Dept. of Game, Fish and Parks
For Immediate Release: Wednesday, August 8, 2001
For more information:  Cliff Stone, 734-4530

TAGGED IN SOUTH DAKOTA, CAUGHT IN KENTUCKY

PIERRE -- Sometime between October of 1995 and July of 2001, a paddlefish tagged in South Dakota traveled over or through two large Missouri River Dams (Ft. Randall and Gavins Point), down the Missouri River, turned right at St. Louis into the Mississippi River, went down the Mississippi, took a left into the Ohio River, continued up the Ohio River and took another right turn into the Cumberland River before meeting its fate below Barkley Dam in western Kentucky.

"A couple of weeks ago I received a call from Doug Henley, Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife," said Cliff Stone, fisheries biologist for the Game, Fish and Parks in South Dakota. "Henley said he had an angler come into his office with a paddlefish that he had caught below Barkley Dam, which is on the Cumberland River in western Kentucky. The fish had a S.D. Game, Fish and Parks jaw tag number 4127. When the angler cleaned the fish, it also contained a sonic transmitter, number 2228.

Stone said when he investigated the department’s records, he learned the fish was tagged and implanted with the transmitter on May 25, 1995, as part of the cooperative paddlefish project near the mouth of the White River between South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). The fish was 51.5 inches from the eye to the fork of the tail when tagged.

The USFWS tracked the fish for most of the spring and summer with the last contact in Lake Francis Case being made in October, 1995 near the mouth of North Wheeler Creek about 12 miles west of Lake Andes, S.D. 

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