PADDLEFISH

This is my nephew Hunter Fuqua with a paddlefish from Intake, Montana. Once a year they let 1000 of them be caught. It used to be catch and release but because of the collapse of the sturgeon stocks in the world there is a big demand for the paddlefish eggs for caviar. Paddlefish are one of the oldest fishes dating their first appearance at 300 to 400 million years ago (50 million years before dinosaurs! If not caught, they can live for around 50 years, can reach 5 ft long and more than 60 pounds. The largest paddlefish on record was caught in Ohio and was 198 pounds! They have been known to travel more than 2000 miles in a river system. There is only one other species as a member of the same family and that is the Chinese paddlefish found in the Yangtze River. Why is this in my blog? Well, because I grew up in Glendive, Montana and actually went fishing in Intake with my father but I had never heard of a paddlefish until last year when my sister Carole was telling me about all her boys coming home to fish for the Paddlefish. Actually they don't fish for them, they hook them with grappling hooks. Now, see you have learned something new---I thought it rather fascinating, myself.