rare catch – Syndication Server

Fishermen make rare catch: A doomsday fish, but with a seahorse head?

Oarfish live at great depths, are mostly seen washed ashore, and are a sign of impending doom, as legend has it, but rarely look like this.

Those familiar with oarfish know that they live at great depths, are mostly seen dead and washed up on shore, and are often referred to as a doomsday fish because seeing one is a warning sign of impending doom, or at least as legend has it.

And they are hardly ever caught by fishermen, since they live in depths from 600 to over 3,000 feet.

So it was a rare catch when two fishermen off the Top End of Australia landed the serpent-like sea creature and held up their prized catch, a giant oarfish, for a photo.

Skipper Curtis Peterson of Tiwi Islands Adventures led the night-time fishing excursion last week off Melville Island where the unidentified anglers made the catch, according to the Daily Mail Australia.

The image of the catch was posted on the Fishing Australia TV Facebook page where commenters questioned the odd-looking head that looked like a seahorse or an oarfish with a horse’s head. But one commenter correctly explained that the mouth is extended, much like a John Dory fish.

One feature of the oarfish is a “protrusible mouth,” or a mouth capable of being extended, which might have occurred while being caught.

It is worth noting that this is the first recorded sighting of an oarfish in the Top End, according to Yahoo Australia.

“It’s the first time I’ve ever heard someone land a fish like that up here,” NT News fishing columnist Alex Julius said, according to Daily Mail Australia. “It’s also very rare to land one of these fish, most being found washed up ashore already deceased.”

Photo credit: Wm. Leo Smith/Wikipedia Commons

A giant oarfish washed ashore near San Diego, California, in September 1996, and a group of U.S. Navy SEALS held up the 23-foot-long sea creature.

As for its reputation of being a warning sign of doom, well, it’s not true. Or is it?

From Live Science:

In traditional Japanese legend, oarfish were known as “ryugu no tsukai” meaning “the messenger from the sea dragon god’s palace.” People believed oarfish would come up from the deep to warn people when an earthquake was imminent. This myth caused a stir in 2011 when 20 oarfish washed ashore in the months before Japan was struck by the country’s most powerful earthquake.

While there is no evidence to back up the link between oarfish sightings and earthquakes, in August 2024 snorkelers found an oarfish in California — two days before an earthquake hit the region. However, scientists believe this was a coincidence.

Bass fisherman reels in colorful surprise at Texas pond

The colossal fish caught by Jose Naranjo was a type of carp commonly used to decorate residential and community ponds.

A Texas angler was hoping to catch bass recently at San Antonio pond, but instead hooked and landed a giant koi.

“I’ve seen it there before and have wondered if anyone’s caught it before,” Jose Naranjo told My San Antonio. “It’s actually one of three that are in those ponds.”

Koi are a type of domesticated carp, considered ornamental because of their bright coloration. They’re used to decorate residential or community ponds and in Japan the fish represent love and friendship.

Naranjo theorized that the koi he caught on April 5 had been released there by somebody who no longer wanted the fish.

Naranjo was practicing catch-and-release fishing and set the koi free after posing for a photo. He estimated the koi’s length at 30-plus inches.

Interestingly, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department raises koi as forage for largemouth bass brood stock in hatcheries.

“They are easy to raise, grow fast, and lack sharp dorsal spines, making them easy for the bass to eat,” the agency explains on its website. “In an average year, the hatcheries will produce 15,000 to 20,000 kilograms of koi.”

Tennessee bass angler lands alligator in rarest of catches

Justin Wyrick caught the gator in a part of Tennessee where the reptiles are not known to exist.

The extraordinary catch Monday of an alligator at an East Tennessee lake has piqued the interest of state biologists.

Justin Wyrick hooked the alligator while casting a jig for bass at Norris Lake. The toothy critter measured 3-plus feet.

According to the Volunteer Times, Wyrick’s brother Tyler helped Justin get the gator safely on shore.

The catch was so rare that a Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency officer biologist arrived to confirm the species and deliver the gator to the Little Ponderosa Zoo.

Alligators are not native to Tennessee and sightings in East Tennessee are exceedingly rare. (The gator caught by Wyrick might have been an illegal pet released into the waterway.)

However, the TWRA states on its website that alligators are expanding into Southwest Tennessee from neighboring southern states.

In recent years, the agency explained, several confirmed sightings have been recorded. One of the gators, caught on video at the Wolf River Wildlife Management Area, measured 7 feet.

“Alligators expanding into Tennessee is just another species that we must learn to coexist with like many of the other southern states,” the TWRA website states. “Alligators can survive Tennessee winters by going into a hibernation-like dormancy called brumation.”

The agency added: “TWRA would like to remind everyone that possessing or releasing alligators in Tennessee is illegal and poses safety and ecological risks as well as alligators are a protected species and catching or shooting one is a violation of the law.

“If you come across one while exploring the outdoors in West TN, leave it alone and enjoy Tennessee’s unique biodiversity.”

