Page 116 - South Mississippi Living - May, 2023

SPORTS & OUTDOORS
story and photos by
John N. Felsher
116 | May 2023 www.smliving.net | SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living
PREHISTORIC BATTLERS
“Living Fossil” Can Still Put Up a Spirited Fight
Along the swampy shoreline in the Pearl River Delta, a cloud of silt suddenly erupted as a huge green head snatched the lure. Flinging spray and mud into the air as if someone threw a brick into the murky water, the 7-pound snake-like fish began ripping line from the reel.
an Anglicized version of a French translation of the Choctaw word “shupik” meaning mudfish.
Most anglers ignore bowfins and hold these primitive fish in low regard because of their notoriously unsavory table reputation. Some people describe the flavor of a bowfin as something akin to eating cotton balls soaked in swamp mud. Others rave about the taste, depending on how the cook prepares it.
Whether considered delicious or horrible, these large prehistoric predators undoubtedly put up a hard, spirited fight. Anglers commonly catch bowfins in the 5- to 10-pound range. The Mississippi state record weighed nine pounds. The world record weighed 21.5 pounds.
Anglers derisively call them grinnel, dogfish, cypress trout, mudfish, and several other derogatory names unfit to print. Louisiana Cajuns call them “choupique,”
Long and cylindrical with a rounded tail and an exceptionally long dorsal fin, a bowfin looks similar to an eel, but thicker with greenish-brown scales, a huge head and a mouth full of small, but sharp teeth. A bowfin can live more than 30 years and exceed three feet in length.
The species ranges from Southern Canada to the Gulf Coast and from eastern Texas to the Atlantic with the highest population densities in the swampy rivers