Old Guys Old fish

Yep, two in one day ......Tom and Billie both caught a sturgeon.  Dinosaur fish caught by prehistoric men.  That is a story for the history books.

Deserved or not, the pallid sturgeon might best be known as one of the ugliest fish in North America (I'm talking about the fish, not the men!!)

With its flattened shovel-shaped snout, bony plates and long reptile-like tail, the pallid sturgeon even looks like a dinosaur.

The pallid sturgeon is one of the largest fish found in these river systems. Old reports and photographs document fish weighing more than 80 pounds and reaching lengths of six feet.

Populations of the pallid sturgeon are now so small that the big fish are rarely seen or caught by anglers. The primary reason for their decline is believed to be habitat loss caused by man.

Pallid sturgeon evolved for millions of years in a natural river system. These waters had meandering, braided channels and backwaters that provided different depths and flow velocities. But today, the pallid's habitat is altered by dams that modify flows, reduce turbidity and lower water temperatures. The river habitats of the Missouri and Mississippi also have been altered by various channels and construction of dikes that narrow the rivers and cut-off backwater areas.

The pallid sturgeon might be considered ugly to some, but to most its recovery would be nothing less than beautiful.*