Oddball ID

Hello, I'm rather new here so excuse me if this has already been discussed. Recently my i went canoeing on the Jack's Fork River with my family. I caught a small (about one inch) fish in a net after watching it swim around for a few minutes. It was silver on the very top but most of the belly, sides, and head were black. It was a surface feeder based off swimming habits but I want to just call it a surface swimmer as it's mouth looked kind of gar-like. The whole top of the body was flat (similar to a killifish). I don't necessarily think it was the fry of any fish as I have been floating down the Jack's Fork at least once a year, usually more, for years and have never seen any fish like this. (Which is why I don't think it is a gar fry because I think I would notice far in the river pretty easily). Please let me know any input, I'm really curious as to what this fish is.
P.S. The Jack's Fork River is in southern Missouri near Eminence if that helps at all.

To me it really just sounds like a gar, but if you insist not, we'll need some more details.

It looked vary similar to an extremely young gar. Perhaps it came from further upstream or downstream than I have ever been.

I've seen several pickerel there, could that have been it? Seems late in the year for fry that small, but some of those springs are pretty cold.

Gar will travel a good distance upstream in even very small tributaries to lay their eggs, so the young may turn up in places you don't expect to see them.

I've seen newly hatched gar that were dark colored and similar to what you describe. They were swimming on top, but would often hang vertically straight up and down. You may already know this, but they have a sucker like pad on the top of their head when they are very small and use it to hang vertically. The juveniles grow very quickly, about an inch a week when they're young so they don't stay 1" for very long. They also have a dark lateral stripe and an obvious whip like flagellum on their tail, at least when they get a couple inches long.

http://gallery.nanfa...r sp_s.jpg.html

Thanks for the info! I thought I heard something about the suction cup a while back. But after a little bit more research I am now thinking it was a gar fry too.

It could have been a young gar, but the discription you give does not sound like any typical Atractosteus or Lepisosteus fish as described, Did you notice a white stripe down it's back and or on it's snout? Only possiable gar to have anything like that coloration pattern would be the Alligator, no Lepisosteus fish would have a lighter colored back. Gators however often have a mottled coloration of Blacks and white. They always however have the stripe either fully down the back or on the nose.