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Fresh-water Skipjack; Blue Herring
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This species is found in all the larger streams of the Mississippi Valley and has been introduced through canals into Lakes Erie and Michigan. As ordinarily seen it is strictly a fresh-water fish, but along the Gulf coast it enters salt water examples of large size and excessive fatness are occasionally taken. In Lake Erie it is called "sawbelly," from the ventral scutes. This species reaches a length of 15 inches, rarely takes the hook, and is of very little value as a food-fish.
Head 3 3/4; depth 3 3/4; eye 4 1/3; D. 16; A. 18; scales 52; ventral scutes 20+30. Body elliptical, much compressed; head rather slender and pointed, its upper profile straight; lower jaw strongly projecting, its tip entering the profile; upper jaw emarginate; premaxillary, and often tip of lower jaw, with persistent teeth of moderate size; maxillary large, reaching posterior part of eye; eye large, well covered by adipose eyelid; caudal peduncle slender, the caudal fin well forked; gillrakers comparatively few, short, stout, and coarse, about 23 below angle of arch; opercle with radiating and branching striae. Colour, brilliant blue above, sides silvery with golden reflections; no dark spots behind opercle; peritoneum pale.