“For years now, I’ve been carrying the biggest cooler I could find,” Frank Hubert, Jr., 55, told the Philadelphia Inquirer after catching what may be the new New Jersey record bowfin on a Snakehead Outlawz Drago Destroyer. “I’ll never understand how it’s not the number one game fish in North America.”
Herbert took advantage of the unseasonably warm temperatures by heading out solo on his kayak to fish a backwater slough of Mantua Creek, which is a large, tidal tributary of the Delaware River in Gloucester County in southern N.J. He had a score to settle with the local bowfin and with the state record, which has stood since 2017 when an 8-year-old caught an 11 pound, 8.6 ounce fish on the same piece of water with live bait.
Hubert is a self-confessed bowfin junkie. Two years ago, Hubert caught a fish that weighed well over 13 pounds going by his scale, which would have easily decimated the 2017 record. He released the fish, and at the time, had no idea that anglers could catch, weigh, and certify an official state record without killing the fish.
When he found out, he knew he’d be the one to top the record books.
“I knew it was big,” he said in the story. “I was alone, so it was a little hectic with the net, but once I got it in, I knew it could be the one.”
The fish turned out to not be quite as big as the monster he pulled in two years ago, but it was more than enough to beat 11 pounds, 8.6 ounces. Hubert’s new catch weighed in at 12 pounds, 10 ounces and measured 33 inches in length.
“Been chasing the NJ record bowfin for 2 years,” Hubert posted on Facebook. “Today was the day! I landed a 12lb – 10 oz 33″er on a white Snakehead Outlawz Dragon Destroyer that beat the previous record by a little over a pound. With the rain Monday, the water had jumped 10 degrees from my last trip to 52° so I knew I had a good chance as I pedaled back. I was casting along [sic] flat adjacent to some deeper water when she jumped all over the Destroyer. She easily ripped drag and was a struggle to net solo but thankfully she stayed on after I missed her on my first attempt lol.”
“In NJ you don’t have to kill a fish for state records. I’ve been bringing the largest cooler I could find to transport it. Got her certified and brought her back for a safe release. She swam away strong!” he added.
Hubert stowed the fish in his cooler livewell, paddled back to shore, and contacted the state Fish & Wildlife department and started the certification process, which includes weighing the fish on a scale certified by the department. Most places with a certified scale were closed for the day, so he wound up at a spot 25 miles away from the creek where he took the unofficial weight.
“They actually sent a biologist to confirm that it was a bowfin,” Hubert said.
The bowfin has a long and lousy reputation as a trash fish — and many still consider it as such, but it’s actually a tremendously interesting and old species. They’ve swam in the Earth’s waters for millions of years completely unchanged, with long bodies and a mouth packed with sharp teeth. They dig swampy waters, like the ones you find on tributaries of the Delaware, and that ancient mouth of teeth makes them difficult to catch because it’s just so difficult to penetrate. It’s like fishing for a dinosaur.
“Even this one, when I landed it, the hook just fell right out. They have the hardest mouth of any fish species,” Hubert told the Inky. “It’s all bone.”
Their shape and mouth often cause the bowfin to be confused with snakehads in the area, another of Hubert’s favorite pursuits. Despite the bowfin’s reputation as a game fish, most agree that it’s not very palatable with jelly-like flesh.
As for the world record bowfin, Hubert has a ways to go — it was caught in 1980 on Forest Lake, South Carolina and weighed 21 pounds, 8 ounces.
