres and only three or four ft at the most. The only place it is that deep is the old creek channel that wanders through it. It is one of the places that the DNR has put out Osprey platforms and it is fun to watch them fish. They will be soaring way up there and you can tell when they see something that interests them. They will stop and start back peddleing with their wings trying to line up one the fish and when they do, down they come like a dive bomber, snagging the fish off the water. They miss some times but not often.

The pond is choked with lillypads and other pond weeds this time of the year and it is impossible to get through with much less than a kayak. A canoe would work the heck out of a person. Nobody fishs the pond though this time of the year. In fact there is no size limits on any fish caught there. They are all stunted and not worth taking home, except for a little garden pond.

The first time I got there I hauled out my gear and a bucket. The only place to fish is at the dam. It is a small thing but the only deep water is at the base of it and I doubt it is over five ft deep there.

I walked out on the dam and realized that I had forgotten to bring bait. What a dumbarse I are! I started looking for some dang bug or worm but could find nothing. It was so dang hot and I was sweating like a southern beauty queen. I finally decided to hell with it and packed up and went home. Really ticked me off.

I could see that there was a storm coming and when I got home it was feeling a bit cooler. I sat on the deck and had a legal adult beverage and then went in and called Sunny on Yahoo Messenger to let her know what was happening with Alice up in BC. I had chatted with her yesterday on Messenger and just wanted to update Linda.

I went out on the deck after the call and it had cooled quite a bit and the sky was darkening. I figured I might as well try to find some worms and give it another try. The ground is so dang dry in the woods and I dug around and could find nothing. I saw a leaf pile and after a little scrounging around in it I found a few redworms. Well I only wanted about five fish and that ought to be plenty.

Off to the pond I went, it is about five miles away. I went out on the dam and rigged my rod and casted out. I soon had a small gill about the right size. Good deal because it was still hotter than heck down there and I was sweating again. I messed around for a half hour and caught no more. Heck I needed more than just one!

Finally I saw an older feller pull up and get out of his car. He came up with his fishing gear in hand. He had a bucket for his fish I though. He asked how I was doing and I told him not worth a crap as I just wanted a few little ones for my pond. He pointed to his bucket and said I could take four or five of his little ones. I looked in the bucket and he had fifteen or twenty little panfish in there, exactly what I wanted. I asked if he was serious, I had no clue what the heck he was keeping those little suckers for but I excepted his offer. I grabbed five and put them in my bucket.

I asked him what he was fishing for and he said Bofin, which I always called Dogfish. They are an extremely primitive fish from prehistoric days that can live where few fish can. They thrive in ponds like this because when the oxygen content gets low in the hot summer they can gulp air off the surface, since they have a primitive lung.

They get to be pretty dang big too. I have caught them up to 7 lbs and they get larger. They sure can fight too, lots of jumping and bulldogging.

I decided to hang around and watch him and we started gabbing. He baited the gill through the lips and set the bobber a foot or so above it. He made a case out a ways and imediately he had a fish pick it up. I could not believe it. What you do is let the fish run with it a ways and when he stops you set the hook. The guy, Mike is his name, had not been fishing for five minutes when he set the hook and the fish made a run. Well he soon landed it and it was a small pike. Dang this was interesting!

He put on another gill and cast it out and it imediately took off. Another fish had it. He let it run and sat the hook and he felt the fish but pulled the hook right out of his mough. Sat the hook too soon. Well he baited up again and cast out and off it went again. He sat the hook and brought in a small Dogfish. Dang this looked like fun! Dogfish are not eaten by many people but they are considered trash fish. Mike just tossed it over the bank into the brush.

He baited up again and cast out. Down went the dang bobber and he was on to a nice fish this time! This sucker fought and when he got it in it was one dang big dogfish. I would guess eight lbs. He tossed it in the brush too. He said he tossed six in there the day before.

I had not been watching and talking with him for ten minutes and he caught three fish and was still fishing when I left.

He said that two guys with bows got 26 of them earlier in the year in one afternoon. I just might give it a try. It was fun watching too