Anyone who likes to watch fish, especially the rougher sorts, or who's interested in the Mississippi, history, or riverboats old and modern, ought to take a trip to Dubuque, IA and the National Mississippi River Museum. It's a great place for kids, too.

For me the biggest attractions are the giant glass-walled tanks full of fish and other creatures. There's a tank where you can (after washing your hands) touch sturgeon that are swimming around. There are a couple aquariums with alligators (including an albino). There's a marsh tank with bowfin, quillback, panfish and others. Another tank has bonnethead (similar to hammerhead) sharks. Best of all is the main tank, which houses huge cats of several species, sturgeon, 2 or 3 kinds of gar (including alligator), various carp-like fishes, paddlefish, alligator snapping turtles and others. I took some video with my digital camera. It's on youtube. There are occasionally human reflections on the glass, but none are me, so I don't feel guilty about it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuVh2BWmUoQ
This tank also has a concave hemispherical window you can get inside to watch the fish. I didn't take any video through it, though.

There's also a group of otters you can watch playing/fighting, both inside and outside.

The museum has an old paddlewheeler you can wander around on, and a simulator where you can try your hand at driving a towboat with a load of barges. There's a couple of displays where kids can create floods and watch erosion. Right now there's a venom exhibit with lots of snakes and other poisonous creatures.

There's a library there too, geared toward river research. I don't know, but I'm guessing it's largely historical. I'm told that there's lots of scientific stuff too, and I'd hope that includes fish.

There is, of course, a museum store.
Admission is $10 for adults. Don't know about kids, as mine got in free because my mom gave them memberships when they were born.

Might be cool to visit in the winter to get a fish fix without ice. Also, there's an indoor waterpark nearby if you've got kids.

And at any time of year there is ton of good fishing around Dubuque. Trout streams like Catfish Creek and many across the border in Wisconsin, the Mississippi and many backwaters and sloughs, lots of lakes, etc. For the non-fishers there are all kinds of antique stores, beaches and such.

I didn't intend this to be a commercial for Dubuque. Oh well. It's a pretty interesting town and area. I lived there for a couple years in the early 90s and unfortunately didn't fish much at all. Stupid of me.
Olaf

Nice video. That's cool that they have alligator gar there now. I don't remember there being any alligator gar there when I was there 2 years ago. There were and I see there still are some very large longnose gar there though. When I was there the theme was "Catfish Planet". there were all kinds of different catfish from all over the world. That was pretty cool.

Yessir, that is a cool video!

I remember gazing into the big aquariums at the Cabela's in Ft Worth when I spent some time there last year. I felt like a little boy as I stared in wonder at the Buffalo, Gar, Drum and Catfish. We found a lot of reasons to go to that store! They didn't have a Bowfin in there though. We had to go to the Bass Pro to see that.

Good stuff

Pretty cool video. I think I would've been glued to that fish tank...like I was glued to the fish pond at the MN State Fair. Thanks for sharing.

Hey Gunnar,

I was there last spring and you are right about that being a very cool place. If you ever get in the area it is a definite attraction to roughfishers. I stood there in awe as I watched Blue Suckers swim around in those tanks. That is the only aquarium I know that has real live Blue Suckers. If I get there again I think I will hang around for the feeding time. There might some things to learn.

I'd love to check that out some time.

FYI, they also have a blue sucker at the Shedd aquarium in Chicago. Some pretty cool native environment exhibits set up there.

~andy

I saw the blue while I was at the shedd last month.
Very cool looking, I want to do replica of one.

I've probably seen that blue sucker without realizing it. With kids at the Shedd we usually end up spending less time at the native fish exhibits and more with the dolphins, snakes, etc.
And for me, Shedd Aquarium means "big building to my left while I'm casting for salmon and trout". The brown trout on my lifelist came from about 100 yds away from the Shedd. It's almost time to head down there and start casting for chinook and steelhead. I wish Illinois had tributaries like Wisconsin and Indiana and Michigan have--flowing water that actually has trout and salmon swimming upstream.

I was surprised to hear a few weeks ago on the news on the radio that the Mississippi River Museum ranked ahead of the Shedd Aquarium on a top 10 list of aquariums in the U.S. I've never been to the Shedd Aquarium but some of my siblings have. Isn't it way bigger than the Miss River Museum? Plus it has all the saltwater things including dolphins, sharks, etc.??? I guess that's quite a compliment for the Miss. R. Museum.

here's a URL for that list
http://www.rivermuseum.com/press_detail.cfm?ID=123

Here are some pictures I dug up from my hard drive. I remember being amused by the Blue Suckers there.