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Alligator Gar: Alligator gar grow to 10 feet long and 300 pounds. These toothy fish were missing from Ohio waters until a few years ago when the State of Illinois and the State of Kentucky began stocking them. Hopefully we'll be catching some of these monsters near Cincinnati soon!
Bluegill Sunfish: Bluegill are found across the United States in ponds, lakes and rivers. They are the most popular gamefish since they're easy to catch with sweet, tasty flaky flesh.
Botton Trawling: One fishing technique we use is called bottom trawling. Trawling the bottom for fish and other aquatic animals has been around for quite a while, but over the past 20 years the method has been adapted to find fish species at the bottom of our rivers to discover more about their populations.
Carp: Bighead carp feed on plankton and compete with native young of all fish and adults of some species. Grass carp feed on large aquatic plants attached to the bottom of lakes and rivers, tearing the plants up and muddying the waters. Silver carp are known for leaping out of the water into boats speeding down the river, sometimes causing injury to the boat passengers.
Lake Sturgeon: Lake sturgeon grow to 7 feet long and 300 plus pounds and were plentiful at one time in Lake Erie, but overharvesting of mature adults, damming of rivers where they spawn, plus pollution of the lake drove their population almost to extinction. The Ohio Department of Conservation stepped in to halt fishing for this incredible fish, but to this day their status remains endangered in the state. Reintroduction efforts are underway now that many dams have been removed and pollution cut dramatically so hopefully the lake sturgeon will be cruising the waters in substantial numbers again.
Northern Snakehead: Northern snakehead fish are now found in several major waterways in the United States. These fish grow to over 3 feet long and are voracious eaters as well as being able to produce a lot of young, so they definitely cause problems for fishes like smallmouth bass.
Sea Lamprey: Sea lamprey are parasites. They use their sharp teeth to latch on to large fish, then their bony tongue punches into the fish making a hole from which they suck out the host fish's blood. Once they're full they drop to the bottom to digest their meal before going back to attack another fish.
Walleye: Walleye are one of our favorite food fish. Fun to catch, delicious to eat and one of the best adapted and therefore most successful as a top predator in the Great Lakes.
Wels Catfish: Wels catfish grow up to 15 feet long. They are ravenous predators, swallowing anything they can fit in their mouths and are truly thefish kings and queens of the river.