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From the Lower WI River

Started by Guest_mattignoffo_* , Aug 19 2011 11:53 AM

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8 replies to this topic

#1 Guest_mattignoffo_*

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Posted 19 August 2011 - 11:53 AM

My friend caught this on the Lower WI River near Sauk City. Is it a buffalo? Can you tell which species? Thanks.

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#2 Guest_NVCichlids_*

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Posted 19 August 2011 - 02:11 PM

never tried to ID them, but we used to catch hundreds of these each year in Portage on the WI river, near the power plant.

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#3 Guest_Uland_*

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Posted 19 August 2011 - 03:19 PM

Heya Matt good to see you here.
I would say - buffalo YES....what kind I'm not sure and away from books. Looks like a rather large Smallmouth Buffalo but take that guess with a grain of salt. I think others might provide better ID with a gill cover (operculum) and mouth photo.

On a different subject...I recently found a few spotted salamanders in southern cook county.

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#4 Guest_blakemarkwell_*

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Posted 20 August 2011 - 01:35 AM

I'm going with Ictiobus bubalus because of it's deeper body (less streamline than black buffalo) and a mouth that appears small and roughly horizontal and subterminal. That being said, I haven't spent much time with Ictiobus.

Blake

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#5 Guest_cjr_*

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Posted 20 August 2011 - 09:01 AM

Hi,

I was the one who caught the fish. I didn't take any pictures of the mouth unfortunately. I thought it was one of the new invasives to WI (grass or silver carp) when I pulled it up. Thanks for the input, here is one more picture if it helps.

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#6 Guest_blakemarkwell_*

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Posted 20 August 2011 - 11:36 AM

Now that pictures makes the body look more streamline and the mouth larger.... #-o

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#7 Guest_MichiJim_*

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Posted 21 August 2011 - 09:31 AM

Not a grass or silver carp. You would not confuse either one with a common carp. Very different mouths.

Still looks like a buffalo to me, but I don't handle too many of them.

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#8 Guest_daveneely_*

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Posted 21 August 2011 - 09:39 AM

Looks like a smallmouth buffalo (seems to be a bit of a keel on the nape and overall gestalt). There's some DNA evidence that there is currently or has historically been a lot of hybridization between niger and bubalus, and they're almost impossible to tell at smaller sizes (<30cm TL or so) anyway.

One other non-traditional way to tell (buffalo vs. carp) is the amount of mucous on the fishing line in the first photo! You've been slimed! (caveat, drum and catfish will also slime a line up pretty good).