–Image showing Justin Wyrick with the alligator is courtesy of Patricia Goins

Angler lands rare ‘grander’ blue marlin, shatters record

A Cook Islands angler has landed a 1,128-pound blue marlin while fishing solo aboard his 22-foot boat. The rare ‘grander’ catch sets a national record.

A Cook Islands angler on Monday landed a 1,128-pound blue marlin while fishing solo aboard his 22-foot boat.

The rare “grander” catch established a new blue marlin record for the South Pacific nation, according to the Cook Islands News.

Arnold told the publication that he had been trying for 14 years to reel in a grander, or a marlin weighing 1,000 pounds or more.

“These fish demand so much respect,” Arnold told the Cook Islands News. “A massive thank you to the ocean and Polynesian spirit. “I’m proud to be a Cook Islander, and to bring in these fish in, in my own home. It really is a blessing.”

Cook Island fisherman defends killing 512 kg blue marlin: “These fish demand so much respect. A massive thank you to the ocean and Polynesian spirit.” @CINewsOnline https://t.co/vFp4uONmYP pic.twitter.com/IaMVx7QWXd

— Michael Field (@MichaelFieldNZ) August 30, 2023

Not everybody is cheering the catch.

In a Thursday post on X, the Blue Planet Society stated: “Respect? Selfish, egotistical thief of rare wildlife.”

(Blue marlin are listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species.)

The massive marlin was hooked three miles offshore and landed after a 1.5-hour battle that featured multiple leaps and powerful runs.

According to the Cook Islands News, “Every part of the fish was to put to good use, the meat was sold locally and the bones/head prepared and eaten – nothing was wasted.”

The previous Cook Islands record catch, of a 1,045-pound blue marlin, occurred in 2020.

The world record for Pacific blue marlin stands at 1,376 pounds, for a 1982 catch off Kona, Hawaii.

Angler didn’t know he hooked a fish; turns out to be rare catch, record

A fisherman made a rare catch off the coast of North Carolina that has been certified as a state record and could become a world record.

Fishing deep for swordfish, Jeremiah Elliott made a rare catch off the coast of North Carolina that has been certified as a state record and could become a world record—and he didn’t even know he had hooked up.

Elliott was fishing with his brother Zachary Elliott and two friends on a 30-foot boat some 50 miles offshore, as reported by FOX News and the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries.

“We were dropping squid about 2,000 feet down, and we didn’t realize we had a fish on [the line],” he told FOX News. “When you bring a fish up from that depth, a lot of times their stomachs expand, and they float.

“We didn’t even know there was anything on [the line] until it came to the top.”

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Once they landed the fish, they had no idea what it was until they started for shore and got to within cell service and looked it up online.

What he caught was a bigscale pomfret (Taractichthys longipinnis), a fish typically found in the Atlantic Ocean at depths from 165 feet to 3,280 feet.

“It’s a weird-looking fish,” Elliott told FOX News. “It’s like prehistoric, almost.

“It’s very rare to catch them in North Carolina. People catch them in Florida.”

Upon reaching shore, the fishermen found a weigh station. The bigscale pomfret weighed 26 pounds, 11.4 ounces

The North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries certified the fish as a state record, as there was no previous state record for this species.

However, the International Game Fish Association world record for a bigscale pomfret is 20 pounds, 10 ounces caught off Florida in 2004 by W. Gordon Davis.

Elliott told FOX News he’s submitted his catch as a world record to the IGFA. So that record is pending.

Photo courtesy of the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries.

MORE:

Rare black alligator gar caught on a fly designed for redfish

A Texas angler received a major surprise last week when he hooked an extremely rare black alligator gar while casting a homemade fly designed to catch redfish.

A Texas angler received a major surprise last week when he hooked a rare black alligator gar while casting a fly designed to catch redfish.

“It was very surprising once the fish surfaced to see that it was jet black, which I had never seen in all of the alligator gar I had seen,” Justin Jordan, owner of Lotus Guide Service, told FTW Outdoors.

Jordan and Terrell Maguire were fishing from a skiff in southeast Texas when they spotted a dark figure moving across the marsh. Jordan identified the 5-foot-long fish as a melanistic alligator gar, which went after Maguire’s fly moments after it had landed on the surface.

“We landed it, but I didn’t want to put it in my boat because they stink,” Jordan said of a prehistoric fish species that dates back 100 million years. (Gars are often referred to as “living fossils.”)

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Jordan shared images to Facebook on May 16, showing the gar half out of the water trying to shake the hook.

“Well… me and Terrell found out melanistic gar do exist yesterday,” he wrote.

Alligator gar are torpedo-shaped predators with toothy jaws and snouts that resemble those of alligators. They can measure 10 feet and weigh nearly 300 pounds.

The all-tackle world record, a 279-pound alligator gar caught in the Rio Grande, Texas, has stood since 1951.

