anybody eat bowfin?

[hunt12ga]

I took my 4 yr-old son out fishing yesterday evening and he managed to catch a decent sized grinnel (pondfish, dogfish, bowfin, whatever). I have caught tons of these and have never considered keeping them, but being his biggest fish ever he wanted to bring it home for pictures and he wants to eat it. My father-in-law claims that when he was a kid his dad got mad if they threw them back! He loved eating them.

Well after a couple pictures I filleted the slimy thing and it's sitting in the fridge. Any ideas on cooking it? I'll probably just batter it and fry it up like I would anything else if I don't get any better ideas. Never know, I may stumble onto something great! I don't have very high expectations so maybe I'll get surprised.

rw

[Chuck7]

Here's some positive comments I found..Most of the comments I found were negative



Comments

July 26, 2007 at 3:14 am
(1) fishin' buddy says: I find there is a dearth of info on targeting this species. I’ve seen ignorance along the east shore of Lake Michigan where panfishermen will toss these “dogfish” onto the shore to die when inadvertently caught.
July 31, 2007 at 9:54 pm
(2) ken G says: Bowfin are a blast to catch. We fished Sages lake, near Tawas, and caught lots of them. The first time we caught them, we ate a couple, they were ok…not great eating…. but a blast to catch ! !
August 1, 2007 at 9:17 am
(3) fishing says: I mention some of the things I have caught them on – what works best for you?
January 12, 2009 at 9:20 pm
(4) Scott Lemaire says: We eat them all the time in southern Louisiana. The best way to eat them is to scrap the meat out and mix it with potato and either fry them like a hamburger patty or make it into a meatball and make a tomato sauce gravy. You can put whatever seasoning you like with onions. We love to catch them because of the fight they give you.

[Pygmy]

There are some recipes at www.bowfinanglers.com.

Good luck and let us know how you like it..

An aquaintance of mine is a commercial fisherman on the north shore ( Canadian) of Lake Ontario.. When he catches bowfin in his traps and nets, he keeps them alive.. He sells them to Chinese people in Toronto.. They will not buy them unless they are alive..Fortunately they are very hardy and difficult to kill and will stay alive in a 5 gallon bucket for a long time.. I have no idea how they cook them..Maybe they eat them raw..

[hunt12ga]

We cooked it up tonight. I had my doubts, but you know what? It wasn't too bad. I used some of my batter that I put on catfish and fried it up. It was quite a bit better than most muddy water catfish. I'd give it a 7.5 out of 10 I guess. My kids loved it. I even squished some of it up and mixed it with onions, egg and bread crumbs and made patties. They were pretty decent. I may start keeping them when I catch them... Maybe...

rw