Is it just me, or does anyone else love to battle these monsters of the water. I know they can be a nuisance when you’re trying for gamefish, but there’s something about the way they slam a spinnerbait and fight with no end that makes me eager to seek them out.
I caught one of them once, i think it was the new wi. state record but I thought nothing of it and disposed of it. 39 inches long
I agree. Rare to catch but super fighters.
they’re not so rare on the St Croix! Had one hit a small white Mepps once and it almost ripped the rod out of my hand. It made 4 or 5 drag rippin’ runs before I got it in. Fun, but a REALLY ugly fish.
You guy’s are nuts!!! No way one of those things are coming into my Crestliner!!!
All i have to say is UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGLY
I forgot to add that the Mepps spinner is still in it’s mouth. I cut the line and let him go. No way in hell I was touching that thing.
WHIMPS How many of you touch those God forsaken slimy Pike??? Now theres a fish I do not allow in my beautiful rig!!
I am sure that so many big dog fish have been caught, belly sliced and thrown back that would have easily been state records. Not many people pay attention to rough fish. I rank the dogs up there with catching smallies on a 99 degree day!
I went fishing with a friend and his dad around Osakis, MN. I caught about a 6 or 7 pound dogfish and he proceeded to take the pole out from under the seat and beat the fish over the head, getting blood on the carpet. I had no idea why he did it but he later explained that they were garbage fish. Man what a fight they put up though.
I think killing them is one of those old wifes tales like killing eelpout. I throw both species back alive. Consider how rare dog fish are. They can’t possibly be affecting the population of other game fish species.
Suzuki,
I agree. I haven’t killed a rough fish (on purpose) in a very long.
Doesn’t seem to make much sense.
For that matter, what denotes “garbage fish”? If it’s in the ecosystem, it has a purpose. Not it’s fault if we don’t understand it.
Hey overexposed, go easy on the “slimers”…………….they provide the extra challange of holding on and getting your lure back without getting sliced! I love smallies too but there just isn’t enough “danger” with a fish you can lip! Don’t ask me why I prefer that…………a hook in the hand can come from any fish, but there’s just that added element with toothy fish that seems to keep things exciting even AFTER the fight is “over”.
Fishin’s fishin’……………..if it’s tuggin’, tug back and see if you enjoy it any less!
the only thing that i wold kill for the eagles would be those dang sheepheads….or goatheads as i call em
if a fish is “natural” to the ecosystem then it has a purpose… imports such as carp tend to tip the natural balance of our waters and the results can be unpredictable…..
still I agree that destruction of species that we catch is a bad idea.. and poor publicity for us all….. better to release them just as you would any other fish……
USE TO THUMP SHEEPHEAD ALL THE TIME. THEN HAD MY OLDEST BOY OUT AND I CAUGHT ONE AND THUMPED HIM. THE KID LOOKED AT ME AND ASKED WHAT DID I DO THAT FOR. WENT ON TO EXPLAIN TO HIM THAT THEY WERE ROUGH FISH AND NO GOOD TO LAKE. HE THEN WENT ON TO TELL ME THE BIG FELLA PUT THEM HERE FOR A PURPOSE. THE KID DIDN’T KNOW WHAT PURPOSE BUT A PURPOSE AND IN THE EYES OF THE BIG FELLA THIS WASN’T RIGHT. THEN HE WENT ON TO SAY “DAD HE BATTLED YOU TOUGH AND GAVE YOU A GREAT FIGHT AND HIS REWARD FOR ENTERTAINING YOU IS TO GET THUMPED?” THE BIG GUY REALLY HATES THAT. KID WAS 5 AT THE TIME. HAVEN’T THUMPED ONE SINCE.
legendary strenght and toughness
The sheephead eat zebra mussels so next time you catch one just give it a kiss and put it back. I did that once when fishing with Nate to see what his response would be and believe me I “heard” his response! LOL !!! In fact once we were fishing, just drifting a large flat once and had no walleye bites but did catch sheephead like crazy. Kept us busy for along time and turned out to be fun. The last time we were fishing Alma we got into some “huge” sheephead down there and they are a blast to catch. Makes you feel like you have a 10 lb. walleye on everytime. Bet Jarrad [ fireflick ] has some stories to tell about huge sheephead as he lives in that area. Bill
Couldn’t help but grin when I read your post about the dog fish. When I was about 7 or 8 years old I was over in the “bottoms” in pool # 7 fishing for bluegills. I latched unto something that about jerked the pole out of my hand. Low & behold it was a dog fish, that much I knew. I grabbed him behind the gills and he cooperated with me 100% by opening his mouth so I could get my hook out. Like a dummy, I made the mistake of getting a little too close to that trap. Just as I was unhooking the hook, Fido clamped his jaw down on my finger. As luck would have it, his teeth slid down my finger nail and that of course allowed him to clamp onto that piece of flesh there at the end of my finger. I’m here to tell you now, I’m 71, that hurt worse than anything I ever encountered any time the rest of my life. Needless to say, I never got that close to a dog fish again, ever!
Maybe this should go to the fishthelake side, but I do have a little info about the “rough fish” populations…. including bowfins and bullheads. The thing is, that the rivers may not have too much trouble with them since the silt issues are not quite so much of a problem. The lakes are a different story.
