A group of fishermen caught a very strange looking fish in a frozen pond in Vermont, and the find has generated endless reactions and comments online about exactly what makes it look so “ugly”.
It is believed to be a chain pike, which are usually green and covered in “dark lines that look like a chain”.
This particular one, however, looks more like a laboratory experiment: cream-colored, with gray spots and a strange yellow stripe down the side.
“Look at this weird chain pickerel,” the Vermont Fishing group wrote on Facebook on February 2.
“Has anyone ever captured something like this? Is he half albino? Maybe a spotted fish? Although it looks like a fish that has been in a fridge in direct contact with ice for several hours, the group says it came out of the hole exactly as the photos show.”
College student Caden Hurley and his fishing buddies Dylan Partlow and Ryan Vassuer caught the fish Jan. 28 at Sabin Pond in Woodbury.
Hurley said they were very surprised when they ice-fished him.
“We saw the sign that a fish had bitten, and we ran to find it,” Hurley told the McClatchy News. “When we pulled it out, we knew what species it was, but the three of us were very amazed. We estimate a size between 22 and 24 inches and about three pounds. We took some pictures and released it.”
Hurley has not entered the online debate.
Vermont Fishing asked its 7,100 Facebook followers if they’d ever caught anything like this, and from the responses they gave, it’s indeed a very rare fish.
Many speculated that the fish was a hybrid or a mutant born from water contamination.
Others suggested it was another species, not a chain pike.
“A very ugly fish,” wrote Sterling Pelsue. “It looks like it came out of an acid bath.”
“I think it’s great. I know this is a major mutation, and I think it looks great,” posted Carly Buswell.
“I would have stuffed it and hung it on the wall,” Reva Bartlett said.
The Vermont Natural Resources Agency confirmed to the McClatchy News on February 6 that the fish is a chain pickerel, but acknowledged that it was “a really unusual catch.”
“He appears to have a pigmentation condition called leucism,” the department said in an email.
Hurley, who is studying Civil Engineering at Norwich University, said he appreciated the interest in fishing that the debate has generated.
“I didn’t realize it could get so much attention, but it’s great to see so many people
interested in him, and a very nice memory for me and my friends,” he said.
Translation by Jorge Posada
Source: El Nuevo Herald
