Boy that's hard to say, I don't know of any "good bowfin spots". Western Lake
Erie is really where the historic range gets thick and they don't do extremely
well with continual fine silts, so there are large black out areas. On the
other hand... All you need is a large purse seine in the back parts of
Sandusky Bay (around the Big and Little Muddy Creek mouths), and you'll have a
biblical catch of bowfin and carp :)
I'd bet the lower Grand River is chock full downstream from Painesville, they
may also be present in the headwaters where there are many canoe accesses.
That's probably your closest.
They are present in Sandusky Bay and the harbors of Marblehead, but we only
saw one with a 30' seine-in-East Harbor, and it was a large adult. We may not
have been far enough back into the habitat though based on what I've seen at
the Ottawa National Refuge (which can not be sampled ;). We saw a lot of them
stranded and so forth as they "managed for birds" while doing my buddy's
turtle research. It was really disgusting how little thought is paid to the
aquatic fauna.
Near to that refuge though... If you have a large seine, you may be able to
get a reasonably sized specimen out of the mouths of creeks around Metzger
Marsh, Crane Creek, Le Carpe Creek, Touissaint Creek and Turtle Creek just
west of Port Clinton. Fouling becomes a real problem in these streams though,
as there is gobs of drift wood, and the habitat is tough to walk in anyway
with the fine organic lacustrine silts. I think you can make an argument that
you're in part of "Lake Erie", so a 12' or 15' might be your best seine size
option. I have both, and I'm open to making a trip out of it.
>From there... It's on into Michigan. But once in Michigan... Your chances get
a whole lot better, especially as you emmerge from the agricultural
influences.
Todd
----- Original Message -----
From: <deanmarkley-in-comcast.net>
To: <nanfa-l-in-nanfa.org>; <nanfa-l-in-nanfa.org>
Cc: "Crail, Todd" <tcrail-in-UTNet.UToledo.Edu>
Sent: Saturday, November 19, 2005 8:38 AM
Subject: Re: NANFA-L-- Bowfin Goodness...
> That one made me laugh Todd! Ok, so now I have to get myself a bowfin or
two. I'm over here in eastern PA and they seem to be scarce here. What about
Ohio? Any good suggestions? And seeing how global warming doesn't seem to
have taken root yet, collecting a bowfin MIGHT have to wait until next
spring.
>
> Dean
/-----------------------------------------------------------------------
/ This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes
/ Association (NANFA). Comments made on this list do not necessarily
/ reflect the beliefs or goals of NANFA. For more information about NANFA,
/ visit http://www.nanfa.org Please make sure all posts to nanfa-l are
/ consistent with the guidelines as per
/ http://www.nanfa.org/guidelines.shtml To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get
/ help, visit the NANFA email list home page and archive at
/ http://www.nanfa.org/email.shtml