I was out this morning fishing Lake Washington from shore around the Arboritum, and caught a rather nice sized fish on a worm and bobber. Only thing is, I'm not sure what it was I caught. This fish was about 18 inches long, and basically looked like the love child of a carp and a sucker. At first I thought it was a carp, but carp have little whiskers, which this fish didn't, and they don't have big, fleshy lips like this one did. The fish had a pointy nose, with the mouth on the underside rather in front like most fish do. Other than that, it did look very much like a carp, with large, coarse scales, and being brown on the top and bronze on the bottom. Even though it looked like it had enough meat on it to be worth cleaning, I released it because I wasn't sure if it would taste good or not. I've seen pictures of fish like it, but can't remember for the life of me what it's called. Any ideas?

Squa Fish?? I wouldn't suggest cleaning it... yuck!

I don't think squaw fish (nothern pike minnows) have mouths on the bottom.

Was is football shaped like a carp, or long and slender, like a trout?

Sounds like some kind of sucker to me (or just a type of carp you never saw before...)

It was long and slender, like a trout. I'm pretty sure it wasn't a squawfish, since it had a very tiny mouth with big, fleshy lips. I've never seen a squawfish, but this didn't look like it would be snacking on salmon smolts. The mouth was hardly as big around as the end of my thumb, and I didn't see any teeth at all.

I have caught a few Pea Mouthed Chubs in the arboretum area when I lived up there. They are minnow that can grow to that size and larger. This is probably the fish that you caught. Hope this helps. Andy

I am pretty sure that I think I know what it was. Last year when I was studying for the LSAT, I would fish the Arboretum every evening after studying. One night I pulled up such a fish on a red/creme jig. I thought "What the hell is this?!" It turned out what it was is called a "Lake Whitefish". Yea, its kind an anomily fish out there. Its been more than a year now, but if I were to describe it, I would say that it has a downward mouth (like suckers, perch, etc..), long and skinny, was mostly a charcoal grey color with some sort or orange pattern going through its scales (upon close observation), and it doesn't fight much when you bring it in. Do some web searches on it. I think were talking about the same thing.

I think it was a Tench Carp, hope I spelled
it correctly.

Actually yes now that I think about it, it probably was a whitefish, I know that I have caught those along with suckers and squas in the Columbia, but it could have been a Tench, next time you catch one take it somewhere and get it identified... Whitefish have very small mouths and usually will nible for a LONG TIME before they bite and they are not very agressive... I think they are edible too!

Almost none of the fish that have been suggested above have the typical underslung mouth and fleshy lips that you describe. I suspect that it was either a longnose sucker (Catostomus catostomus) or a largescale sucker (Catostomus macrocheilus), both of which inhabit lakes including Lake Washington.

I'm going with Preston's evaluation.
Sounds like the mouth isn't just turned down, but it is actually on the bottom facing down.

Look at this...is this it? http://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/greatlakesfish/roundwhitefish.html

As I was reading this post I got to thinking about the fish that I caught out of the S/Fork of the Stilly. It sounds like what you said. Huge lips on the bottom. It felt like I caught a log. It was about 5lbs,greyish brown. I thought it was a sucker but I wasn't sure. It didn't have any scales,just smooth skin.

My two cents worth.
Sounds like a Sucker to me. Not very good eating!