(Radio Iowa) – The paddlefish snagging season on the Missouri and Big Sioux rivers opens today (Thursday). The D-N-R’s western Iowa fisheries supervisor, Chris Larson, says river conditions should be good.  “As soon as the ice goes off, typically on the Missouri River, that’s the some of the best times to go and this year being as warm as it was, the river froze up a little bit there during that cold snap. And now with this warmer weather the river should be opened,” he says.

Larson says water levels had been down a little because of the drought, but the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has released more water and snowmelt will add to the levels. There are size limits to protect the population.  “The majority of fish are caught in that 35 to 45 inch range. So you can harvest fish that are less than 35 inches or greater than 45 inches,” Larson says. “And we also have hook size restrictions to try and minimize the damage to the paddle fish that you’re you may snag and have to release. That’s anywhere from half inch gap to almost an inch and a quarter gap between the points.”

Larson says they sold about 300 of the 950 available tags, and around 20 percent of those with tags actually catch a paddlefish. He says there are other fish you can catch and keep.  “Game fish, it’s illegal to keep and possess a snag game fish, but you’ll catch a lot of invasive carp, bighead and silver carp are pretty numerous in the river. And you can wear your arms out catching some of those, and they inhabit the same areas the paddlefish do,” he says.

He says those who are successful in catching a paddlefish will find they are good to eat.  “They have kind of a mild white flesh. And it’s interesting with a paddle fish course they have no actual bones, they just have cartilage because they’re a primitive fish,” Larson explains. “And so there’s there not a lot of bones to get around. It tends to be the upper half of the fish that’s better eating and has less of the red meat that’s kind of associated with a lot of blood vessels and stuff. And a lot of folks I know that clean paddlefish, get rid of all that red meat and just keep the white.”

Paddlefish catch(DNR-photo)

Larson says paddlefish are unusual and there are some different rules for catching them as well.  “Probably one of the squirrely or things about the season is you can only fish in Iowa waters and above Council Bluffs, so Pottawatomie, Harrison, and Woodbury (counties), the Iowa state line isn’t always down the center of the river. Sometimes it goes out on land and sometimes crosses land on the Nebraska side of the river,” he says. “….We send hardcopy maps to those folks that bought a paddlefish license. And you can also find those lines on the internet at www.Iowadnr.gov. Once you get south of Council bluffs basically the Iowa state line runs right down the center of the river.”

The paddlefish season runs through April 30th. Larson says they are considering a change in the rules that would allow them to sell the unclaimed tags while the season is still underway.