A Very Old Fish Story

A Very Old Fish Story. . Ten thousand years ago, as the Ice Age was drawing to a close, Wisconsin's fast-flowing Chippewa River carried vast quantities of sand. But where the Chippewa entered the Mississippi, ten miles downstream from here, its current slowed and the sand settled to the bottom, forming a natural dam that backed up the waters of the Mississippi. Thus was born Lake Pepin, one of the most beautiful stretches of the Mississippi. , Prehistoric Relics , Lake Pepin teems with fish, including species whose ancestry can be traced to prehistoric times. Among the largest and most unusual are the sturgeon and the paddlefish. , These primitive fish were abundant in Lake Pepin until the 1930s, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began building a network of locks and dams that altered the Mississippi River's flow all the way to St. Louis. Migratory fish like then sturgeon, paddlefish, and skipjack herring could no longer move freely upstream to spawn, and their numbers have decreased dramatically. , Sport and Commerce , With more than 85 species of fish, Lake Pepin is a resource for recreational and commercial fishing. Important game fish include northern pike, white bass, black crappie, bluegill, sauger, and walleye. Carp, smallmouth buffalo, bigmouth buffalo, flathead catfish, and freshwater drum are important commercially fished species. , 1988, State of Minnesota, Department of Natural Resources