The bigmouth buffalo (''Ictiobus cyprinellus'') is a fish native to North America that is in decline. It is the largest North American species in the

Catostomidae The Catostomidae are the suckers of the order (biology), order Cypriniformes, with about 78 species in this family (biology), family of freshwater fishes. The Catostomidae are almost exclusively native to North America. The only exceptions are ' ...

or "sucker" family, and is one of the longest-lived and latest-maturing freshwater fishes, capable of living 127 years and reproducing infrequently. Even at a century old they show no age-related declines, but instead improvements relative to younger individuals, making this species a biological marvel. It is commonly called the marblehead, redmouth buffalo, buffalofish, bernard buffalo, or roundhead. The bigmouth buffalo is not a

carp The term carp (: carp) is a generic common name for numerous species of freshwater fish from the family (biology), family Cyprinidae, a very large clade of ray-finned fish mostly native to Eurasia. While carp are prized game fish, quarries and a ...

, nor is any other fish in the sucker family. Although they share the same

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood ...

, each belong to different suborders and are native to separate

continent A continent is any of several large geographical regions. Continents are generally identified by convention (norm), convention rather than any strict criteria. A continent could be a single large landmass, a part of a very large landmass, as ...

s. The bigmouth buffalo is typically a brownish olive color with dusky fins, but can vary greatly in color across individuals including melanistic, golden, and even xanthic color morphs. Bigmouth buffalo may also accrue unique black or orange pigmentation markings with age, and in some rare individuals, white-edged fins. Like other catostomids it has a long

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates. Dorsal fins have evolved independently several times through convergent evolution adapting to marine environments, so the fins are not all homologous. They are found ...

, but unlike all other extant species it has a terminal (forward-facing) mouth reflecting its unique,

pelagic The pelagic zone consists of the water column of the open ocean and can be further divided into regions by depth. The word ''pelagic'' is derived . The pelagic zone can be thought of as an imaginary cylinder or water column between the sur ...

feeding ecology. It is the largest of the buffalofishes and can reach a length of more than and in weight. Generally it lives in lakes, or in sluggish areas of large rivers. Bigmouth buffalo populations have been in decline in the northern extent of their range since the 1970s, including Minnesota, North Dakota, and Canada. A 2019 study documented and validated their late maturity,

centenarian A centenarian is a person who has reached the age of 100. Because life expectancies at birth worldwide are well below 100, the term is invariably associated with longevity. The United Nations estimated that there were 316,600 living centenarian ...

longevity, and that several populations in northwestern Minnesota are composed mainly (85–90%) of individuals more than 80 years old, indicating

recruitment Recruitment is #Process, the overall process of identifying, sourcing, screening, shortlisting, and interviewing candidates for Job (role), jobs (either permanent or temporary) within an organization. Recruitment also is the process involved in ...

failure since the 1930s. This newfound life history information published in 2019 defied pre-conceived notions of the species. A 2021 study from North Dakota also revealed a slow pace of life including late maturity, decadal episodic recruitment, declining population, and a relatively large group of old-growth individuals. A 2022 study from

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

, Canada revealed remarkable tendencies of the bigmouth buffalo including a

supercentenarian A supercentenarian, sometimes hyphenated as super-centenarian, is a person who is 110 or older. This age is achieved by about one in 1,000 centenarians. Supercentenarians typically live a life free of significant age-related diseases until short ...

lifespan, skip-spawning related to water levels, proximate mechanisms underlying failed recruitment, extreme episodic recruitment, and late maturity—all characteristics that make this species extremely vulnerable to overfishing, habitat degradation, and invasive species. Indeed, bigmouth buffalo are declining in Canada, and have been in steep decline in contiguous areas of the US, temporally associated with the rise of modern wasteful

bowfishing Bowfishing is a fishing technique that uses specialized archery equipment to impale and retrieve fish. A bowfisher will use a bow or crossbow to shoot fish through the water surface with a barbed arrow tethered to a line, and then manually retr ...

in the 21st century. Bigmouth buffalo life history attributes, including the ability to survive several decades with no successful

(i.e. episodic recruitment), are more pronounced than other long-lived freshwater fishes, including

sturgeon Sturgeon (from Old English ultimately from Proto-Indo-European language, Proto-Indo-European *''str̥(Hx)yón''-) is the common name for the 27 species of fish belonging to the family Acipenseridae. The earliest sturgeon fossils date to the ...

and

paddlefish Paddlefish (family Polyodontidae) are a family of ray-finned fish belonging to order Acipenseriformes, and one of two living groups of the order alongside sturgeons (Acipenseridae). They are distinguished from other fish by their elongated rost ...