Bowfins are so plentiful up in the Osakis area that you really have to fight them almost as much as you do bullheads and northerns. (I like the northerns a whole lot more)
Problem is that rough fish live toward the bottoms of the lakes. During active times, they move around and tend to stir up the lake beds, silting the water a lot. They sense more by smell than by sight, so silty water actually helps them out. As the populations grow, naturally the water gets siltier and sight-dependent fish… like, uh, walleye?…. tend to have to move away from those areas in order to be able to feed and breed. In the lakes where pollution, mainly garbage, is a problem, you get a ton of rough fish surviving and pushing out the other fish populations. A couple of the local lakes in the Twin Cities areas got so bad that the DNR actually had to kill them and re-seed. The rough fish populations were dense enough that even they were having trouble breeding.
I don’t condone wasting a sport fish ever, but I don’t think that lake rough fish need to be protected all that carefully. Criticize me if you will, but bullheads and dogfish go under the knife.
Mike
HEY! Don’t kill the goatheads for the eagles, do it for the fryin’ pan!!!
Are dogfish guilty of the “silting behavior”? I thought I understood them to be predators, not bottom scroungers. Bullheads…………….what’s the problem? They fry up in butter and Shore Lunch just great! If they’re too small for that, keep them alive and use them for flatheads!
I fish for them. I like the battle they put up. If you want to have a good time and keep your kids smiling from ear to ear, laughing, with a drag squealing while pike season is closed. Just go to the Morristown dam on the cannon river. I can’t resist giving up a couple dozen crawlers for it. If it’s a fish and there’s an open season on it I will try to catch it.
Although I have caught dogs on dead bait, I’ve caught far more on spinnerbaits. Sure am thankful for titanium wire. Have you ever seen what a 8-10 pound dogfish will do to a traditional spinnerbait?
These fish aren’t rare at all. Just about any backwater is full of them. My favorite way to fish for them is to slow roll a spinnerbait in shallow water (3ft or less) just fast enough for the blade to turn. If this method fails, fish a piece of cut bait on bottom or under a bobber a 1-3 feet off shore. Make sure your bail is open or your drag is set weak, because when a dog decides to bite, hang on. They’re about as bad as carp. I’ve nearly lost a pole several times fishing for dogs with a tight drag leaving my pole propped against something.
this is just imho but since I fish the rivers I put everything back. Several years ago I decided that if I wasn’t going to eat something I wasn’t going to kill it. This just makes it easier for me. One time I was shore fishing on the Miss. and after pulling in a pretty good size carp a fellow ran up and told me I should pull out it’s eyes since I was going to let it go. He actually seemed po’d when I said nah and just let the thing go. I felt better after he walked away a few minutes later. kenn
It disappoints me that many people don’t appreciate certain fish for what they are. It’s one thing to destroy a carp or other non-native species, but a bowfin? Come on- these fish are a natural part of the river, and a blast to catch besides. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder- and talk about voracious! I wish people would understand that ecosystems don’t flourish (or even exist) with only “game” fish. If you don’t like ’em just unhook ’em, but don’t kill them just because they are considered by some as “garbage” fish!
I agree with you stillakid. Bowfin (aka dogfish) are primarily predators and are beneficial because they help prevent sunfish populations from becoming stunted. Plus they are great fun to catch, they put up a huge fight and get big. Personally I would much rather catch a dogfish than a bass. There really is no such thing as a rough fish, it is just a myth that these fish are harmful to a water body (over population is another thing altogether and any species can become a problem whether it is bullheads or bluegills, that is why having predators is a good thing, studies have shown predator fish like cats, pike, etc. will increase the average size of all fish in a lake or river). Your boat will do far more damage than any bottom feeding fish (boats create wakes which turn into waves then when they hit the shore they erode the bank and muddy the water.
Several years ago,my brother was discussing the edibility of eel pout with one of his employees.The employee was quite inexperienced in fishing and listened intently as my brother extolled the virtues of this much maligned fish.Well,winter turned to summer and this employee went on a vacation to some north-central Minnesota lake.When he returned,he approached my brother and said,”John,I have to disagree with you.We caught one of them eel-pout,filleted it up and fried it.It was the worst thing I have ever tasted..like fried used motor oil or something!Here’s a picture we took of it.” My brother took one look at the picture and kind of winced and laughed at the same time and said,”Thats not an eel-pout,thats a dog fish!” Kinda makes you want to gag,doesn’t it? Mike
I personally have never eaten a bowfin. I know people who claim they have. They say it’s not bad at all. I’m not sure if they’re just trying to trick me or what. Regardless of what they taste like, if you don’t like’em, throw’em back. They’re awesome fish to catch.
Maybe I would change my tune of they would just stop punching holes in my crankbaits. -grin- Actually they are not even close to the numbers I ised to catch. I think that pools north of 9 might have better numbers as these fish thrive in late oli and early meso environments.
jc
OK..!!!! Of all the fish I’ve caught…..I’ve alwayas thought each and everyone was edible….Dog fish aint…and thats that…but please…doin’t
kill them….they have a purpose……..
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