Field Guide

The muskellunge is long and slender, with a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. This big, nonnative pike is stocked in selected lakes in the Ozark region and near St. Louis.

The largest pike native to Missouri, the northern pike can be more than 4 feet long and weigh more than 40 pounds. Missouri is on the southern edge of the range of this species. Because of its rarity here, it is of little importance as a game fish.

The eyetail bowfin is a stout-bodied, nearly cylindrical fish. It is most abundant in the Mississippi Lowlands, though it occurs along the entire length of the Mississippi River.

The white crappie, a popular panfish, has silver sides with 5 to 10 often faint vertical bars. The upper jaw reaches past the middle of the eye. It is more abundant and widespread than the black crappie.

The black crappie is a popular panfish. It is deep bodied and slab sided. The sides are silver with an irregular pattern of dark speckles. The upper jaw is long, reaching past the middle of the eye.

The northern rock bass, or goggle-eye, is thicker than most other sunfish, with a large mouth and very large eyes. It occurs in northern Ozark streams, tributaries of the middle Mississippi, and a portion of the southwestern Ozarks; sometimes in Ozark reservoirs.

The spotted bass inhabits permanent-flowing waters that are warmer and slightly more turbid than those where the smallmouth bass occurs. Note the form of its stripe and the length of its jaw.

Primarily a marine species native to the Atlantic Coast of North America, the striped bass has been successfully stocked into several reservoirs in the United States. A silvery, elongated fish with prominent dark, horizontal stripes along the sides.

Hybrids between the striped bass and white bass are stocked by the MDC in select impoundments around the state. Also called "wipers," they attain a larger size than our native white bass.

The redear sunfish is deep and slab-sided, with a small mouth, with the upper jaw not reaching past the front of the eye. In natural waters, it is confined to the southern half of Missouri, but it is widely stocked in small reservoirs and ponds.