. Such long-lived species require time to successfully sustain themselves by surviving to periods in which favorable environmental and biotic conditions arise for booms in reproduction and subsequent recruitment through the predation gauntlet. Unregulated, unmanaged and wasteful lethal fisheries are not compatible with their biology, yet such fisheries have come to exist in the 21st century in the United States and the species is declining. Canada on the other hand, has long-enforced protections for bigmouth buffalo. Exemplifying the lack of management in the United States, as of 2025 anglers with a standard fishing license in Minnesota can take bigmouth buffalo in unlimited numbers statewide, including from within a

National Wildlife Refuge system The National Wildlife Refuge System (NWRS) is a system of protected areas of the United States managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), an agency within the United States Department of the Interior, Department of the Interi ...

of the

United States Fish and Wildlife Service The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is a List of federal agencies in the United States, U.S. federal government agency within the United States Department of the Interior which oversees the management of fish, wildlife, ...

. A 2024 study set in eastern Minnesota analyzed the exploited population of bigmouth buffalo and their spawning migration at Rice Lake National Wildlife Refuge across several years. Although the population of bigmouth buffalo migrates and spawns annually, a successful pulse of reproduction has not occurred since the late 1950s. With a median age of 79 years as of 2024, and greater than 99.7% of individuals hatched before 1972, these bigmouth buffalo at Rice Lake National Wildlife Refuge comprise one of the oldest known populations of animal on earth.

Geographic distribution

The bigmouth buffalo's native distribution is confined to the countries of Canada and the United States of America. It is native to the

Red River of the North The Red River (), also called the Red River of the North () to differentiate it from the Red River of the South, Red River in the south of the continent, is a river in the north-central United States and central Canada. Originating at the confl ...

and Mississippi River drainage basins, from

Manitoba Manitoba is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population ...

, Canada, and

North Dakota North Dakota ( ) is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota people, Dakota and Sioux peoples. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minneso ...

, United States, to the

Ohio River The Ohio River () is a river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing in a southwesterly direction from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to its river mouth, mouth on the Mississippi Riv ...

and south in the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

system to

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

and

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

. In Canada, they inhabit the Milk River which flows through

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

, and the

Qu'Appelle River The Qu'Appelle River is a river in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba that flows east from Lake Diefenbaker in south-western Saskatchewan to join the Assiniboine River in Manitoba, just s ...

which flows through

and

into

Lake Winnipeg Lake Winnipeg () is a very large, relatively shallow lake in North America, in the Canadian province of Manitoba. Its southern end is about north of the city of Winnipeg. Lake Winnipeg is Canada's sixth-largest freshwater lake and the third- ...

. Beginning in the northern United States, they are native to Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, to southern states including eastern Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. The major systems where they are found include the Hudson Bay and Mississippi River drainages. The introduction of bigmouth buffalo has largely been done for commercial purposes. Regions of reintroductions include some reservoirs along the Missouri River drainage of North Dakota and Montana. Regions of introduction include some reservoirs in Arizona, and within

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, they have also been introduced to the aqueduct system of

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

Ecological, cultural, and economic importance

Native to North America, bigmouth buffalo are integral to ecosystems therein. Bigmouth buffalo young are prey for several predatory fish, including

walleye The walleye (''Sander vitreus'', Synonym (taxonomy), synonym ''Stizostedion vitreum''), also called the walleyed pike, yellow pike, yellow pikeperch or yellow pickerel, is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the Northern ...

northern pike The northern pike (''Esox lucius'') is a species of carnivorous fish of the genus ''Esox'' (pikes). They are commonly found in brackish water, moderately salty and fresh waters of the Northern Hemisphere (''i.e.'' holarctic in distribution). T ...

catfish Catfish (or catfishes; order (biology), order Siluriformes or Nematognathi) are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Catfish are common name, named for their prominent barbel (anatomy), barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, though not ...

alligator gar The alligator gar (''Atractosteus spatula'') is a euryhaline ray-finned fish in the clade Ginglymodi of the infraclass Holostei , being most closely related to the bowfins. It is the largest species in the gar family (biology), family (Lepisost ...

