I dropped of Salmon Flies to Up North Fly Shops, the went back to small weedy Northern Lake Michigan river mouth lake upstream of a very low bridge. I fished shorelines only accessible by back yard docks or remote edges back in the marshes, none of it was easily accessed by public land. From the kayak I cast my 3/0 poppers to the slightly deeper shoreline trough or to weed edges. Twice, some fish moved under the popper, making slight swirls. Then one hit, a Bowfin.
Somme small bass took the 3/0 Chartreuse PopN Wedge, this one had open wounds from Pike bites probably.
It wasn't clear if the 3/0 Chartreuse popper was doing a good job or getting rejected by catchable fish. Retied a 40 lb bite leader for the pike and swithched to a Black 3/0 PopN Wedge, about the 8th cast drew a huge, full body out of the water, T bone hit. Giant bass, big Pike or Bowfin? Moving to shoreline slightly protected from the wind I quickly got harassed by dink pike, and landed first of 2 bass, 19 and 14 inches, then these bowfin.
I was pleased landing 3 for 4 hooked Bowfn, I frequently lose half the Bowfin. I hook on flies or lures. Pretty quick I was 3 for 7 having just lost a wicked strong fish I had fought for a long time. I lost the 2 biggest ones of the day without ever seeing them. Landed the next one but when I popped him back in water I heard a second splash, my big long nose pliers.
Finished landing 8 for 15 hooked Bowfin and I learned a lot about what games they play, how they hit and how hard and stubborn they fight. They will follow slow and close before maybe hitting, you see slight swirls behind the popper.
I swear they were sniffing the popper and fortunately I has hooking them rapidly, so they got bits of blood on the poppers and rubbed them in the Bowfin slime on the net. So maybe the key to catching lots of Bowfin is to first catch lots of Bowfin. They have small mouths and when the don't violently Tbone it from the side, they frequently sneak hit with a loud hard small suck, a different sound than any other fish. They lurk inches under a resting popper and will spook on a twitch and quickly come back, maybe hitting it again. The may hit the popper 3 times before quitting or getting hooked. As the afternoon wore on, some sun came out and I worked back farther upstream. They became less aggressive, I was dead sticking the popper more often, just let it set with the tinsel and marabou slowly spreading, they might hit and frequently missed, pause it or march it along a couple of pops, or recast they might come back a couple of times before getting hooked or quitting.
Landed 2 medium sized Pike big enough to be countable, and several vicious dinks on the same 3/0 Black PopN Wedge .
Last Bowfin before it got to dark to see any faint swirls telegraphing close following Bowfin.