Indiana Lake Depths

Ancient fish · bowfin family

Bowfin

Amia ocellicauda (formerly Amia calva) · also called dogfish, grinnel

Native to IndianaRecorded in 69 Indiana lakes
Illustration of a bowfin in side view
AI-generated illustration, not a photograph and not to scale.
Typical adult
15–27 in, 1–5 lb
Breathes air
Its swim bladder works as a lung
Spawns
Early April into May or early June, in weedy shallows
Lives
Up to about 10 years in the wild
Indiana record
16 lb 8.3 oz — Mutton Creek, Jackson County, 2009

Where bowfin have been recorded

69 of the 186 Indiana lakes on this site with fish records list bowfin, across 14 counties. Tap a dot to open that lake’s depth map.

Lake Wawasee, Kosciusko CountyLake Maxinkuckee, Marshall CountyTippecanoe Lake, Kosciusko CountyHamilton Lake, Steuben CountyLake Manitou, Fulton CountyCrooked Lake, Steuben CountyCedar Lake, Lake CountyWinona Lake, Kosciusko CountyDewart Lake, Kosciusko CountyLake Gage, Steuben CountyAdams Lake, LaGrange CountyJAMES LAKE, Kosciusko CountyWitmer Lake, LaGrange CountyBig Lake, Noble CountySilver Lake, Steuben CountyStone Lake, LaPorte CountyWabee Lake, Kosciusko CountyPretty Lake, LaGrange CountyIrish Lake, Kosciusko CountyHoffman Lake, Kosciusko CountyAtwood Lake, LaGrange CountyBeaver Dam Lake, Kosciusko CountyWall Lake, LaGrange CountyLittle Chapman Lake, Kosciusko CountyKuhn Lake, Kosciusko CountyRound Lake, Whitley CountyLittle Turkey Lake, LaGrange CountyBear Lake, Noble CountyBixler Lake, Noble CountyStarve Hallow Lake, Jackson CountyCenter Lake, Kosciusko CountyStone Lake, LaGrange CountyDiamond Lake, Noble CountyBarton Lake, Steuben CountyFlint Lake, Porter CountyFish Lake, LaGrange CountyHunter Lake, Elkhart CountyTROY-CEDAR LAKE, Whitley CountyPretty Lake, Marshall CountyWestler Lake, LaGrange CountyLawrence Lake, Marshall CountyDiamond Lake, Kosciusko CountyRiddles Lake, St. Joseph CountyEagle Lake, Noble CountyLittle Long Lake, Noble CountyRoyer Lake, LaGrange CountyStory Lake, DeKalb CountyBig Otter Lake, Steuben CountyMessick Lake, LaGrange CountyLower Long Lake, Noble CountySand Lake, Noble CountyBell Lake, Steuben CountyLittle Cedar Lake, Whitley CountyShock Lake, Kosciusko CountyEmma Lake, LaGrange CountyEngle Lake, Noble CountyFish Lake, Elkhart CountyRosser Park Pond, Lake CountyOld Lake, Whitley CountyEve Lake, LaGrange CountyBrokesha Lake, LaGrange CountyRivir Lake, Noble CountyGordy Lake, Noble CountyDixon Lake, Marshall CountyGreen Lake, Steuben CountyRupel Lake, St. Joseph CountyPleasant Lake, Noble CountyMoss Lake, Noble CountySummit Lake, Noble County

Recorded here Other lakes with fish records

How we know

  • 69lakes where a DNR fisheries survey caught them

A lake can appear in more than one line. A lake that isn’t listed may still have them: records exist only where someone caught, netted or stocked them.

Inland lakes on this list run from 6 to 3,508 acres (median 106) and from 9 to 125 ft deep (median 40 ft).

How many turn up in DNR surveys

Indiana DNR crews survey lakes the same way everywhere: timed night electrofishing along the shore, plus gill and trap nets set overnight. The standard method makes lakes comparable. These are the DNR’s own sampling rates from its community surveys, 2008–2025 — a measure of how many fish a lake holds, not how many an angler will catch.

