Paddlefish on the horizon in Miami

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March 19, 2010

Anonymous The Joplin Globe Fri Mar 19, 2010, 08:59 PM CDT

By Roger McKinney

rmckinney@joplinglobe.com

MIAMI, Okla. — It was early Friday afternoon, and Rick Pulley was giving up for the day.

Pulley, of Miami, already had lost two hooks and some sinkers trying to snag paddlefish in Riverview Park.

“I haven’t snagged anything,” Pulley said. He said he caught his first paddlefish, also called spoonbill, last year. It weighed 35 pounds.

“It’s pretty exciting,” he said.

Pulley said he had only been out snagging one day last week this year. He said he has seen some people snagging the fish.

“I know they’re out there,” Pulley said. “It’s just a matter of getting lucky.”

Dennis Taylor, 57, of Miami, on Friday was monitoring the Neosho River, but not fishing. He said he has been snagging spoonbill since he was 11.

“The run is yet to start,” Taylor said of the spawning run. He said a few male spoonbill have arrived, but the females are waiting for the river to rise. He said it had dropped a bit on Friday. “They’re staging down the river,” he said.

Catch-and-release

The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation has designated Mondays and Fridays as catch-and-release only. Taylor said he always catches and releases.

“We’ve been catching them spotty all week,” he said. Taylor said his biggest catch was an 86-pounder, about 15 years ago.

He said when the spawning run begins, there will be hundreds of people trying to snag paddlefish.

“These banks will be full when it starts,” he said. “With the next raise (of the river level), it could be here overnight.”

He said large groups of people will arrive from Nebraska and Iowa, each with a dozen boats, and stay for a week.

The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation operates the Paddlefish Research and Processing Center, north of Miami in Twin Bridges State Park. When paddlefish are running, fishermen can call the center’s phone number, and it will send someone to their location to pick up the fish and process it.

Keith Green, paddlefish program coordinator, said during the height of the season, the center has 40 people working part-time butchering and processing the fish for the anglers.

Caviar

Part of that is harvesting paddlefish caviar, the eggs, or roe, from the prehistoric fish. Last year, the wholesale price for the eggs was $112 a pound, which was down from about $185 the year before, Green said.

He said last year, revenue produced for the state from the paddlefish eggs totaled $1.5 million.

Biologist Brent Gordon, with the Paddlefish Research and Processing Center, said the roe is sold to wholesalers from Europe and Japan, where it is sold in high-end retail shops.

Green and Gordon each said the main purpose of the center is the conservation of paddlefish. Green said that is the reason Mondays and Fridays were made catch-and-release days this year.

Green said the money raised from the processing side of the center is allowing the Department of Wildlife Conservation to start construction on a new $1 million building.

“The program will not work without the participation of the sport fishermen,” Green said.

Green said there is no specific paddlefish season in Oklahoma, but it is dependent on when the fish are spawning.

Pulley said he would return today with his children to try to snag spoonbill, despite the forecast of cold weather and snow.

“The colder weather makes for good fishing,” Pulley said.

And what about the taste of spoonbill? Pulley said it’s good when grilled.

“It does not have a fishy taste,” he said. “It’s really good eating.”

Kansas, Missouri

Paddlefish season in Kansas is March 15 through May 15. Paddlefish season in Missouri is from March 10 through April 30.