, etc. Bigmouth buffalo filter-feed on invasive

zebra mussel The zebra mussel (''Dreissena polymorpha'') is a small freshwater mussel, an Aquatic animal, aquatic bivalve mollusk in the family Dreissenidae. The species originates from the lakes of southern Russia and Ukraine, but has been accidentally Intro ...

s during the

mollusk Mollusca is a phylum of protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum after Arthropoda. The ...

's larval (

veliger A veliger is the planktonic larva of many kinds of sea snails and freshwater snails, as well as most bivalve molluscs (clams) and tusk shells. Description The veliger is the characteristic larva of the gastropod, bivalve and scaphopod taxono ...

) planktonic stage. They form the native counterpart to the invasive bighead and

silver carp The silver carp or silverfin (''Hypophthalmichthys molitrix'') is a species of freshwater cyprinid fish, a variety of Asian carp native to China and eastern Siberia, from the Amur River drainage in the north to the Xi Jiang River drainage in ...

, and they compete with the invasive

common carp The common carp (''Cyprinus carpio''), also known as European carp, Eurasian carp, or simply carp, is a widespread freshwater fish of eutrophic waters in lakes and large rivers in Europe and Asia.Fishbase''Cyprinus carpio'' Linnaeus, 1758/ref>Ark ...

. However, these

invasive species An invasive species is an introduced species that harms its new environment. Invasive species adversely affect habitats and bioregions, causing ecological, environmental, and/or economic damage. The term can also be used for native spec ...

are outcompeting native bigmouth buffalo. Native Americans utilized bigmouth buffalo,

Lewis and Clark Lewis may refer to: Names * Lewis (given name), including a list of people with the given name * Lewis (surname), including a list of people with the surname Music * Lewis (musician), Canadian singer * " Lewis (Mistreated)", a song by Radiohe ...

harvested them on their journey in 1804, and the inland commercial fishing industry has valued them as a prized catch since the 1800s. The bigmouth buffalo is a popular foodfish throughout parts of the United States, and has been introduced into a few southwestern states. Commercial harvesters have to obtain annual permits to net from designated waterbodies, which are rotated among on a year-by-year basis, and they must report harvest from each haul to their respective state agency. Bigmouth buffalo are then trucked in oxygenated water tanks to markets where they are sold alive. They are commonly consumed in Arkansas as buffalo ribs. Though it has small bones suspended in its muscle tissue like

, its good flavor makes it one of the most valuable of the traditional, non-game freshwater fish. In addition to being a foodfish, the bigmouth buffalo has recently become a sportfish as catch-and-release anglers have learned to pursue them on rod-and-line, and as lethal

has also increased in the 21st century. Although commercial harvest is regulated, sport-kill bowfishing is not.

Ecology

The bigmouth buffalo is part of a unique ecology in shallow-water systems. The larval bigmouths are

and sometimes

benthic The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from the Ancient Greek word (), meaning "the depths". ...

feeders, mostly of

copepod Copepods (; meaning 'oar-feet') are a group of small crustaceans found in nearly every freshwater and saltwater habitat (ecology), habitat. Some species are planktonic (living in the water column), some are benthos, benthic (living on the sedimen ...

s and

cladocerans The Diplostraca or Cladocera, commonly known as water fleas, is a superorder (biology), superorder of small, mostly freshwater crustaceans, most of which feed on microscopic chunks of organic matter, though some forms are predatory. Over 1000 sp ...

, but also phytoplankton and

chironomids Chironomidae , commonly known as non-biting midges or chironomids , are a family of Nematoceran flies with a global distribution. They are closely related to the families Ceratopogonidae, Simuliidae, and Thaumaleidae. Although many chironomid s ...

