Bodfish is a census-designated place in the southern Kern River Valley of the Southern Sierra Nevada, in Kern County, California.Bodfish is located 32 miles east-northeast of Bakersfield, at an elevation of 2,687 feet. The place was named for George Homer Bodfish, who settled nearby in 1867.The population was 1,956 at the 2010 census, up from 1,823 at the 2000 census.