The three species often mix and commonly are caught together. Vary in appearance. Buffalo Fish are available fall thru spring of the year.
See: Gefilte Fish Recipes
Big Mouth Buffalo
Colloquial names: common buffalo, gourd head buffalo, red mouth buffalo fish, stubnose buffalo, mud buffalo, lake buffalo, slough buffalo
Size: Commonly up to 30 inches and 15 pounds (6.8 kgs), but 30-40 pound fish are not unusual
The bigmouth are the largest of the buffaloes. They are most abundant in large rivers and fertile shallow lakes.
Small Mouth Buffalo
Colloquial names: blue pancake, brown buffalo, sucker mouth buffalo, rooter, razorback, quillback buffalo, carp, humped back buffalo, liner, roach back
Size: Smallest of the buffalo fish, but can grow up to 15 pounds. It is usually considered superior in flavor to the other species.
The smallmouth buffalo are more laterally compressed, have more of a humpback than the bigmouth. The smallmouth are more of a river fish, navigating depths and currents that bigmouth tend to shy away from. These fish are caught more abundantly by commercial fishermen.
Size: Most adult quillbacks fall into the 12 to 15 inch class and weigh 3 pounds or so.
The quillback are abundant in clearer streams and lakes. Small streams occasionally have populations, but their abundance is usually rare.
Nutritional value:
The buffalo fish, very similar to carp. High are protein (17%), relatively low in fat (7-8%), and contains no carbohydrates.
Features and benefits:
Buffaloes resemble carp, but have firm whiter meat and fewer bones. All of which makes high quality buffaloes excellent value for the dollar. Many consumers, with the fondness to fish, likens buffaloes to catfish. These fish can be cooked (even as gefilte fish), but in the Midwest United States, these fish are usually deep fried.
Product forms:
Buffalo Fish can be processed as either whole frozen, head on and gutted frozen, headed and gutted frozen, fillets (skin on or skinless) frozen, and mechanically deboned (minced).