.McComish, T.S. 1967. Food Habits of Bigmouth and Smallmouth Buffalo in Lewis and Clark Lake and the Missouri River. ''Transactions of the American Fisheries Society'' 96: 70–74. Bigmouth buffalo, unlike its close relatives the

black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

and

smallmouth buffalo The smallmouth buffalo (''Ictiobus bubalus'', from the Greek for "bull-fish" and "buffalo") is recently realized as one of the longest-lived fishes, capable of living more than a century. The smallmouth buffalo is in decline across large portions ...

s, is a filter-feeder, using its very fine gill rakers to strain plankton from the water. It sometimes feeds near the bottom, using short up-and down movements to filter from the water the plankton that hover near the bottom or rest lightly on it. The juveniles and adults are mostly limnetic plankton feeders that also eat cladocerans, copepods, algae, chironomids,

ostracod Ostracods, or ostracodes, are a Class (biology), class of the crustacean, Crustacea (class Ostracoda), sometimes known as seed shrimp. Some 33,000 species (only 13,000 of which are extant taxon, extant) have been identified,Brandão, S.N.; Antoni ...

s, and other insect larvae and invertebrates depending on availability.Applegate, R.L. and Starostka, V.J. 1970. Food Selectivity of Bigmouth Buffalo, ''Ictiobus cyprinellus'', in Lake Poinsett, South Dakota. ''Transactions of the American Fisheries Society'' 99: 571–576.Johnson, J.E., Minkley, M.L., Rinne, J.N., and Willoughby, S.E. 1970. Foods of Buffalofishes, Genus ''Ictiobus'', in Central Arizona Reservoirs. ''Transactions of the American Fisheries Society'' 99: 333–342. The optimum habitat for spawning bigmouth buffalo is freshly-flooded vegetated waters. They are a very resilient fish that can tolerate high turbidity and low oxygen levels. They can be found in waters with turbidity levels over 100 ppm. A minimum total dissolved solids is 200 ppm during the growing season. During spring and summer, 50–75% pools should be present, with backwaters, and marsh areas and 25–75% littoral area and protected embayments during summer for the habitat to be suitable. Bigmouth can be found in waters from . The optimal temperatures for incubation and hatching of eggs are from , but they can develop in temperatures reaching up to . The bigmouth buffalo prefers slow-moving water that does not reach a velocity over 30 cm/s. Bigmouth Buffalo with orange pigmentation

Bigmouth Buffalo with orange pigmentation

The bigmouth buffalo are group spawners which produce 250,000 eggs/kg of adult weight; their eggs are very small at about 1.5 mm in diameter. The bigmouth buffalo is a spring spawner generally spawning between April and June when the water temperature is between , but may skip spawning if water-level fluctuations are not adequate. The bigmouth buffalo is a broadcaster that has adhesive eggs, which it lays in vegetated waters. Females seek submergent and emergent vegetation, the ideal habitat for the hatching of their eggs. Water levels substantially rise before spawning, and the spawning timing and duration can vary significantly across years, even in successive years. For example, at Rice Lake National Wildlife Refuge, Aitkin County, Minnesota, the spawning duration was 7 times longer in 2022 compared to 2021 or 2023, and the spawning timing also varied by more than 16 days comparing 2022 to 2021. Bigmouth buffalo are extremely vulnerable to exploitation during their spawning period, and will likely require protections much like is afforded to

lake sturgeon The lake sturgeon (''Huso fulvescens''), also known as the rock sturgeon, is a North American temperate freshwater fish, one of 27 species of sturgeon. Like other sturgeons, this species is a bottom feeder and has a partly cartilaginous skele ...

