The amia calva species can weigh up to twenty pounds and grow over forty inches in length.
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A lucky Georiga resident started his summer on the right foot in the summer of 2014. Jimmy Tucker of Statenville, Georgia, caught a bowfin in the Suwannee River the size of a water goliath! The angler hauled in a sixteen-pound, three-ounce-sized bowfin. That type of fish averages over two pounds but can grow bigger. Jimmy Tucker broke the previous record from 1976 by three ounces. Its length was 33.25 inches., so practically three feet.
“For them to land a sixteen-pound fish of that size is no easy feat, so we are thrilled that Tucker and his fishing buddy- Tyler Carter- were able to get the fish in the boat.”, said John Bigari. He’s the chief of fisheries for the Wildlife Resources Division in Georgia. He mentioned them during an interview on the Lake Allatoona website.
How Does Jimmy Tucker’s Catch Compare To Other States
Compared to the other states, the bowfin that Tucker caught isn’t the largest in the United States. The species are based in eastern North America. The amia calva species live in the Great Lakes, the Mississippi River, and the Gulf of Mexico. However, it’s up there with some of the other top catches. Florida recorded a larger bowfin that weighed nineteen pounds! Jim Brown made that catch in Lake Kissimmee in November of 1984. There is only one other bowfin catch that surpasses those two. In 1980, Robert Hamon caught a twenty-one-pound, eight-ounce fish in South Carolina.
Tucker has the largest bowfin fish catch in Georgia. Yet, there are larger fish catches in that same state. The largest catch in Georgia was by Tim Trone in 2020. Tim caught himself a one-hundred-ten-pound monster of a catfish at the Chattahoochee River.
Differences Between The Two Fishes
There are distinctive differences between a catfish and a bowfin. Catfish do not have scales while bowfins have scales. Bowfins have a top fin that runs the length of their bodies while catfish have dorsal fins that are on their sides. Catfish are deemed to be the better fish to cook as they don’t have as many bones as a bowfin.
