This Morning Fishin.

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Caustic Burno

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The grinnell were biting this morning, never remember catching four on a bass trip before. Not unusual to catch one every so often. They were nice fish running between 3 and 4 pounds .
If they were as plentiful as bass people would quit bass, pound for pound bass can't hold a candle to grinnell for fight.
 
bbirder":ge1iq7k4 said:
Them choupiques are good eating, but only on the first day. After that they get cottony. Have to say, they fight like be nice on the line.

They are most definitely fighters.
Usually catch them on a crayfish type plug, today they were hammering a blue worm.
 
Heard them called blackfish or mudfish all my life. Lure will be torn all to hail after every catch. Teeth and jaws like an alligator. We always cut their throat and threw them on the river bank for some other critter to eat. Bleed like a stuck hog.
 
ga.prime":101qw4zd said:
Heard them called blackfish or mudfish all my life. Lure will be torn all to hail after every catch. Teeth and jaws like an alligator. We always cut their throat and threw them on the river bank for some other critter to eat. Bleed like a stuck hog.

Always heard them called blackfish as well. Another one of those terms that depends on where you live I guess. We used to catch the snot out of them in the Okefenokee swamp while fishing for jackfish. Usually on broke back rapalas. They'd fight and splash and it was a race to get them to the boat before the gators got them. One of the most fun fish I've ever caught. I've heard tale that they were good to eat if cooked right. We always smacked em in the head and chunked them back.
 
I saw a big one at the edge of the water one time when I was fishing from the bank around an oxbow lake on the Oconee river. She had hundreds upon hundreds of little baby minnows swimming alongside her and the minnows were black as coal, like little back tadpoles. That's where I think the name blackfish comes from.

I've caught them on all kinds of lures but I think the one they hit most is a Johnson's Silver Minnow with a white pork rind trailer.
 
Caustic Burno":2f1pjiuy said:
Bright Raven":2f1pjiuy said:
grinnell - what are they? Never heard of them. How big?

Also called bowfin State record is 17 or 18 pounds. Very prehistoric looking fish.
Those this morning running 3 to 4 pounds.

https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/species/bowfin/

I have them in my ponds..a couple are pretty big and one is probably still swimming around with a Rapala in it's mouth.
They're sure fun to catch but are one of those fish you really don't want to stick your fingers in their mouth.
I used to have one here, that I let the bugs and ants clean all the flesh off it's head and it showed the full extent of just how many teeth they have. They don't look too bad alive, but still teethy:
bowfin_mouth.jpg

Once the lip flesh, gum and other tissue is gone, it looked something like this:

 
greybeard":20rlmab8 said:
I have them in my ponds..a couple are pretty big and one is probably still swimming around with a Rapala in it's mouth
Did you put them in there or they got in there some other way? Probably hold down the fish population in your ponds which could be a good thing or not.

Biggest one I ever saw had hooked on a limb line in the river. Looked to be about 30 inches long and about 6 inches in diameter.. one look at me and he tore loose.
 
M-5":3v8rq9b0 said:
Old timers say they will bury in mud and live there till water comes back. They are good eating and a HeII of a good time catching. Mud fish or black fish is what we call em.

Any special considerations as to preparing and cooking, or just meal and peanut oil? I grew up being told you couldn't eat them but somewhere along the way I heard different. And now you confirm that they are indeed edible.
 
The ones I saw caught in South La where they eat anything and everything, theyskinned, then boiled the flesh off the bones and somehow made some kind of battered balls out of the flesh and deep fried them, same as they do garfish balls. Called choupique (pronounced shoe pik) over there.
 

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