I snagged this article from the online newspaper back in 2008 since I found it interesting.
Somewhere I've heard that they market the buffalo fish as "White Fish" to get people away from the name bigmouth / smallmouth Buffalo Fish. Somewhere else I read an article quite a while back of someone trying to figure out how to commerically fish and market asian carp, but under the name "Silver Fish".

Buffalo roundup is some fish tale
Angler's work improving reservoir water
Attachment 135620

Michael Pearce/The Wichita Eagle
Helper Jacob Frock tosses fish into the livewell.
MARION RESERVOIR - J.D. Bell went fishing Monday and caught a ton. Actually, it was closer to a ton and a half. "It was up around 2,800 pounds," Bell said. The total catch was about 240 fish.
That puts him at about 60,000 pounds of buffalo fish from Marion Reservoir this spring. That figure could triple by year's end.
Biologists hope that leads to healthier drinking water for area residents and better fishing. It could also mean up to 200,000 meals for folks from Wichita to New York.
Most times, he's after bigmouth and smallmouth buffalo fish seldom caught by anglers.
Buffalo fish eat huge amounts of tiny plankton, which has caused sizable problems for the several summers Marion Reservoir has been plagued with blue-green algae.
The outbreaks leave the water smelling terrible and cause water plants using the lake to go to chemical extremes to keep the water palatable and safe to drink.
Tom Mosher, Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks biologist, oversees a federally funded research project dealing with Marion's problems.
He said buffalo fish feed largely on zooplankton, which are a chief predator of the phytoplankton that causes the algae.
"We're hoping that by removing large numbers of buffalo, we can change the dynamics of the lake enough that the blue-green algae won't be a problem," he said.
Such programs worked in other states in the 1940s and '50s.
The many tons of zooplankton freed up by the removal of buffalo fish could mean much more food for game fish.
Jon Stein, Wildlife and Parks fisheries biologist for Marion, said recently hatched game fish feed heavily on plankton. Gizzard shad, the baitfish that help sustain most adult game fish in reservoirs, feed largely on the plankton.
"More zooplankton means more and bigger shad," Stein said, "and more and bigger game fish."
Bell has the only state contract allowed for commercial fishing in Kansas' reservoirs.
With the exception of licensed commercial anglers on the Missouri River, fishing with nets and selling wild fish caught from Kansas waters is otherwise illegal.
It's been Bell's livelihood for most of his life.
"Buffalo fish brought me to Kansas," said Bell, of Waverly. "I started commercial fishing the Missouri River (for buffalo) when I was 15. I've had my own company here for about 25 years."
In those years, he's removed buffalo from about 10 reservoirs. He expects to net at Marion for two years.
"This lake's so full of (buffalo) I could feel them hitting the nets while we were setting them," Bell said last week. "I'm expecting to (eventually) take 250,000 to 500,000 pounds."
Those lofty numbers are possible. During one three-year project, he removed about 1 million pounds of fish from Glen Elder Reservoir.
Four hours after Bell and helpers Jacob Frock and Dustin Altum stretched a mile of gill nets, they started hauling in their catch.
The nets rose 6 feet from the lake's bottom and had 4-inch-wide monofilament mesh, so smaller game fish could escape.
Buffalo were the only fish entangled in the nets. He credited net location.
"I know where they are and what they're doing," he said, "though in this lake, they're about everywhere."
Bell usually pays Kansas about a penny per pound for what he catches.
He said he earns between 15 to 60 cents per pound, depending on demand, fish species and how the fish are delivered.
"The idea is to keep them as fresh as possible," he said. "Once we get home we'll start cleaning them. Six of us can clean about 3,000 pounds of fish in a couple of hours. We know what we're doing."
The fish are usually quickly shipped to markets and wholesalers around the Midwest.
Bell said three locations in Wichita sell his fish.
"It's a good, white, flaky meat," said Paul White, P&P Seed and Bait owner. "I sell catfish, but I sell a lot more buffalo. I usually go through 600 to 800 pounds per month."
Bell has also shipped tons of buffalo to New York -- alive.
"We load about 20,000 pounds of fish per truck and (in) about 16 to 18 hours they're there," Bell said. "They don't waste any time."
Bell and crew won't be wasting time at Marion, either. When weather allows, they'll run the gill nets this summer and fall.
This summer he'll also be removing carp from the lake. Grant money for Mosher's study will pay Bell 10 cents per pound to remove the invasive species.
An unmarketable species, the carp will be buried.
Mosher said carp are notorious for muddying water as they root for food. That stirs up nutrients that could fuel blue-green algae growth.
Once most game fish head for cooler, deeper water, Bell plans to sweep up carp in a mile-long seine that winches pull through the water.
"I might be getting a quarter of a million pounds in one haul," he said. "That's the best way to get a lot of fish."