Getting away from the topic, your mention of mudfish brings back great memories. When I was a kid I used to frequently go fishin' specifically for mudfish. I'd use cut bait and fish with a huge cork. The mudfish, or bowfin, pound for pound is probably the hardest pulling fish in the water and I have had some great fun pullin' 'em. I do plan to initiate some mud fishin' expeditions this summer too! Here's The biggest one I ever caught. I was about 15 years old then. The fish weighed about 16 pounds. The picture has a blemish on it that appears as a white stripe, but that is just a blem on the old pic. The fish nearly goes to my knee in this pic. At that time, that exceeded the state record, but I didn't register it. This was around 1969.
Bill in SC