Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Paddlefish... aka "Spoonbill"

Using the search, I have found next to nothing here about this amazing fish. I love "snagging" for them below the dam at Kentucky Lake in the spring. They are a truly unique species that is, imho, some of the best flesh you can throw on a grill!

I saw on a link to one of the Pond Boss members sites, that they were selling pellet trained spoonbill, and I know that some folks in KY are growing them in ponds for their caviar.

I think it would be neat to have a half dozen or so in a pond, as pellet trained pets more or less, until time for the grill of course

Anybody have any experience with these in their pond? Any thoughts as to "if" or "how" it would work?

BJ,

We used to snag them on the Osage river below Lake of the Ozarks...great fun.

However, I doubt they would survive in a pond. They are a river fish, in my understanding of them and experience with them.

Spoonbills might do well in a small body of water.

Check this out:

http://pubinternet.wp.state.ks.us/kdwp_info/news/hot_topics/144_lb_paddlefish_caught

The PA Fish and Boat Commission is underway with a large project to re-introduce these fish in to PA rivers.

There may actually be a "minimum" size for a pond to support paddlefish, but I am definitely aware of a couple of Nebraska sandpits that produced 70 lb+ spoonies. It would seem to me that the fish would need large amounts of plankton to thrive and would need a long enough runway to be able to effectively scoop and filter. If I'm not mistaken that's what paddlefish do--they use the upper half of the water column and cruise for plankton. You would also have to estimate the impact on the plankton population as it relates to other species which are planktivores.

Great link, SHORTY.

Bruce, if my memeory serves me right, that 144 lb paddlefish was caught in a 100 acre lake.

144 lbs on algae? That sounds like the fresh water equivalent of a Whale Shark.

If they breed fast enough, ML will be stocking them in his larger ponds in lieu of Tilapia.

I have a customer who stocked them in a 5 acre pond this year. Anyone wanting to contact him please send me an email, not a PM. Thanks

Had a DO crash in my pond (2 hours from my home) a couple of months ago. When I finally got up there to check it out I saw a dead paddle fish that looked to be about 25" long (Body) and about 15-20 pounds. A neighbor stopped by and I was telling him I had no idea how it got there. His son came up and said he had caught it in the Ohio River three years ago and put it in then. So they can live in bodies of water of about an acre. That's what happens when you can't be at your pond all the time.

I am definitely interested and have a permit! It is my understanding that paddlefish can live in a lake just fine but that the young are easy pickings for any predator.

To see a few paddle fish swimming on top taking pellets would be a sight that would astound anyone. Can you imagine something like that?

Please tell me who I can contact to get some.

Norm, I think it would be a special thrill to your guests.

Norm's pond is lahk a box a' chock a lahts.

Ya never know whatcha gonna git.

fishraker, how did you react to the supplemental stocking done by your neighbors kid? Did he fess up to putting anything else in? Just curious.

Norm, I'm sending you an email.

Sunil, I wasn't too happy, but I couldn't say too much because they watch over the place since I can't be there. I haven't seen any evidence of any other stocking. I was certantly surprised to see that paddlefish though!

In our oxbow lakes - not the ponds I post about here- we have lots of spoonbill catfish aka paddlefish aka Polyodon spathula aka Mississippi paddlefish. It is a total shock when fishing to have them jump entirely out of the water near the boat when you are not expecting it. At 40 lbs and 4+ ft. it will scare the he## out of you. Along with the gators , gator gar , gator snappers ,huge cypress trees, spanish moss and fog it is quite prehistoric. I will try to scan and post a pic of one of many we electrofished up.

For anyone not familiar with the spoonbill, there isn't a bone in the whole fish. When you clean it, you cut off the head, remove the guts and take out the spinal, jelly like cord with the tail. Everything left is steaks! It tastes a lot like swordfish, kinda has the same texture too.

I know for a fact that Kentucky pond owners are making a mint off the "spoonfish" as they call it caviar since problems with the beluga supply.
http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051226/BUSINESS/512260318/1003

I also know that survival in a small pond is possible as I found one in a drained pond of about 2 acres some time back. He was about 20 pounds.

Here's where I found the hatchery that has pellet fed ones. http://www.mckenzieco.com/species.html

They just have notochords, not backbones, like coelacanths? That IS ancient.

I don't know exactly what a "notochord" is But it's not bones/vertibrae, it's a kinda gelatinous cord that I probably would have run around "whipping" things with as a child

It's a truly amazing and unique fish.... and did I mention yummy!

