Minnesotan Fish Migrates 400 Miles?

As I suspected I totes enjoyed my pontoon ride with the professor from Saint Mary's University who studies fishes of the Mississippi River near Winona.  Here the prof, a grad student and two volunteers pull in a gill net with holes 6x6 inches.  We didn't collect any fish in this gill net just below the dam in Winona near Prairie Island.  See the bluffs in the background? Those are Wisconsin bluffs.  The day was perfect and we got very warm wearing our life vests.

The smaller gill net caught some fish including this sturgeon. I really wanted to see a sturgeon; a fish from the dinosaur days with thick bumpy flesh. My wish was granted and I got to touch it too.  This one is 2 or 3 years old. 

Such a beauty. We watched as it was placed in a cradle and a micro chip (similar to the ones put into dogs and cats) was inserted under it's thick skin.  Some fish micro-chipped in Winona have been found 400 miles to the north in the tributaries of the Saint Croix river.  I knew birds migrated.  And I knew salmon migrated. I guess I didn't realize Minnesota fish migrate that far.

That sturgeon was a beauty from any angle.

The gar was also a beauty with a shark like appearance.  The gar is a cousin to the sturgeon but less prehistoric.  The skin on the gar was smooth and velvety compared to the thick leathery skin of the sturgeon.

This is a bowfish.  I remember catching one and was told it was a dog fish. With either name it has a face only a mother could love. And what about that big white tongue?  OMG.!  We were having a heck of a good time on the pontoon on the river. We trapped some carp and a red horse too.  Once, one of the fish escaped the arms of the prof and landed in the lap of a woman across the pontoon from me.  I would have screamed louder than she did!  Another woman was embarrassed because she needed so much assistance to get on and off the boat.  Three men basically lifted her down.  While she was embarrassed, the rest of us on the boat admired her gumption and the fact that she even wanted to come given her problems with her knees.

In the smallest net we got some perch, a northern pike with sharp teeth that cut the finger of the guy handling all these fish, a painted turtle and two map turtles.  This lines on the shell resemble a topographic map.  The yellow eyebrow distinguishes it from the other map turtles but I don't know which of the 3 map turtles this is.  What a great day on the pontoon with people excited to be there; exited to see the fish; excited to be on the Mississippi River, and enjoying the enthusiasm of the conservation biology professor, the prof of philosophy who was piloting our boat, and the fishery grad student.  The city of Winona owns a campground right here. In September a blue grass music festival is held in front of the city campground.  Some concert goers are on land and others are in canoes.  Some performers prefer to play on a sandbar.  I want to come back to this spot and go camping.