Althouse: What's this fish (or other beast) near the shore of Lake Mendota at sunrise today?

May 29, 2026

What's this fish (or other beast) near the shore of Lake Mendota at sunrise today?

Video by Meade.

Also this morning:

28 comments:

Leland said...: The blue of the water is gorgeous.; 5/29/26, 8:10 AM
Dave Begley said...: Fish sex.; 5/29/26, 8:13 AM
MadTownGuy said...: Wow. Meade does sunrises too!; 5/29/26, 8:16 AM
Wince said...: “…he's got lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be livin' until he bites ya…”; 5/29/26, 8:17 AM
madison mike said...: Perhaps suckers spawning......I've seen shorelines with suckers every 2-3 feet broaching on rocks.....Lake Wingra in Madison, Sioux Lookout in Ontario; 5/29/26, 8:24 AM
Ice Nine said...: Mendotssie; 5/29/26, 8:25 AM
rehajm said...: Yah Dave maybe I see two backs and dorsals and tails bit maybe wrong time for fish mating. As a fly fisher I know there are pre emergers and some just below the surface bugs where fish will swim that way not really breaking the surface with their mouths, just slurping up the protein. I know because sometimes a guide will yell at me for not knowing when to set. Well with your twelve foot long leader and tippet set up I have no effing idea where that tiny nymph at the end is dammit…; 5/29/26, 8:29 AM
Bob Boyd said...: It's the dreaded Chupaganso. Watch out.; 5/29/26, 8:31 AM
rehajm said...: yah looks sucker-ey; 5/29/26, 8:33 AM
Bob Boyd said...: Maybe it's cousin of the D'ampton Worm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8n6z-WRCd0; 5/29/26, 8:38 AM
RideSpaceMountain said...: @Boyd, for a second it looked like a sasquatch wrestling nessie. Go Bigfoot! Ride the lightning!; 5/29/26, 8:39 AM
William said...: Honorable people can disagree about the proper color of water in a reflecting pool. However, I think every fair minded person can agree that the water color of that lake is far too somber for a spring day. It needs to be lighter and brighter. A brighter, cleaner lake would cheer everybody up. Some measures should be taken to bring this into effect.; 5/29/26, 8:54 AM
Bob Boyd said...: Bigfoot and Nessie were playmates when they were kids, but then Bigfoot immigrated to America. He did it legally, though and they changed his name to Sasquatch at Ellis Island. He soon went west, up into the high Rocky Mountains and he never came down, except occasionally when his cravings for sweets would get the better of him. Some say he's up there still.; 5/29/26, 8:55 AM
Jaq said...: Never saw anything like that, but based on the comments here, here is a video of spawning suckers.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=S4F-fTpqT9U&pp=ygUaU3Bhd25pbmcgc3Vja2VycyBsYWtlc2hvcmU%3D&ra=m; 5/29/26, 9:07 AM
Original Mike said...: This is the kind of thing Rusty would comment on. I fear we have lost another commenter.; 5/29/26, 9:10 AM
RideSpaceMountain said...: Bigfoot headed scoutin', decided to ride the mountains
Wasn't bettin' on forgettin', Childhood monsters that he knew
The film was short and grainy, over difficult terrainy
Cryptid hunters all still exclaim, "what a view!"

And he said, "Mother Squatch!...the Rocky Mountains is the marrow of the world!" And by god, he was right!; 5/29/26, 9:12 AM
Bob Boyd said...: Bear Claw Chris Lapp: Did I miss another cosplay convention?

Sasquatch: You didn't miss nuthin'.; 5/29/26, 9:22 AM
Bob said...: Loch Mendota monster (Messie?); 5/29/26, 9:32 AM
Quaestor said...: Not much to go on, but most likely it’s either a muskellunge, they are top water predators and fairly plentiful in Wisconsin lakes, or a carp. I’m leaning toward a carp because muskies tend to avoid the shallows, and the one very brief view of the critter is distinctly unlike a member of the pike clan. Though not generally thought of as predatory, carp are opportunistic omnivores not above lunging at anything small enough to swallow.; 5/29/26, 9:59 AM
Levi Starks said...: Global warming has pushed the ocean temperature so high that Manatees have moved far far north to escape the heat.; 5/29/26, 10:33 AM
Lazarus said...: It's Mendy, the Wisconsin lake monster. Make him/her your college mascot.; 5/29/26, 10:52 AM
Original Mike said...: "I’m leaning toward a carp because … the one very brief view of the critter is distinctly unlike a member of the pike clan."

I also thought 'carp'.; 5/29/26, 11:05 AM
Hassayamper said...: I say this is a sucker, based on the glimpse of the dorsal fin at 0:02.

The dorsal fin of the carp extends a much longer distance along the spine towards the tail, while the muskie and other members of the pike family have similarly short dorsal fins, but they are squared-off and positioned much closer to the tail.; 5/29/26, 11:59 AM
Quaestor said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/29/26, 12:00 PM
Quaestor said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/29/26, 12:02 PM
Quaestor said...: "Global warming has pushed the ocean temperature so high that Manatees have moved far far north to escape the heat."

A word about manatees, particularly the Florida manatee (Trichichus manatus latirostris). Though we often think of them a marine mammals, perhaps we should think of them as aquatic mammals with some degree of tolerance for seawater. The extent of that tolerance is a matter of current study, however, it is clear that Florida manatees do not freely interbreed with the closely related West Indian manatees living in Bahamian waters. Apparently those sixty-odd miles of open ocean represent a formidable barrier of saltwater that our manatees find intolerable. What tolerance they do possess primarily serves them as a means to migrate from estuarial system to another. Historically, the Savanah River estuary defined the northern limit if the Florida manatee's range, but lately there have been confirmed reports of them in the James River. Sightings (we know what that means) have as far north as Massachusetts. Evidence of the dreaded ManBeatPig? Or is that just another benefit of the Intracoastal Waterway?; 5/29/26, 12:03 PM
Quaestor said...: ManBearPig (stupid fingers!); 5/29/26, 12:04 PM
Temujin said...: A river otter would be my guess. Or, as they're known in Wisconsin, dinner.; 5/29/26, 12:36 PM