![]() ![]() Some of the species can live 100 years or more, and only reproduce occasionally, leaving their population fragile. They also serve as essential hosts for mussel reproduction, can show when ecosystems and habitat are healthy and water is clean, and can even store a lot of carbon. “No matter what ecosystem they’re in, a lot of these fish like bowfin and gar serve as apex predators, they help maintain balance in these ecosystems,” David said. In fact, “rough fish” species are critical parts of the lakes and rivers where they live. They then came up with now-disproved theories about how these native fishes were “harming” the game fish that were preferred. Solomon David of Nicholls State University in Louisiana explained this history in his testimony, and how early fisheries biologists adopted the term. Fishing boat crews distinguished between some species that were most economically valuable, and the other “rough fish” species that were kept - but readily thrown overboard if the boat encountered shallow water and needed to lighten its load.ĭr. The division between “rough” and “game” fish began with 19th-century commercial fishing boats on the Mississippi River and its tributaries. Croix River and its tributaries is considered one of the best places to fish for several species of popular rough fish, including redhorse suckers. ![]() She pointed out that in 1890, when the state released the first report on its fish, there was almost no mention of walleye, which were “lumped in with bass and ‘other fish.'” Times change and so does fishing. “There’s no scientific distinction in the basis for what makes a rough fish or a game fish,” Becker-Finn said at the hearing. Jamie Becker-Finn of Roseville, and has now been included in broad environmental omnibus legislation.Ī House committee held a hearing on the bill in February, with testimony from the DNR, a rough fish citizen advocate, and a fisheries professor from Louisiana who has extensively studied such fish and their management. The legislation, dubbed the “No Junk Fish Bill,” was introduced in January by Rep. As scientists have pointed out, the distinction fails to value the fish for angling or the ecosystem. Minnesota currently considers rough fish to include redhorse suckers, bigmouth and smallmouth buffalo, sheepshead, bowfin, gar, goldeye and bullheads. The effort would examine many species that today allow for essentially unlimited harvest. The Department of Natural Resources will produce a report on Minnesota’s “non-game” native fish, often referred to as “rough fish,” if legislation succeeds this spring. ![]()
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