Flying carp?

[T-water]

I was wading in Monti about 2 weeks ago, after a nice (cold)day in the water I was talking to another guy in waders. A fish started swiiming toward me just below the surface, I thought it was a sick carp or sucker. I flicked my rod toward it and it leaped out of the water a few times, not the boat passenger cushing body blows I've heard about, but it got out of the water. Then it went down and rested on the gravel. When I walked toward it the fish bolted (no jumping), I never saw it again. I'm not trying to cause a scare, I've always assumed it would be a matter of time before the dirty jumpers make it up here, they'd probably love the warm Monti water. Does anyone have any thoughts, or possibly pictures of the carp?

[Mark Christianson]

We need Smallie Hawgin.

The un-official answer is that we don't have to worry about the asian carp getting up here, due to the dam downstream and that it does not have a lock.

Now, some jerk could intentionally move some fish above the Coon Rapids dam, and wreak havoc, so we can never say never I guess.

SH has the good mumbo jumbo answer though.

[smallie_hawgin]

T-water, I won't say they're not here, but it is unlikely. Even though they were noted near Pepin, there are quite a few hurdles to getting to the Monti area. One being St. Anthony falls area, two being the bladder dam setup at Coon Rapids and of course the other lock and dam setups along the way.

You have to remember there are, buffalo, redhorse, carp, suckers, etc. The bighead and silver carp you have seen on the news have more fine scales than carp or buffalo. Keep in mind that there are roughly 19 species of sucker within MN, of those several will fit the description you gave. Additionally, the past couple of years have shown an increase in the number of bigmouth buffalo in the river, which is very likely what you saw. A couple of photos. Bighead Carp

and Bigmouth Buffalo. What do you think?

[T-water]

Thanks-It must've been a sucker that I'm not familiar with, I thought it was sick by the way it was swimming when it came toward me. It seemed thinner and longer than the buffalo, i'll look online for more pictures, not sure I'd remember how it looked anymore. Is it spring yet?