Most likely you caught a River Redhorse, and big one at that. Congrats! The spines on the nose were tubercles, which the males have during the spawn.

Hopefully the bar owner will take a long walk off a short pier…

Consequences for killing a protected animal in WI are $2,000-$5,000 , loss of hunting/fishing privileges for 3 years and possibly 9 months in prison.

The DNR wanting a species killed thing seems to come up every once in a while, I cannot find any time (even in the past) when killing native species was condoned by the DNR. Rarely do they even condone killing non-natives.

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I looked online and there are seven redhorse species in MN and WI. I would think it would take a fisheries biologist to tell them apart.

Mwal

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No need to be a biologist. Once you know what to look for most of the redhorse species are easy to identify. The toughest is probably the Black (looks much like a golden) and even that even that one can be identified definitively by anyone who can count to 47 (number of lateral line scales)

I’m pretty sure the Namekagon has Shortheads, Goldens, Silvers, and River Redhorse. Rivers are the biggest and are protected in WI. There might be Greaters in there too, which are very large and protected as well.

Did the fish have a red/orange tail or a greyish tail? That is the first step in narrowing down redhorse species.

With a decent picture we ought to be able to get it pegged down pretty easy, do you have one?