A man’s obsession with a prehistoric fish results in a potential N.J. state record

The first time Frank Hubert Jr. caught the New Jersey state record bowfin, he figured he’d have to kill the beloved, air-breathing fish to prove it, so he took a nice picture and released his catch back into the swamps.

That behemoth bowfin weighed 13 pounds, 12 ounces by Hubert’s scale, easily besting the 2017 record of 11 pounds and 8.5 ounces, owned by an 8-year-old fishing with live bait on Mantua Creek, a large, tidal tributary of the Delaware River in Gloucester County. But Hubert, a Wilmington, Delaware native, may catch more bowfin than any other fishermen in the Mid-Atlantic, by choice.

“I’ll never understand how it’s not the number one gamefish in North America,” Hubert, 55, said.

Once Hubert learned you could catch, weigh, and certify an official state record without killing the fish, he knew it was a matter of time.

“For years now, I’ve been carrying the biggest cooler I could find,” Hubert said.

Taking advantage of Tuesday’s warmer temperatures, Hubert set out on a solo kayak trip, into a “backwater slough” of Mantua Creek, in search of bowfin. He said he found a warm, shallow pocket of water, and using a subsurface lure his nephew designed, hooked into a monster.

“I knew it was big,” he said. “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.”

Hubert kept the fish, quickly paddled back to land, and called New Jersey Fish & Wildlife to get the certification process rolling. All fish must be weighed on a scale certified by the department and with bait and tackle shops shuttering in the region, Hubert wound up at Blackwater Sports Center, 25 miles southeast of the creek.

Hubert’s bowfin weighed 12 pounds, 10 ounces, earning the (unofficial) New Jersey state record. A spokesperson for the New Jersey Fish & Wildlife did not immediately return a request for comment on the official confirmation timeline Thursday.

“They actually sent a biologist to confirm that it was a bowfin,” he said.

The bowfin, also known as mudfish and choupique in other regions, is considered a living fossil, relatively untouched by evolution for millions of years. They have a long, eel-like body and a bony mouth full of needle-sharp teeth. Most anglers have never seen one. They’re limited to swampy pockets of the country, including Delaware River tributaries, and that hard mouth makes them hard to hook too. Even if the hook digs in, bowfin fight like pit bulls and often break off.

“Even this one, when I landed it, the hook just fell right out. They have the hardest mouth of any fish species,” Hubert said. “It’s all bone.”

Oddly, bowfin are considered a “trash fish” by many anglers out to catch largemouth bass or other gamefish. Opinions vary on how edible they are — their flesh has been described as “jelly” — and, in recent years, they’ve had the misfortune of being confused with Northern Snakehead, an invasive species anglers are encouraged to kill on sight in most states where they’ve been found.

When Hubert’s not catching bowfin, he’s catching snakeheads, also a top predator that love chasing down and hammering lures. Some states recognize snakehead records. New Jersey doesn’t, yet, but Hubert, who fishes almost daily from spring to fall, will be in the hunt for that one too.

“Oh, I would love that, but New Jersey’s still at war with snakeheads,” he said.

The world record bowfin was caught in 1980, in Forest Lake, South Carolina. It weighed a whopping 21 pounds, 8 ounces.