Fish and Wildlife Service has an interesting description of the bowfin once they're fully grown. They call them "thugs". Here's a snippet of why they think this fish is such a smooth criminal:

Many fishes are voracious predators, but the bowfin is one of the meanest fishes in North America. In fact, it may be the only fish in the world that has left the water of its own volition to attack a man on land

Now that's taking it a bit too far, bowfins. The word is the male bowfin are extremely defensive of these baby bowfin, so this Illinois guy is truly the Chuck Norris of bare-handed fishermen. The Fish and Wildlife Service article on bowfins mentions one guy who got too close to a school of baby bowfin and the male came up 8 inches out of the water to attack him. Vicious fishes.

While watching this guy pick up baby bowfins with his hands is interesting, I think I'll just stick with my rod and reel for now.