Hello Guys, Can you tell me what kind of fish this is?
I was fishing with my 2 and 3 yr old daughters and my youngest caught it on her princess pole 
I thought it was a dogfish just because of the long dorsal fin, but I have shown the picture a couple times and I have gotten some different suggestions so I thought I would turn to IDO.
So I know the pictures might not be the best but hopefully it is enough to get a good identification.
Dogfish. Do not put your thumb in it’s mouth.
Looks like a doggie to me.
Put your thumb down it’s mouth to make sure…then post pictures. 
What lake/river?
Bowfin.
It was caught here on the mississippi in La crosse,
it is interesting that you guys are talking about sharp teeth because when I was looking at it it looked so much like a bass mouth that it almost appeared that you could have lipped this fish. So if they have sharp teeth they must be really small…
Their jaw pressure is the thing to worry about – even with the samll teeth. I once watched an 8lb bowfin clamp down and shut a jaw spreader. IT simply closed it’s mouth and held the jaw spreader shut – and that was it. It just sat there holding it shut…… It ended up keeping the spinner rig.
T
Dogfish/Bowfin/ugly,mean and nasty 
Bowfin, the meanest fish that swims the river!
They are a blast to catch 
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Dogfish/Bowfin/ugly,mean and nasty
and a heck of a lot of fun to catch, especially on a “princess pole” 
Doggie is correct. I’ve had many a spinnerbait bent all to he!! by one of them. They will hit anything a bass will bite.
Dare Devils too! 
Green Sunfish
Hey, somebody had to say it
Seriously though, it’s a dogfish
Dogfish / bowfin are beasts! Fun to catch but just a beast of a fish.
Dave
well I was right then, no doubt in my mind
it did fight and took a lot of line right from the hook set. It is a good little story for my girls to tell.
Thanks a lot guys! 
Dogfish
You guys are all wrong. It’s a bowfin or dogfish or mudfish or grinner or cypress trout pending on what day of the week it was caught. A lot of “fish” for a Princess pole!
Anyone ever try to eat one of these??
The roe goes for $10. an ounce.
There is actually a guy I work with that tried to eat one. Said it was a waste of a lemon. 
“WW”
wisconsin walleye??
my vote is a mule deer 
Where’s Big g when you need him?
Snakehead invading imo 
Bowfin/Dogfish… same thing, different name tags.
As for cooking them, if you cook them like you do any other fish you’re going to waste lemons. They need to be cooked more like lobster or big shrimp… all this who-hah about any given species being bad to eat is just that: who-hah. People who don’t know what they’re doing waste a life and then blame it on the fish, just like any other part of life.
If you buy into a secular view of biology, they’ve been around for some 100 million years, effectively unchanged. They’re a very primitive fish, a feature they have in common with other ancient fishes like tarpon, sturgeon, arapaima, gar and many others.
They’re air breathers and even in oxygen-rich waters they get more than 50% of their oxygen from air-breathing.
Oh, and while they’ll take a minnow or even a crawler, their favorite food is craws and grass shrimp. 
Check out the Bowfin Anglers Group website… they’ve got a lot of cool stuff including recipes and how-tos.
They’re edible but they make much better cutbait.
My brother once caught one night fishing off the dock. I didn’t know, because it started raining hard, that he left it on shore. About 4 hours later, in the morning, I let my dog out. Saw the dog sniffing something. Walked over, and found the dogfish. Not wanting my dog to roll on it, I assisted it back into the lake with my foot. The thing swam away….
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Green Sunfish
Hey, somebody had to say it
Seriously though, it’s a dogfish
double thumbs up on this post
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