First bowfin on the fly

I got a call in the middle of the week, Mike had been out on the lake with his Nephew, and spotted a bunch of carp and bowfin near shore.  He asked if I wanted to try to get some hookups on flies and I obliged of course!  The weekend came quick, and before I knew it I was geared up, standing on shore of the Lake, scanning the water for any kind of action. 

Mike started off blind fishing some water he knew had bowfin hanging around in it, but I opted to just sit and watch for action.  It didn't take long before I noticed some surface action about 100 yards to my left, so I worked my way over, scanning near the shore as I went.  I spooked a cruising carp with my footsteps about 20 yards from the splash, bummer...

When I got to where the commotion was, I noticed something about 5 feet off shore, under a downed tree.....it looked like it was sipping something off the surface, but way slower.  Odd behavior for fish, couldn't be carp could it?

I walked over slowly to find that a monster bowfin was just hovering below the surface of the water, looking right at me.  It felt like he was looking into my soul.  As I pulled my rod out slowly and maneuvered it under the downed tree, I grabbed my fly, pulled a bit of line out, then did the "bow and arrow" to make a short, 10 foot cast under this tree.  Once the fly landed, the bowfin didn't budge.  I pulled it so it dropped in front of his face, then twitched it.  Once he noticed it, he hovered over to it, snapped open his mouth, inhaled my fly and then darted off he'd just taken my wallet!

I set the hook hard and low to avoid the trees, and before I knew it...mike was netting this beast of a bowfin!

A Master Class bowfin coming in at 30".  Not bad for my first on the fly.

After I got a handle on myself, it didn't take long to spot another bowfin sitting near shore. A plop of the fly, a few twitches later and another bowfin in the net!

This time around 27"

After my fish, Mike had one of his own on, but it decided it wanted nothing to do with him.  I watched his fish take his fly, and I can't believe how aggressive it was.  It slowly approached the twitched fly, then snapped it in his mouth and bolted away 30 yards before we could even blink.  We ended the day short, both missing a few more strikes!