identification

can anyone identify this fish? Is it big for its species?

whoops, should have posted in the rough fish forum.

Hard to tell from that distance but looks like a Greater Redhorse.

i’m 99% sure that that is a greater redhorse. a very rare catch! and that isn’t a giant greater redhorse, but it sure aint small!

I’ve only caught one greater in my life and its an experience that i will never forget

congradulations on the awesome catch!

redhorse

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i’m 99% sure that that is a greater redhorse. a very rare catch! and that isn’t a giant greater redhorse, but it sure aint small!

I’ve only caught one greater in my life and its an experience that i will never forget

congradulations on the awesome catch!

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The head doesn’t look big enough for a great RH, but I’d would need a better picture as well. Usually the greater’s head is proportionately larger to the body then this fish. I’ve only held a couple of them. Got one near 8 pounds (absolute hog!) near Fergus Falls a couple years ago, so that particular redhorse does get pretty big. Congrats regardless of species.

the reason why i said greater was beacuse of the red on the dorsal fin

The picture is poor and too far away to be sure but it is either a River Redhorse or a Greater Redhorse. It cannot be anything else; I’m for sure on that one.

I found the other picture of my girlfriend with a fish from the same day, same spot about 5 minutes later. This one is a little closer.

I am 99% sure that is a Greater. The fins are more orange and the lobes on the tail are more rounded. A River RH has more pointy tips to the tail. Also the Rivers have more of a red color to them. To know for certain you need to count the caudal scales. Check out the species section on Roughfish.com where this is more defined. A Greater RH is a cool catch because very few guys have caught them. I have only caught one in my life and they are the largest of the Redhorses. Nice job! In WI, it is illegal to harvest them.

Thanks for all the input

I’d say its a Greater Redhorse as well. Care to share the body of water it was caught out of? That may eliminate the chance of it being a River Redhorse just by knowing where it was caught.

We caught these fish on the Rum River.

Then they were more than likely Greaters without a doubt. Very few River Redhorse in the Rum. Also, the tails upper lobe is rounded, indicating this is a Greater as well. River Redhorse will always have a sharp point to the upper tail fin lobe. Those are some nice ones. Congrats! Greater Redhorse are a pretty rare species in the state of MN now.

I think yours may be different then mine?

Also from the rum..

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I think yours may be different then mine?

Also from the rum..

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What part of the Rum? I was near Isanti.

Could be wrong, but I think yours is a silver redhorse, Jakob.

Yup, right on Ryan. Silver Redhorse

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Yup, right on Ryan. Silver Redhorse

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LOL, I am starting to figure ’em out

That is definitely a Silver Redhorse. The Silver is the only Redhorse with a convex dorsal fin.

Hey Wierd fisherman,
Is that you Doc? If so, it is nice to have another hardcore roughfisher on this site. Welcome my friend.

Yup, its me Mike. Thanks for the welcome. I’m a long time lurker of this site, I’ll contribute what I can now.

Here is another from the rum – I think this may be the same as the one you were looking for identification.

We were out of St. Francis for the silver redhorse. We have currently worked all the way to isanti on the rum with hopes on working up past princeton this year and the rest of the rum the year after.

We have done everything from Isanti down to Anoka as of right now. If you want to get out this year, shoot me a PM and we can meet up

that appears to be a greater from what i can see

For sure it’s not a Shorthead, Black, Silver, or Golden. That leaves us with Greater or River again. It appears to be another Greater and given the body of water it came from I would guess Greater.

Color is not a super reliable factor but it seems that most Greaters have Orange fins while Rivers have dark red fins.

It sure looks like another Greater to me as well. The Rum is known to be full of them, from what I’ve read. I’ve caught one out of the Rum, it was in the Cambridge area. They seem to be more of a common catch when the water cools in the late fall. Heres a few I have caught over the past few years for comparison…

Some good looking fish

nice fish, I will definitely be up for fishing the rum again, it was alot of fun catching those fish, they put up a hell of a fight.

ever get any in the spring on the rum?

You guys are all wrong. Those are all suckers.

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You guys are all wrong. Those are all suckers.

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Their all just Flathead bait, right Pug?

You should join us on the Croix for the annual nt-fishing “sucker” fishing extravaganza. You would have a blast.