GENUS CARPIODES RAFINESQUE The Carp Suckers Lake Carp Carpiodes thompsoni Agassiz This fish occurs in the Great Lakes and lakes tributary to the St. Lawrence. It reaches a considerable size; an example take in Lake Champlain about April 23 was 21 inches long and weighed 7 pounds. It was a nearly ripe female and the roe alone weighed 2.5 pounds. The food value of the flesh of this fish is essentially the same as that of the species of Ictiobus. By the fishermen of Lake Champlain this species is known as "buffalo," "carp sucker," or "drum." Head 4 to 4.5; depth 2.5; eye small, 5 to 5.5 in head; D. 27; A. 7; V. 10; scales 8-39 to 41-6. Body short and stout, the back much arched; head small, the snout pointed; lips thin and white, meeting at a wide angle; tip of lower jaw much in advance of nostrils; maxillary reaching vertical at front of orbit; scales closely imbricated; dorsal rays considerably elevated, 2/3 as long as base of fin; origin of dorsal fin about midway of body. C. velifer, the quillback, spearfish, sailfish, or skimfish, is a small species found pretty well throughout the Mississippi Valley. It is distinguished from other species in the same waters by the produced first dorsal ray and the character of the lower lip whose halves meet at an acute angle.