Buffalo Fish

[Terrierman]

Well.  I can say with no doubt that buffalo ribs are some of the best fried fish I ever had.  Commercial fished Missouri River at Jefferson City.  

[BilletHead]

8 hours ago, tjm said:

 

It seems to me that sport fishing and conservation are at opposite ends of the spectrum. One can't truly be both. 

                    What is your definition of a sport fishing?   I think all of us that fish on this forum do so for sport. While some here myself included do keep a meal now and again. I still fish for recreation and a hobby and go places many won't just to catch and release a specific fish. All about natives and did challenges in three states that direct the funds we spent to do the challenge directly to natives and their restoration.  The other challenge we are into and completed the first covers many states and the proceeds of that are given also to states that are into protecting natives. 

[fishinwrench]

1 hour ago, Terrierman said:

Well.  I can say with no doubt that buffalo ribs are some of the best fried fish I ever had.  Commercial fished Missouri River at Jefferson City.  

Back when I was just a little pup, Buffalo were the main target of commercial fishermen on the Mississippi and lower Salt river.  My grandpa HATED commercial fishermen!   If you ever had a trammel net caught on your lower unit you'd quickly learn to hate them too.   

I've tried preparing them before..... it's like butchering a hog, and didn't turn out very tasty at all.   But there was a riverside restaurant in Louisiana, Mo. called "Badeye's" that served Buffalo & hush puppies..... Absolutely delicious 😋. River barges even used to pull over and dock there just so the crew could run in and grab boxes of food (and cases of beer) to go.  

[jdmidwest]

My elders used to can them with pressure cookers and make fish cakes out of them.  I don't recall the taste was any different than salmon made ones.

They would spawn in the spring above Wappappello Lake near Greenville where we would snag or gig them.  It was a local festivity that brought people together for the harvest.  Funny, I have not heard or seen it happen in the last 40 years.  But my fishing turned to other things and the shoal is a big log jam area now.

White bass run there also, but it has declined to almost nothing.

[Mitch f]

They serve carp and Buffalo ground and twisted in a corkscrew shape (to grind up the bones) then fried at all of those fish shacks in Grafton, IL near Pierre Marquette. Twice a year I take my kids to Grafton and ride the ferry over and drive the great river road back. They now have a trolly going up the “Mountain” (as my youngest calls it) to a cool restaurant at the top that has a beautiful view. We then go down to the Loading Dock bar and grill where they now have an Ice Rink. Fun day 

[nomolites]

I used to work in Alton/Wood River and have many buffalo sandwiches/lunches - I enjoy it as it is a unique prepped/served fish, but there are many other fish I enjoy more.

Mike

[fishinwrench]

4 hours ago, Mitch f said:

They serve carp and Buffalo ground and twisted in a corkscrew shape (to grind up the bones) then fried at all of those fish shacks in Grafton, IL near Pierre Marquette. Twice a year I take my kids to Grafton and ride the ferry over and drive the great river road back. They now have a trolly going up the “Mountain” (as my youngest calls it) to a cool restaurant at the top that has a beautiful view. We then go down to the Loading Dock bar and grill where they now have an Ice Rink. Fun day 

Was poking around in the caves around Grafton once and came across A BODY!  😳

We freaked out and GTFOT.   Reported it to the local law and they "investigated"...... Turned out to be a mannequin.  😅

[Mitch f]

27 minutes ago, fishinwrench said:

Was poking around in the caves around Grafton once and came across A BODY!  😳

We freaked out and GTFOT.   Reported it to the local law and they "investigated"...... Turned out to be a mannequin.  😅

You sure you weren’t poking around at the White House? 😂

[FishnDave]

I've caught Bigmouth, Smallmouth, and Black Buffalos on flies.  Not impossible to catch, but typically VERY difficult.  Whereas a Common Carp, and even Grass Carp in some areas, will react and move to eat a fly... Buffalos often ignore a fly altogether.  I've put flies near them and usually see absolutely zero reaction from the fish.  If you can get the fly PERFECTLY into their path, sometimes they will eat it as they are vacuuming their way across the bottom.

But also, you can continue to be completely amazed as @Ham gets them (and silver carp too!) to aggressively feast on a giant articulated streamer. 😲

[tjm]

On 11/11/2023 at 6:41 PM, BilletHead said:

What is your definition of a sport fishing? 

More than likely it's the definition of "conservation" that we disagree on. We can't climb up and down banks, drag boats over shoals or have wakes hitting the shores without doing harm to the environment. We have all at some time had a chunk of leader or line break off that will remain in the environment from several hundred years for nylon to forever fluorocarbon and spectra, and if you think about it there are a few other destructive things we do without remorse, like stepping on, killing, or kicking loose thousands of invertebrates when we wade. None of these things can be construed  as any form of conservation. Sit on a bench in a trout park for an hour or two and watch how many line clippings fall to the ground and are never picked up, one for every knot or perhaps more? Stocking of non-native fish to give sports anglers variety at the risk of damaging or displacing native fish is not conservation.  Transporting trophy fish miles from their homes and releasing them in a strange/hostile location for the sake of ego/money is not conservation. All "in my opinions"  of course. And I do realize that some one else may say that extirpating bison and replacing them with Herefords is conservation in their  view. Stocking of any hatchery raised fish has been shown to be detrimental to wild fish populations of the same species in studies, so are anti-conservation in nature, yet those stockings of sport fish are always done in the name of conservation.