I usualli go to the local streams/lakes and use a fishing rod with a tiny hook, barb filed off wiht a piece of worm or tiny minnow for bait, or scour the shorelines (and the middles if the rivers/streams are shallow enough). Before such forays, I always buy about 2 dozen bait minnows (when you ask for 2 dozen, they generally give you closer to 50 or 60) either small or medium size and sort through them. One summer, I got 15 central mudminnows in the batch. After keeping what I want, I use the rest to catch other fish or feed to my tropicals if they are healthy
I actually found my bowfin by accident. I saw my first bowfin when I was 7, and now, 8 years later, I had just recently given up on looking for them. I had gone fishing many a time each year, spent HUGE amounts at the bait store, looked into custom ordering, but I just couldn't find them, and if I did, they were really expensive. However, when I went to a chinese supermarket on the way home from the lfs, I decided to look at thier aquatics section. They had about 40 tanks, each other 90g, full to the brim of large and smallmouth bass, striped bass, tilapia, american eels, and other such fish. However, upon looking into some of the bass tanks, I noticed a 20 inch long nosed gar and *gasp* a 9 inch male bowfin! HOwever, this bowfin was missing 3/4 of it's dorsal, so I was a bit upset... then I saw the cause of it's wound. There was a 10 inch male bowfin sitting at the bottom of the tank! His fins were in great condition and it seemed that the other bowfin and the bass were leaving him well alone. So, I got the guy to weigh it, and it came to a grand total of.... $1.52 CANADIAN!!! I asked them to put it in a bag with some water and NOT to kill it. I brought it home, and on it's first night, it ate 15 feeders
