Indiana Lake Depths

Ancient fish · bowfin family

Bowfin

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

Native to IndianaRecorded in 41 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

41 of the 111 Indiana lakes on this site with fish records list bowfin, across 13 counties. Tap a dot to open that lake’s depth map.

Lake Wawasee, Kosciusko CountyLake Maxinkuckee, Marshall CountyLake Manitou, Fulton CountyCrooked Lake, Steuben CountyCedar Lake, Lake CountyDewart Lake, Kosciusko CountyJames Lake, Kosciusko CountyWitmer Lake, LaGrange CountyStone Lake, LaPorte CountyPretty Lake, LaGrange CountyHoffman Lake, Kosciusko CountyWall Lake, LaGrange CountyLittle Chapman Lake, Kosciusko CountyRound Lake, Whitley CountyBear Lake, Noble CountyBixler Lake, Noble CountyStarve Hallow Lake, Jackson CountyDiamond Lake, Noble CountyBarton Lake, Steuben CountyFish Lake, LaGrange CountyHunter Lake, Elkhart CountyTroy-Cedar Lake, Whitley CountyPretty Lake, Marshall CountyWestler Lake, LaGrange CountyLawrence Lake, Marshall CountyRiddles Lake, St. Joseph CountyLittle Long Lake, Noble CountyRoyer Lake, LaGrange CountyStory Lake, DeKalb CountyMessick Lake, LaGrange CountyLower Long Lake, Noble CountySand Lake, Noble CountyBell Lake, Steuben CountyShock Lake, Kosciusko CountyEmma Lake, LaGrange CountyRosser Park Pond, Lake CountyEve Lake, LaGrange CountyRivir Lake, Noble CountyGordy Lake, Noble CountyDixon Lake, Marshall CountyRupel Lake, St. Joseph County

Recorded here Other lakes with fish records

How we know

  • 41lakes 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 25 to 3,508 acres (median 99) and from 9 to 85 ft deep (median 45 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
28 of 105 lakes surveyed this way
Typical rate
2.0 per hour where found
Highest
10 per hour
Method
fish per hour of night electrofishing

“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 26 lakes at a typical 0.25 per net lift. A single survey is a snapshot of one season.

Highest survey rates on this site

  1. Riddles Lake, St. Joseph 2014 10
  2. Rosser Park Pond, Lake County 2018 8.0
  3. Sand Lake, Noble 2017 8.0
  4. Shock Lake, Kosciusko 2018 8.0
  5. Diamond Lake, Noble 2016 6.0
  6. Dixon Lake, Marshall 2023 6.0
  7. Rivir Lake, Noble 2019 6.0
  8. Fish Lake, LaGrange 2019 4.0
  9. Gordy Lake, Noble 2014 4.0
  10. Hoffman Lake, Kosciusko 2016 4.0

Fish per hour of night electrofishing, 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 41 lakes with bowfin

Show every lake, by county

DeKalb County 1

Story Lake

Elkhart County 1

Hunter Lake

Fulton County 1

Lake Manitou

Jackson County 1

Starve Hallow Lake

Kosciusko County 6

Dewart Lake, Hoffman Lake, James Lake, Lake Wawasee, Little Chapman Lake, Shock Lake

LaGrange County 9

Emma Lake, Eve Lake, Fish Lake, Messick Lake, Pretty Lake, Royer 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 8

Bear Lake, Bixler Lake, Diamond Lake, Gordy Lake, Little Long Lake, Lower Long Lake, Rivir Lake, Sand Lake

St. Joseph County 2

Riddles Lake, Rupel Lake

Steuben County 3

Barton Lake, Bell Lake, Crooked Lake

Whitley County 2

Round Lake, Troy-Cedar Lake

Sources

← All fish of Indiana