Ham and Dave’s Bowfin Odyssey

[FishnDave]

Thursday.  I didn’t get skunked!  I caught a fish at three of the locations we visited today, a bass and 2 bluegills.  Had a few strikes from Spotted Gar… thought I was going to land the last one, but it spit the hook @ 3’ from shore.  
We canoe’d, we walked ditches, and fished lakes…and saw dead turtle shells.  
 

The rain this month really changed our expected fishing conditions and locations.  
 

The bowfin didn’t cooperate for me this time, but I got to see a lot of places where they live.  Very different environments than what I’m used to fishing.  Cool stuff!

 

[Ham]

I had a post almost done last night and something glitchy happened and I was too tired to try again.

with more rain in Central Arkansas overnight, I really had no idea what to expect we would find water wise. 
I opted for Bald Knob NWR. Talked to a gentleman that worked at HQ and got some intell. I had seen Poke Break on Google Earth and it looked like Bowfin Central. I hoped it would not be chocolate milk.

we had to detour around a low water bridge. It was about a foot deep but flowing hard. I opted to turn around and not drown. but before we left I threw a Baby Brush Hog over by a current swept point in the ditch. I got that solid Bowfin thump. Hard hookset, Bowfin jumped and threw the hook. I was excited and mad at the same time. Dave missed a good bite at a culvert, but that was it.

We got to Poke Break and it was like a foot high probably, but everything I hoped for. I doubted we would get to sight cast them, but thought we would get it done.

long story short. We didn’t. I got a few bass on a Chatterbait. I managed to micro fish one of the Starhead Too minnows. but we gave it plenty of time and we had other stuff to try. Back to the ditches. I caught a small bass. I jept expecting more, but no.

walked up a culvert and there was a Grass Pickerel posted up. I quickly rerigged with a trout magnet and dabbled him out of some flooded brush.

Rolled down the road to the low water that vexed us earlier. On the way, I spotted some Gar high in the water column. Dave had one that was interested. I had one that totally ignored my fly. I did pick up a nice Largemouth on fly trying for the Gar.

nothing at the low water bridge. I watched like a half dozen ppl cross the low water bridge so I manned up and went across.

I pushed all my chips to the center of the table and rolled the dice on a Lake Des Arc. A local said he had caught a bunch of bowfin there a few weeks ago. We added another 90 minutes of driving for an hour of fishing. Dave almost got his Lifer Spotted Gar. I added a Black Spotted Topminnow to the annual tally. I appreciate Dave coming down to fish with me. We gave it a lot of effort, but flood conditions and some missed chances for both of us were too much to overcome I guess. 
We had fun and saw some new water for sure. I added a couple more counties to the ledger and developed some intell that will help me going forward.