Buffal Hunting
Jeff Skelton
Buffalo Hunting
Have you heard of this? Do you or have you
ever had the experience of taking on this mas-
sive fish? A fast-growing sport among carp
anglers is the art of Buffalo Hunting. Most of
the fisheries/Pay lakes here in the south are
stocked with this massive brute providing their
patrons the opportunity of catching the fish of
a lifetime regarding size and fight. Its proper
name is Smallmouth Buffalo (Ictiobus bubal-
us, from the Greek for “bull-fish”/”buffalo”) is
a Cypriniformes fish species found in the pri-
mary tributaries and surrounding waters of the
Mississippi River in the United States as well as
some other water systems where it has been in-
troduced. It is a stocky fish like its relatives the
bigmouth buffalo (Ictiobus cyprinellus) and the
black buffalo (Ictiobus niger). The smallmouth
buffalo’s mouth is located ventrally like other
Catostomidae species while the bigmouth buf-
falo’s mouth is terminal and opens forward, and
the smallmouth buffalo’s eyes are significantly
larger than those of the black buffalo. These
three species are superficially similar to the common carp (Cyprinus carpio), but all lack the characteris-
tic barbels that are a feature of the common carp.
Physical Characteristics
The coloration of smallmouth buffalo ranges
from shades of gray to brown and coppery
green dorsally and pale yellow to white ventral-
ly. Fin colors match the portion of the body they
attach to and are darker towards the tips. They
are characteristically stocky, having a hump
that rises from where the operculum sits. Pec-
toral fins protrude ventrally like the anal fins,
the caudal fin has even lobes, and the dorsal
fin protrudes from the top of the hump to a
blunt point then shortens and runs the remain-
ing length of the body to the base of the tail.
Average adults reach a length of around 16–24
in with some specimens reaching as much as
35 inches.
4