1st reported by syracuse.com. A young Westvale angler caught what could have been a state-record bowfin this past summer – and released it before getting it officially weighed and measured. Daniel Peck, 18, and his father, Art Peck, say the fish was caught in the evening on the Seneca River in August about ½ mile east of the bridge in downtown Baldwinsville. They say it weighed 14 pounds, 3 ounces and measured 34 ½ inches.
The younger Peck caught it while fishing from shore using a small, cut-up bluegill as bait. The boy said the fish was so big it almost broke his pole. His father netted the fish.
The current state record for a bowfin is owned by Mary Forrest, who landed one weighing 12 pounds, 14 ounces on July 8, 2006 on Lake Champlain. That fish measured 34 inches and was caught on a live sucker.
On the way home, the teen remarked that the bowfin was the “biggest fish I’ve ever seen.” The father then said it potentially was a state record.
Once they got home, Daniel immediately got on the computer and checked out the DEC website to check out the state freshwater fish records. It was then that he realized for sure that his fish had record potential. Weights taken on personal/handheld scales are ineligible,according to the DEC website..
The DEC does have a “Catch and Release” Award that commends those anglers who release their catches, however it only recognizes 24 different freshwater fish. Bowfins are not on that list.
“I got really mad,” the teen said. “However, I know I caught it and I got the picture.”
One of New York’s most unique fish, “the bowfin is the sole living survivor of a group of fishes whose fossil representatives date back to when dinosaurs roamed the earth,” according to the DEC website. “The features of today’s bowfin differ very little from their fossil ancestors dating back 65 million years.”
The father said the younger Peck had been content catching blue gills and other small panfish in recent years on the river, but this past year “really got into fishing.”
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