buffolo in minnesota are they indagered

[mymaro]

ok ive been reading a couple post and people are talking of buffalo being indangered is this true or not

also my buddy cant get it in his head that bullhead are a roughfish now im looking at the reg. book right now and at the end of list it says bullhead is it right cause he is adiment about them not being rough fish

[Lunker]

No, Buffalo are not indangered. There are quite a lot of smallmouth buffalo, bigmouth, and I think there is a black variety. They are not as prolific as carp, but I think that is likely because populations are smaller because of either the fact that they are native(i think) or competition with carp.

Here is a quote from the dnr page

"Buffalo are abundant in much of Minnesota and are in no danger of overharvest. Ditching and draining for farmlands, which eliminated shallow lakes, may have reduced bigmouth buffalo populations in the first half of the 20th century."

I have caught a few in the Miss above the ford dam, and seen a few caught in the Minn.

[mymaro]

ok well its just in all the bowfishing post ive read people are say stuff about dont shoot buffalo and i was confused when i go out bowfishingi see tons of buffalo and have got prolly one in the boat everytime had lots on they are just strong and pull my arrow out sometimes the ones aint small either 15-20 pounds most of em

[Lunker]

I think most people would rather see the carp get the arrow, maybe that's why. But as with many other "rough"fish, buffalo are fair game. Just make sure you don't arrow any of the big furry ones.

[frabillfisher]

The only reason people say not to shoot buffalo is for one theres not as many and dont quote me on this if im wrong i dont think they do as much damage as carp and another is because they are native to this land

[mncarphntr]

Buffalo are native fish and not as destructive as carp so shouldn't be hammered on as hard as carp but Buffalo, especially Bigmouth, are an awesome bowfishing quarry. Big, strong and quite good eating. I'm always looking for more buffalo lakes. We don't have them this far north so I have to travel a ways to find them but they are worth the effort!

[Roughfisher]

Good post, I would add that the black buffalo is a "Special Concern" species, which is one step above "Threatened". So you can still kill unlimited numbers of them if you want to.

Buffalo are fair game for the bowfisher, legally. Morally, I would only shoot them if you're going to eat them. They are a true native american fish, awesome gamefish, beneficial to the environment, and, unlike carp, they are declining in numbers and range. At the very least, I think a self-imposed limit of 10 buffalo per day would be a good idea for bowfishers. The bigmouths swim slowly near the surface and I have seen them completely eradicated from an entire lake by bowfishers shooting 50-100 per day for an entire summer. Then the carp take over and there are no more buffalo to shoot!

[TheIceFishingKid]

I lived in southern minnesota for a few years and one winter the DNR allowed a guy and some friends to harvest a large number of buffalo by cutting a large hole in the ice and use a large metal net to catch them. When I say a large number I mean they had to use a tractor to lift the net out it was so heavy. They would sell them to a food company in new york. They did it on a number of lakes in the Jackson/Worthington area.