Notochords are what non-vertabrate members of the (Order?) Chordata have instead of spines and spinal chords. (All vertabrates are chordates, but not all chordates are vertabrates.) It is supposed to be an oily fluid filled tube running about where you would expect to find the backbone.

Chordates predated the development of vertabrates. IIRC "fishes" are so ancient that they include both vertabrate and non-vertabrate chordates. Perhaps the best known member of the latter group are the coelacanths, the living fossils though to be extinct for 60-200 million years before having a live specimen caught off Madagascar identified about 1931. (There are multiple species of coelacanths still around and they are also find near Indonesia.) Based on your description, Blackjack, it sounds to me like the paddlefish is another non-vertabrate chordate.

paddlefish
Related: Vertebrates

large freshwater fish, Polyodon spathula, of the Mississippi valley, also called spoonbill or duckbill and named for its flattened, paddle-shaped snout. The largest specimens weigh well over 150 lb (67.5 kg) and reach 6 ft (183 cm) in length. The snout may be a third of the length of the body; it is equipped with sense organs that assist the fish in finding its prey of small crustaceans, which it strains out with gill rakers (see gill ). Paddlefishes are primitive; unlike most modern fishes, they have skins with reduced scales, almost wholly cartilaginous skeletons, and upturned tail fins. They are uniform leaden gray in color. Valued as food fish, their greenish black eggs, like the more highly valued ones of the distantly related sturgeon , are used to make caviar . A Chinese species found in the Chang (Yangtze) River is said to grow to 20 ft (610 cm). Paddlefishes are classified in the phylum Chordata , subphylum Vertebrata, class Osteichthyes, order Acipenseriformes, family Polyodontidae.


Parent taxa

Phylum Chordata (chordates)
Craniata (craniates)
Subphylum Vertebrata (vertebrates)
Superclass Gnathostomata (jawed vertebrates)
•
Euteleostomi (bony vertebrates)
Class Actinopterygii (ray-finned fishes)
Class Sarcopterygii (lobe-finned fishes and terrestrial vertebrates)
•
•
Tetrapoda (tetrapods)
•
Amniota (amniotes)
Synapsida (synapsids)
•
•
Class Mammalia (mammals)
Early Therapsida (early therapsids)
Class Reptilia (reptiles)
Anapsida (tortoises and turtles)
Order Testudines (tortoises and turtles)
Diapsida (birds, crocodiles, lizards, snakes, and relatives)
Archosauria (birds and crocodiles)
•
•
Class Aves (birds)
Order Crocodilia (caimans, crocodiles, and relatives)
Lepidosauria (amphisbaenians, lizards, snakes, and tuataras)
Order Rhynchocephalia (tuataras)
Order Squamata (amphisbaenians, lizards, and snakes)
Class Amphibia (amphibians)
Subclass Dipnoi (lungfishes)
Actinistia
Order Coelacanthiformes (coelacanths)
Class Chondrichthyes (rays, sharks, and relatives)
Placodermi (armored fishes and placoderms)
Class Cephalaspidomorphi

... Looks up at all those words....

This forum is, without a doubt, the brainiest place I've ever been to.

Blackjack, some of these threads "really get into it". What's great about this forum is that there's lots of info for everyone. Some of the threads are extremely technical about aeration, electricity to our lakes, compaction of soils, genetics of fish, relationship of one species to another and much, much more. And yet, there is still plenty of info for beginners.

Blackjack :

As Norm says the forum members will try to answer every question . I think you will find here that it is true that no question is to simple or complex. We may not always agree and there may not be an answer to evey question but you will get a good discussion and an honost effort. Glad you joined us for the ride and I hope you have as much fun here as we do.

Here's one of seven of the dang things we picked up week before last while jigging for walleyes...

[img]http://images.snapfish.com/3459%3A5542%7Ffp335%3Enu%3D323%3B%3E756%3E465%3EWSNRCG%3D323345667%3B528nu0mrj[/img]

This was a smaller one, maybe 5-6 lbs. Biggest that day was about 4 feet, and 18-20 lbs.

Uncle Roger only me take his picture with this one, because I said I wanted to show the wife what one looked like. I'm not sposed to show it ANYBODY else...so keep it a secret.

Holy notochords You accidentally snagged 7 spoonbill in one day while jigging for walleye?

There must be a HUGE population of Spoons where you fish.

Nice bonus for the day..... but did you catch any 'eyes?