. Salinity can be a problem for reproduction. Spawning can occur from 1.4 to 2.0 ppt of salinity which eggs and yearlings not being able to survive a salinity of over 9 ppt.Hollander, E.E. and Avault Jr., J.W. 1975. Effects of Salinity on Survival of Buffalo Fish Eggs Through Yearlings. ''The Progressive Fish-Culturist'' 37(1): 47–51 The minimum dissolved oxygen during the spring and summer is 5 mg/L. Recruitment success is related to water-level and drought conditions, the water-level recession rate after the spring peak, and predation. While numerous invertebrates, blue gill, yellow perch, and other species prey on the bigmouth buffalo eggs and larvae, northern pike and other piscivorous fish likely further top-down restrict the survival bigmouth buffalo fry and fingerling fish in many systems. More than one male will assist in spawning by moving the female to the top of the water to help mix eggs and milt.Simon, T. P. (1999). Assessment of Balon's reproductive guilds with application to Midwestern North American Freshwater Fishes, pp. 97–121. In: Simon, T.L. (ed.). ''Assessing the Sustainability and Biological Integrity of Water Resources Using Fish Communities''. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press. 671 pp. . Bigmouth buffalo spotting

Life history

Reaching a recorded maximum of 127 years of age, the bigmouth buffalo is the longest living freshwater

teleost Teleostei (; Ancient Greek, Greek ''teleios'' "complete" + ''osteon'' "bone"), members of which are known as teleosts (), is, by far, the largest group of ray-finned fishes (class Actinopterygii), with 96% of all neontology, extant species of f ...

(a group of more than 12,000 species) by more than 50 years, shattering all previous records for this group. With a previous maximum longevity estimate (prior to 2019) for this species at 26 years, evidence of its extended longevity came as a surprise and was initially met with skepticism. Thorough bomb radiocarbon dating was conducted on their

otolith An otolith (, ' ear + , ', a stone), also called otoconium, statolith, or statoconium, is a calcium carbonate structure in the saccule or utricle (ear), utricle of the inner ear, specifically in the vestibular system of vertebrates. The saccule ...

microstructure and confirmed the age estimates generated from thin-sectioned otoliths, making bigmouth buffalo the oldest age-validated freshwater fish in the world. The onset of sexual maturity of bigmouth buffalo varies with latitude. In central North Dakota and southern Minnesota, females reach the onset of sexual maturation around 10 years old, while males begin maturation around 6 years of age. In Canada, bigmouth buffalo females had not yet reached the onset of sexual maturity by an age of 11 years. Their delayed maturity (in addition to their great longevity and episodic recruitment) is a trait indicative of their slow, marathon-like, life cycle pace. Bigmouth buffalo have a tendency to accumulate unique pigmentation (orange and black spots) as they age, which may vary by habitat variables such as water quality and available food.

Conservation status

According to the

Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC, French: Comité sur la situation des espèces en péril au Canada, COSEPAC) is an independent committee of wildlife experts and scientists whose "raison d'être is to identify s ...

, the conservation status in the Canadian range of the bigmouth buffalo is difficult to assess due to lack of study of this animal, and the species is of special concern under the

Species at Risk Act The ''Species at Risk Act'' (, SARA) is a piece of Canadian federal legislation which became law in Canada on December 12, 2002. It is designed to meet one of Canada's key commitments under the International Convention on Biological Diversity. T ...

. Known threats include loss of backwater spawning areas due to channelization and loss of spawn viability due to high

turbidity Turbidity is the cloudiness or haziness of a fluid caused by large numbers of individual particles that are generally invisible to the naked eye, similar to smoke in air. The measurement of turbidity is a key test of both water clarity and wa ...

related to variation in flow rate. The bigmouth buffalo is also negatively affected by dams that restrict their movement and ability to find suitable spawning habitat, they are prone to winterkill, and they are highly vulnerable to overfishing. The bigmouth buffalo is an endangered fish species in Pennsylvania. Besides this state, the bigmouth buffalo is not currently listed as threatened or endangered in any other region of its native distribution, although the

Nelson River The Nelson River is a river of north-central North America, in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. The river drains Lake Winnipeg and runs before it ends in Hudson Bay near Port Nelson, Manitoba, Port Nels ...

