Not a weird joke. This ain't April. I was carp fishing at one of my favorite public parks in south Boulder a couple days ago...and my sister hooked a good fish. I strolled over as she was fighting it on her 5wt and was startled at what I saw her dragging to shore. (I think she was too!) Her look was inquisitive.
Bro, what the hell is it? And
I had no fast answer. No answer at all. I just shook my head and snapped some photos. Later that night we did some on-line research and come to find out it is an albino
Oscar. I have no idea how it ended up in a Boulder lake, maybe released from someones big fish tank...who knows? I do, however, know that they will readily eat a #6 Backstabber carp fly!
Doesn't surprise me Jay, it's Boulder!
ReplyDeleteOscars are fairly aggressive fish. They used to be real common tank fish. People would need a big tank for them to reach any real size. I definitely agree to the Oscar assessment. Pretty surprised they would survive one of our winters in a lake, but if other warm water fish do, they should be able to. I hope you bonked it, we don't need to snakehead fish type situation in our lakes/rivers.
ReplyDeleteAlien baby!
ReplyDeleteIt is definitely an albino Oscar. Even if you didn't "bonk" it, I don't think you need to worry about it surviving a Colorado winter. It was probably released in the last couple months. They don't do well in water temps below 70 F. They're native to central America and have been introduced in south Florida.
ReplyDeleteCool catch though.
Free the Oscars!
ReplyDeleteOh I wish I was an Oscar...oops, wrong Oscar.
ReplyDeletefree the wieners!
ReplyDeleteI sure hope you killed it even though it will probably die in the winter. We don't need any new invasive species.
ReplyDeleteWe definitely don't want any non-native invasive species in our tailwaters and man-made impoundments competing with the brown trout, rainbow trout, largemouth bass, northern pike, brook trout, common carp....
ReplyDeleteOh, snap! Anonymous brought the heat! VERY GOOD POINT!
ReplyDeleteI just snagged one Oscar. Perhaps you saw me in my 1982 film. - bhive
ReplyDeletebhive,
ReplyDeleteYeah...loved the movie, but REALLY enjoyed the photo spread you did in Jan 1995!
--fly
I've heard of other people catching exotic fish in other parts of the country (Texas). apparently it is a common problem. Just remember the Asian carp, it has now infested the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, both people and fish are getting hurt from those.
ReplyDeletei hope you didn,t kill it. better to give it to a pet store
ReplyDeleteyou should have removed it at told your local fish biologist.
ReplyDeletegotta be cooler than catching those hatchery rainbow wannabes often stocked in city parks. so, do you think an oscar would rise to midges? will you start guiding for them?
ReplyDeleteThat fish looks like it outgrew someone's aquarium and they let it loose in a local body of water. Happens everywhere. In my old stomping grounds of south florida we have dozens of exotics living and reproducing in the local waters. Being a tropical fish, that oscar won't last through the winter.
ReplyDeleteSpot on
DeleteYep that is an Oscar, they get too big for peoples tanks so they turn them lose in the wild. They also move things around the way they want in fish tanks so if someone wanted to keep there plants nice it would not happen once the Oscar gets older. That is the biggest one I have seen.
ReplyDelete