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ID this Fish out of the Sunrise River


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Howdy,

Sorry I don't have a pic, but will describe it.

Never caught them before - river was full of them below the dam yesterday...

About 10 inches long, thin, dark on top with a wide darker band on the side in the middle. The bottom sides were light silver. Straight mouth and they had small beedy eyes.

What are these?

Thanks much!

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eek you didn't touch those things with your bare hands, did ya? If you did and you start feeling a funny sensation in your stomach and your legs start to ache, you best get to a doctor in a dam quick hurry!
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Obviously you're kidding. Of course I touched 'em!

Now somebody's gotta know what they are...

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Nope, not a Creek Chub.

Eyes are way smaller, has a dark streak on the sides. I don't think it had a dorsal fin. It was also "snakey".

Anyone?

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Cant think of anything.. big mouth buffalo has small eyes doesnt it? Not sure about the stripe though? And would not be "Snakey", There are a lot of lamperay or how ever you spell it in the croix, but again, no stripe.. that I can remember.

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I also went to the DNR websire, clicked on the pictures if the "rare, other fish" and it is not there!

HUH! Anyone?

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Nope, none of those............

confused

Here's a fresh list:

10 inches long.

Long and thin, shaped like a straight sausage, only more square.

No dorsal fin.

Dark on top, darker stripe on the middle of the sides.

Light silver lower sides.

Super small beedy eyes.

Straight, regular looking mouth.

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Nope, not an American Eel, - looked that one up already. There is no continuous fin on top.

Not a small dogfish.

Hmph!

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Yea, I caught many! Nope, not a gar - had a regular mouth.

If it wasn't raining, I'd go this afternoon and bring the camera!

I caught the mystery fish on a small yellow jig and 1/2 of a crawler almost every cast.

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I was fishing the Kost Dam.

I just called the Hinckley DNR who sample the Sunrise.

Both guys who work there and sample the river could not tell me what the mystery fish was!

He took my number and will look at a species guide and call me back when he can identify it.

Wow - thought they'd know!!

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Of course I was kidding....Maybe it's an exotic that someone let go? What does an immature snakehead look like?

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what kind of scales? Coarse like a snake? Big like a carp? tiny? no scales like catfish?

did it have teeth?

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It had moderately smooth skin. No teeth.

There was a small "nub" on each side of the mouth too.

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You should try looking on the dnr website at the species identifier. They have a whole section on rare fish with pics.

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I am really reaching here, but did it have a single barbel on it's chin like this fish?

go to wiscfish.org and use the id system.

2331.jpg

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You should try looking on the dnr website at the species identifier. They have a whole section on rare fish with pics.

You must have missed it - I did go to their website and it's not in there in that section.

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Nope, it's not that either. They have dark tops, a dark streak down each side, silver lower sides. No spots. No long, low dorsal fin down the back either.

Hummm...

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Are you sure they weren't young largemouth bass? When I was a kid I used to catch oodles of little ones below the dam in the fall. The little ones tend to be long and slender, and definitely have a dark stripe along the side.

Definitely not a sucker or chub of any kind? If you had to compare it to another fish, what does it resemble the most?

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The top of this fish is like the top of a Northern, flat and rounded at the corners, only black, there's no top center dorsal fin.

That's a great site, looked at many, but did not see it there yet.

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A friend turned me on to a great book that came out recently titled "The Great Minnesota Fish Book" that has pictures and details about most fish found in Minnesota waters. It's really interesting what's out there that you can run into while fishing.

Here are some of the Minnesota fish that it IDs and has pictures of outside of the common ones it includes as well.

Shovelnose Sturgeon

Freshwater Drum

American Eel

Mooneye

Goldeye

Highfin Carpsucker

Quillback

River Carpsucker

Smallmouth Buffalo

Bigmouth Buffalo

Black Buffalo

Shorthead Redhorse

Silver Redhorse

River Redhorse

Black Redhorse

Greater Redhorse

Northern Hogsucker

Central Stoneroller

Northern Redbelly Dace

Finescale Dace

Pearl Dace

Longnose Dace

Blacknose Dace

Rainbow Darter

Iowa Darter

Least Darter

Johnny Darter

Banded Darter

Fantail Darter

Bluntnose Darter

Gilt Darter

Logperch

Slenderhead Darter

Crystal Darter

Trout Perch

Pirate Perch

American Brook Lamprey

Chestnut Lamprey

Sea Lamprey

Paddlefish

Brook Silverside

Banded Killifish

Tadpole Madtom

Skipjack Herring

Gizzard Shad

Alewife

Mottled Sculpin

Deepwater Sculpin

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Yep, went through wiscfish.org and looked at most of those - none so far.

Dang!

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