The fish are typically olive-colored. Melanistic gar, whose skin contains an abnormally high level of a pigment called melanin, are rarely seen or caught.

And while alligator gar are popular among sport anglers, mostly because of their size and strength, their flesh is not highly regarded as table fare.

Jordan said the melanistic gar attacked a crab-like fly called a “spork,” made by his friend and fellow captain, Collin Scoville.

“It was definitely the wrong fly for gar,” Jordan said. “And it’s kind of an ongoing joke because the ‘spork’ fly literally has caught almost every game species in the Gulf Coast marsh.”

Catch of ‘primitive’ gar breaks nine-year-old record

A Georgia angler has established a new state record with her catch Saturday of a 31-pound, 2-ounce longnose gar.

Rachel Harrison, of Adairsville, caught the toothy gar on the Coosa River near Rome. The catch breaks a record – 30 pounds, 13 ounces – that had stood since 2013.

“State records do not get broken every day, so join us in congratulating Rachel on her impressive catch,” the Georgia Department of Natural Resources exclaimed Monday on Facebook.

Longnose gar, of the broader gar family, “are considered relics from a large group of primitive fishes,” the DNR’s Wildlife Resources Division explained in a news release.

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The fish inhabit mostly weedy areas in lakes and streams, and prey largely on other fish.

For the sake of comparison, the world record for longnose gar stands at 43 pounds. That fish was caught in the Trinity River in Texas in 2017.

‘Extremely rare’ golden crappie landed by ice fisherman

A Minnesota angler wasn’t sure what to think after reeling through the ice a gold-colored fish that resembled a crappie in shape only.

A Minnesota angler wasn’t sure what to think after reeling through the ice a brightly colored fish that resembled a crappie in shape only.

“I thought maybe it was a sunfish due to the color, but after I got it out of the hole I thought it had the body of a crappie,” Rick Konakowitz, 60, told FTW Outdoors. “I was a little perplexed.”

Common crappie are speckled, greenish-colored panfish targeted by anglers across the United States.

Rick Konakowitz poses with golden crappie

The nine-inch crappie caught by Konakowitz last Wednesday at Clear Lake was bright yellow and gold, described by the angler as “a once-in-a-lifetime fish.”

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Alan Lackmann, a researcher at the University of Minnesota Duluth, told ABC affiliate KSTP that crappie of this color are “extremely rare in wild populations.”

The crappie boasted what KSTP described as “an over-expression of pigment.”

Common crappie. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Loren Miller, a biologist for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, told the network, “It’s a rarity for sure for any one individual to manage to catch one.”

Because the crappie could not blend with its surroundings and was vulnerable to predatory fish, both scientists were surprised that it had survived this long.

Konakowitz, who is from Hanska, was ice fishing with a Glow Devil lure and had landed at least one ordinary crappie before his monumental catch.

“The golden crappie to me was the biggest surprise in all my years of fishing,” he said, adding that he plans to have a taxidermist construct a replica for a trophy mount.

Angler lands enormous skate in ‘extremely rare’ catch from pier

A UK angler on Wednesday logged an extremely rare catch of a giant skate from a pier.

A U.K. angler on Wednesday logged an extraordinary catch of a giant skate from a pier.

Garry Mouzon, 34, a welder from Kirkwall, caught the estimated 121-pound common skate from the Hatston Pier.

He told The Orcadian that he had been hoping to catch a large skate for months. Two friends helped him get the fish onto the pier where it could be measured for an estimated weight before it was tossed back.

“The one I caught was a male, and the females are usually bigger,” Mouzon said. “So I’ll be going back to look for the girlfriend next.”

The Orcadian’s story was shared by the conservation group Blue Planet Society, which tweeted: “An extremely rare catch from a pier. Almost wiped out by bottom trawling, common skates are considered one of the UK’s most endangered species.”

The common skate, a.k.a. blue skate, is listed as critically endangered by the IUCN. Anglers now practice catch and release when targeting the species.

The International Game Fish Assn. lists as the world record a 214-pound skate caught off Orkney, U.K., in 1968.

–Image courtesy of Garry Mouzon

Florida angler stunned after ‘improbable’ snapper catch

Robert Bush Sr. told MyFWC Florida Fish and Wildlife that he was “stunned” after his recent catch of two gray mangrove snapper on one hook.

Robert Bush Sr. told MyFWC Florida Fish and Wildlife that he was “stunned” after his recent catch of two gray mangrove snapper on the same hook.

The agency wrote on Facebook: “It was an improbable catch that left Robert Bush Sr. ‘stunned’ from his incredible luck. He let us know he used shrimp for bait and both fish were released.”

While improbable, such luck is not unprecedented.

MyFWC asked followers to share similar “fish tales” and received several responses and a few images in the comments section to serve as proof.

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The Facebook post was titled, “Two-for-one Friday” but one follower corrected the term to read “fry day.”

–Image courtesy of Robert Bush Sr.