populations designatable unit has been listed under Schedule 1 of the

as being of special concern since 2011 due to contiguous declines that have also been evident in the northern extent of their US range since the 1970s. Several longstanding MN populations of bigmouth buffalo are composed almost totally (85–90%) of individuals hatched before 1940, and in other systems more than 99% of individuals are from hatch-years that pre-date 1970. A reflection of outdated fisheries management, harvest limits on bigmouth buffalo do not exist in these same areas - this despite the rapidly growing new sport of modernized night

that exploits this species. The rise of bowfishing was found to be coincident with steep declines in bigmouth buffalo. The fingerlings of bigmouth buffalo are susceptible to a parasite, '' Lernea cyprinacae'', but most are unaffected by the time they reach a length of 30 mm. They are anchor parasites that attach themselves between scale margins and fin insertions. The real problem is a secondary infection that may arise due to these parasites, especially in poor water conditions. The protozoan '' Epistylis'' and bacteria ''

Flavobacterium columnare ''Flavobacterium columnare'' is a thin Gram-negative rod bacterium of the genus ''Flavobacterium''. The name derives from the way in which the organism grows in rhizoid columnar formations. The species was first described by Davis (1922), and th ...

'' are both related to serious parasite infestations. The bigmouth has been seen to hybridize in the wild with smallmouth buffalo, and it is possible that some fish identified as black buffalo are indeed these hybrids. The hybridization does not seem to be negatively affecting their populations but makes it difficult to determine how many hybrids and how many black buffalo are actually in certain reservoirs. The fish is vulnerable in shallow water and is often captured by bow and arrow via

. It is commercially caught on trotlines, setlines, hoop and trammel nets, and seines. There are currently no specific management plans in place for the bigmouth buffalo in the United States. In some places like the southern US, progeny have been reared in hatcheries. Management of bigmouth buffalo is in need of attention, especially in the northern part of their US range where populations are old-growth and declining. Overall, the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the stat ...

did not consider bigmouth buffalo to be at risk of extinction in its 2013 assessment, which came before recent developments in the understanding of the life history of ''Ictobius cyprinellus''.

Fishing

On June 21, 2013, Noah LaBarge (12 years old) caught the Wisconsin state record bigmouth buffalo fish. It measured and weighed . It was caught on 8-lb-test line on the

Wisconsin River The Wisconsin River is the longest river in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, at approximately 430 miles (692 km) long. As a tributary of the Mississippi River, it is part of the Mississippi River System. The river's name was first recorded in 1673 b ...

at Devil's Elbow, which is on the north end of the Petenwell Flowage. It was officially recognized to be the new world record by the National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame as both 8-lb-line class and all tackle. At Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, Jeff Wilkins caught a record bigmouth buffalo while fishing on

Percy Priest Lake J. Percy Priest Lake is a reservoir in north central part of Tennessee. It is formed by J. Percy Priest Dam, located between miles six and seven of the Stones River. The dam (easily visible from Interstate 40) is located about east of do ...

. The fish, caught in the Seven Points area of the lake on March 31, 2010, was in length. According to the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, it took 35 minutes for Wilkins to reel in the fish. The catch beat the previous record of , caught by Greg Megibben in 2001, also at Percy Priest. After the record was certified, Wilkins released the fish back into the lake. In

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the List of cities in Nebraska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is located in the Midwestern United States along the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's List of United S ...

, Joe Slavic caught a bigmouth buffalo using

mulberry ''Morus'', a genus of flowering plants in the family Moraceae, consists of 19 species of deciduous trees commonly known as mulberries, growing wild and under cultivation in many temperate world regions. Generally, the genus has 64 subordinat ...

bait on June 8, 2000 in a Dodge County sand pit. The

International Game Fish Association The International Game Fish Association (''IGFA'') is the leading authority on angling pursuits and the keeper of the most current world record fishing catches by fish categories. Fishermen who are sport fishers and anglers are careful to follow ...

all-tackle record stands at , caught on April 21, 1980 by Delbert Sisk in

Bastrop, Louisiana Bastrop is a city in Morehouse Parish, Louisiana, Morehouse Parish, Louisiana, United States. It is the parish seat of Morehouse Parish. The population was 9,691 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, down from 11,365 in 2010 United Sta ...

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Ictiobus Taxa named by Achille Valenciennes Fish described in 1844 Freshwater fish of North America