1st Entry of the Year

This guy was caught a month ago on a rainbow Beetle Spin by Nick Jacob.

Thompson's Bowfin Battle

This was taken by Mike last year.  It just took me forever to get it posted.

A Couple of Pictures from Facebook

Brady Lai sent this pictures to the Minnesota Bowfin Club Facebook Page.

The first is an iced fin.

The second ate his frog and ripped the thumb off of his cut resistant glove.

Bowfin Pictures from 2011

20+"

Eric Jelsma caught this fish at Farm Island Lake.

20+"

Dogfish caught at G.E.M. Fishing Camp by a camper

Caught by Gordon Merek at Cedar Lake by Upsala

Landed a Beauty- But It's Ineligible for the Championship

27+ inches

She was three to four inches past my 24 inch board.  Hit on just a little piece of torn up minnow I was using to catch sunfish and crappie with at Platte/Sullivan Lakes.  Fought for about 10 minutes on 4lb Fireline.  Because the minnow is dead bait it's not allowed for the Grand Championship Tournament.  It was released of course.

Bowfin Blogged by The Outer Edge

The Most Underrated Freshwater Fish is an interesting read, for instance, I learned bowfin are prolific carp eaters.

Whitefish Fin!

This bowfin was caught by Clint Lanzen's cousin Kyle in the Whitefish Chain earlier this year in May. He got it on jig with red plastic worm.

Dennis Lothspeich 2011 MBC Grand Champion

Dennis Lothspeich is now the third 2-Time Minnesota Bowfin Club Grand Champion. He previously won the title in 2008. His big fin was caught during the Baxter Bass Snatcher Bass Club tournament on Platte/Sullivan Lakes. He caught the 27.75" bowfin in Platte lake. He was to busy trying to catch bass to get a picture. Platte Lake is a big dogfish factory and produced the 2004 Champion fish for me, Dave Maas.

Originally Dennis reported to me that his fish was 27 inches long. However, the next day Dennis informed me that he had miscalculated the fish's length. The fish was a good 3 inches longer than the measuring board Dennis was using. Originally he thought his board was 24 inches long, thus the 27" total he originally gave me. Dennis subsequently took another look at his measuring board and it is actually 24.75 inches long, thus the fish was actually at 3/4 of an inch bigger than his original measurement given. Had Dennis had a long enough measuring board, the fish may have been 28" or longer as he was conservative with the 3" past the end of his measuring board.

In 2nd Place was 2007 Grand Champion Chuck Steinbauer with this 27.5" fin.

In 3rd Place there was a tie between 2002 Grand Champion Tom Swanson and new club member Clint Lanzen with a 26" fish. The picture is of Clint's fish, which was caught on the Whitefish chain on a jig with a red plastic worm.

This year there was a total of 9 bowfin's registered in the tournament. I myself have yet to catch a bowfin this year, though I have had at least one on and have seen a few.

Thank You to all our participants!!!

And The Grand Champion Is...

Your going to have to wait until at least Monday. Here is a hint. This years Grand Champion was a Grand Champion before and the win comes with a little controversy.

Until then here is a picture taken by Mike Thompson.

The fish was caught by Jack Halverson, no doubt on panfish tackle. Mike said it was around 5lbs, with no official measurement taken.

Grand Championship Deadline Midnight Tonight

If you've got em. Let me know about em now or forever hold your peace!!!

This is one of this years fish:


email those dogfish lengths to basspastor@hotmail.com