# Unidentified Ohio River Monster



## chrishenks

I found this fish camping in South Eastern Indiana. The location is near Patriot, about five miles inland from the Ohio River, near the Markland Dam. The fish was laying about 70 yards from a large creek, which floods wide with heavy rain. The body was so decomposed it had no bugs, and had no stench. The fish could have swam up from the river in a flood, fairly large catfish have made it up in the past. After countless hours searching and searching, no pictures I come across seem to match. Visible in the pictures attached, the majority of the creature has been eaten by some other animal. Based on the size of the head, I don't think it's unlikely that the fish is a long, maybe 3-4 footer. It lay for, a fairly long time, in the drive through the woods that leads to the campsite. Any help or info or opinion would be very appreciated in identifying this river monster. Thanks!


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## fishinnick

Goliath flathead rainbow bluegill pickerel. So you found it a few years ago five miles from the river? It may not have come from the river at all, who knows. 

Honestly, the fish it resembles the most would be a salmon, but.......


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## M.Magis

Could that be a bowfin, with a flattened, dried out head? I&#8217;ve never caught one, so I&#8217;m not that familiar with their teeth. But it&#8217;s the first thing that comes to mind, assuming no one dumped a salmon there.


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## fishinnick

If it's not a salmon, a bowfin would be my next guess but that still doesn't really look like a bowfin at all. They don't have a hooked upper jaw, and even though they have teeth(and sharp ones at that) they are definitely not as big as the ones in the big.


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## fishinnick

Here's a 'fin from this spring. If location wasn't a factor, salmon/steelhead/trout would be my first guess, if I had to have a second guess a bowfin would be an etremely remote second guess, and I have no third guess. 99% sure it's not a bowfin 

Something prehistoric??lol


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## chrishenks

Wow yeah the chinook salmon was incredibly close. Other than the protruded forehead, but that is somewhat minor. An the bowfin, that was ran over, is also likely. I found this of a dead chinook 
farm6.staticflickr.com/5132/5438264316_587e50937c_z.jpg


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## jlami

It looks like what we used to call a grinnel on the Mississippi? You guys up here in Ohio call them bowfins, in Minnesota they are referred to as eelpout and they have a huge ice fishing festival based around them every year. They are also similar to the snakehead.

Disclaimer : I did not catch any of the fish pictured below.

Why is everybody always picking on me?


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## fishinnick

jlami, the fish you are reffering to are burbot(aka eelpout), a freshwater cod. Lots of people seem to get bowfin and burbot, and even snakeheads mixed up.


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## jlami

fishinnick said:


> jlami, the fish you are reffering to are burbot(aka eelpout), a freshwater cod. Lots of people seem to get bowfin, burbot, and snakeheads mixed up.


You are correct, they are all very similar species and I would be willing to bet that they are closely related. I have never pulled an eelpout out of the Mississippi. I have however caught many "grinnel" (not sure if that is hillbilly for bowfin or not) but it is a very similar fish.

Why is everybody always picking on me?


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## fishinnick

Not trying to pick on you, just trying to inform you(and whoever else) of the differences. I too always learn stuff almost everyday from this forum, that's what makes it great! 

Actually I don't think they're closely related at all, well depends how close you consider close lol. Burbot prefer cold, deep, northern waters and bowfins prefer warm swampy waters with vegetation. Bowfins can actually breath air like gar.

If I had to guess bowfins would probably be more related to snakeheads than burbot, but snakeheads are native to Asia where as bowfin and burbot are native to North America. They can also breath air. They're all pretty prehistoric looking!


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## sherman51

im not sure what it really is, but it does look alot like a fall salmon. the way the jaws hook and the dog like teeth. i,ve never seen those other fish listed up close enough to even guess what they would look like all decomposed like that. but i could believe its a salmon that someone has thrown away.
sherman


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## jlami

fishinnick said:


> Not trying to pick on you, just trying to inform you(and whoever else) of the differences. I too always learn stuff almost everyday from this forum, that's what makes it great!


I don't think you are picking on me... That is just my signature because I tend to get myself into trouble with the mods from time to time. Of course it is never my fault.

I am by no means an expert. I think all those species look similar... The "grinnel" we used to catch when I was a kid did have a hook jaw and gnarly teeth. They also had an almost florescent/pearl blue/green tongue. Possibly a pollutant induced mutation of the bowfin? Idk, like I said, no expert!

Why is everybody always picking on me?


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## fishinnick

Ok that makes sense haha. Usually there's a line separating the post from the signiture but I guess you can get rid of it.

The one in the pic is the most colorful one I caught, but I guess during spawing season they're mouths can get blue/green also. The bowfin angers group website has some cool pics. Luckily I'm carful when unhooking them, but yeah they do have some pretty sharp teeth. Pretty bony heads too, need sharp hooks. Man, we went really off topic lol


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## triton175

I'm pretty sure it's a juvenile black rat snake.


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## jlami

Legend Killer sent me a pm and asked if I thought it was a musky. Lol

Why is everybody always picking on me?


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## pppatrick

http://bowfinanglers.com/ 

excellent resource for bowfin info.

bowfin get that neon blue/green tint to fins, mouth and sometimes entire body during their spawning phase. bowfin share nothing in their genus with snake head. nothing. they are in the same order as gar though.

that fish looks like every decomposed species of salmo genus (salmon, trout) i've ever seen.


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## Salmonid

I ve caught hundreds of Chinook Salmon over the years and the teeth, jaw and whole picture looks dead on to be some sort of salmon, ( Chinook, coho etc) and it sounds like the size is right, ( 3-4 ft long ) as most Great lakes salmon ( Chinook) are usually in the 15-30 lb range and typically peek out around 34-40", Im guessing someone caught them last fall durring the spawning run, brought it home and then pitched the carcas...Thats my story and Im sticking to it....

Salmonid


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## chrishenks

Decomposing chinook salmon - closest thing i've ever seen. What do you think?


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## JimmyMac

Maybe someone had it for dinner or used parts of it for catfish bait? Not everything around water has to come out of it, people do weird stuff.


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## Bass Assasin Slaton

definately a salmon species of sorts


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## Shortdrift

Looks like a king Salmon to me.


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## Saugeye Tom

That , beleive it or not looks like a king salmon to me. Just a guess, mind you! Tom


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