Found in
47 of 170 lakes surveyed this way
Typical rate
0.25 per net lift where found
Highest
4.2 per net lift
Method
fish per net lift (gill and trap nets)

“Typical” is the median across the lakes where the survey caught at least one. Nets and electrofishing catch different fish: by the other method it turned up in 43 lakes at a typical 2.0 per hour of electrofishing. A single survey is a snapshot of one season.

Highest survey rates on this site

  1. Rupel Lake, St. Joseph 2018 4.2
  2. Dixon Lake, Marshall 2023 3.5
  3. Lower Long Lake, Noble 2017 1.2
  4. Big Otter Lake, Steuben 2015 1.0
  5. Riddles Lake, St. Joseph 2014 1.0
  6. Little Turkey Lake, LaGrange 2024 0.75
  7. Stone Lake, LaPorte 2017 0.75
  8. Summit Lake, Noble 2012 0.75
  9. Brokesha Lake, LaGrange 2015 0.50
  10. Dewart Lake, Kosciusko 2018–2020 0.50

Fish per net lift (gill and trap nets), with survey years. Survey effort and season differ between lakes.

Often found with

Share of these lakes that also list each fish.

How to recognize it

A long dorsal fin running from mid-back to the tail, a short anal fin, a rounded tail with a dark eyespot at its upper base, and a scaleless head.

Don’t confuse it with

Northern snakehead (invasive; not recorded in Indiana lakes) — A long anal fin — more than half the length of the dorsal — a flatter, pointed head, and a lower jaw that juts past the upper. Bowfin are native and are often mistaken for snakeheads.

Up close

Illustration of a bowfin's head from below and to the side, showing the bony gular plate between the halves of the lower jaw and short tubular nostrils.
Bowfin: a bony plate (the gular plate) under the lower jaw, and short tube-shaped nostrils.

AI-generated close-ups, not photographs, drawn from the cited descriptions. They show what to look for; they are not a substitute for an expert identification (provenance).

Life in an Indiana lake

Bowfin live in marshes, lakes and river backwaters with plants, preferring calm, clear water. They can breathe air at the surface, which lets them survive stagnant water and even short spells out of water.

Males clear nests in shallow weeds and guard the eggs and then the school of young on their own until the fry reach about 4 inches. Bowfin are ambush predators that come into the shallows at night; they help keep forage fish from stunting.

Source: the sources below.

Rules and eating

Check the rules before you keep fish. Each lake page shows the regulations that apply there, and the Indiana Fishing Guide is the official source. Before eating fish from a particular lake, check the Indiana Fish Consumption Advisory.

All 69 lakes with bowfin

Show every lake, by county

DeKalb County 1

Story Lake

Elkhart County 2

Fish Lake, Hunter Lake

Fulton County 1

Lake Manitou

Jackson County 1

Starve Hallow Lake

Kosciusko County 14

Beaver Dam Lake, Center Lake, Dewart Lake, Diamond Lake, Hoffman Lake, Irish Lake, JAMES LAKE, Kuhn Lake, Lake Wawasee, Little Chapman Lake, Shock Lake, Tippecanoe Lake, Wabee Lake, Winona Lake

LaGrange County 14

Adams Lake, Atwood Lake, Brokesha Lake, Emma Lake, Eve Lake, Fish Lake, Little Turkey Lake, Messick Lake, Pretty Lake, Royer Lake, Stone Lake, Wall Lake, Westler Lake, Witmer Lake

LaPorte County 1

Stone Lake

Lake County 2

Cedar Lake, Rosser Park Pond

Marshall County 4

Dixon Lake, Lake Maxinkuckee, Lawrence Lake, Pretty Lake

Noble County 14

Bear Lake, Big Lake, Bixler Lake, Diamond Lake, Eagle Lake, Engle Lake, Gordy Lake, Little Long Lake, Lower Long Lake, Moss Lake, Pleasant Lake, Rivir Lake, Sand Lake, Summit Lake

Porter County 1

Flint Lake

St. Joseph County 2

Riddles Lake, Rupel Lake

Steuben County 8

Barton Lake, Bell Lake, Big Otter Lake, Crooked Lake, Green Lake, Hamilton Lake, Lake Gage, Silver Lake

Whitley County 4

Little Cedar Lake, Old Lake, Round Lake, TROY-CEDAR LAKE

Sources

← All fish of Indiana