Another Oddball fish Thread...Tell me your stories!

My eel thread got me thinking. KY has many different species of fish. We are all familiar with the usual game fish and the common rough fish but have any one you ever caught that true odd ball?


I'd love to hear some stories about bringing up that fish you had never seen before or that fish that had the craziest color pattern.

I'm particularirly interested in the burbot, the historical range for this ugly fish is in the Ohio but Id bet they are now extremely rare or extinct from the area. What about sturgeon? Any one caught one of those? They use to be plentiful in the Ohio as well.

Any how lets hear em! :cool:

I posted this before but to this day I don't know what kind of fish we caught a couple years back at Markland dam

We were casting for jacks and caught a slender fish that looked like a striper but had massive teeth in rows like a shark. Looked kinda like one of those crazy amazon fish you see being caught on the new "hooked" series on nat geo.

Bait was tough so we cut it up and used it - I wish I would have brought it home.

fishing the far upper stretches of South Elkhorn with a small tube behind a riffle. Had caught a couple decent smallies at that point, got hit real hard and it started racing toward me, when I got the fish in, it wasnt very big at all, but gamey. It was a golden brown color, with redish tint fins as i remember. Had a mouth similiar to a carp and a tall dorsal fin. Had a few odd spots on it as well. The closest fish i could see a picture to resemble it was a Golden Redhorse, but that was still kind of a stretch to what the fish really looked like. I still really don't know what it was.

Have also caught in other flows multiple fish that were a mix between smallmouth and spots. Mean Mouth I believe. Flows are fun, it could be just about anything swimming through there.

I fish a semi-lake in the Frankfort area. It's about 65 acres. My buddy was fishing it a few weeks ago and his partner snagged and landed a 40 pound spoonbill with a crankbait. He sent pictures to prove it. I thought spoonbills were big river fish!??? Strange...

When I was about 15-16 years old I was fishing below the Dam here in Louisville for stripes from the bank and caught the biggest Hellbender I've ever seen. It weighed every bit of 7 lbs. I've never seen one nor heard of one being caught since. They are extremely freakish looking salamanders. I had no idea at the time what it was or if it was even legal to keep it. There was a good half dozen other guys around watching and no one knew what it was. I cut my line and let it slither back into the water.

One of the great things about fishing the Ohio is you NEVER know what is on the end of your line. Sometimes even when you bring it out of the water and look at it.. haha..

Lowrider the fish you are talking about on Nat Geo is an African fish of the Hydrocynus genus (there are 3-4 species in the genus with H. goliath being by far the biggest getting over 90lbs!). They are a common aquarium fish though VERY expensive at $100-$500+ so I doubt one would release but its possible I suppose though dumb. Was it summer? These fish would never over winter here.

AJM, that does sound like a golden red horse, I caught a small one about 8in on a rooster tail once in Harrods Creek and that thing fought hard! Ive also heard about spots interbreeding with other black bass but have never seen it my self, very cool!

smljaw, paddlefish are commonly kept in private ponds and can do just fine in them. Kentucky State sells them from their hatchery every year for private stocking at only a few dollars a fish. They can be a lucrative enterprise if farmed and harvested correctly for their eggs which is an alternatice to sturgeon caviar but still very expensive.

Webby, that is amazing~! How long ago was this? Hellbenders are truely rare these days and the monster you caught very well may have been one of the last giants in the river near Louisville. I still have to get to that spot and snorkel looking for these guys that Chuck told me about. Ive never seen one in person and it sounds like a real treat! I once hooked a large mudpuppy on a texas rigged worm, a real surprise!

[QUOTE=JD7.62;373741]
Webby, that is amazing~! How long ago was this? Hellbenders are truely rare these days and the monster you caught very well may have been one of the last giants in the river near Louisville. I still have to get to that spot and snorkel looking for these guys that Chuck told me about. Ive never seen one in person and it sounds like a real treat! I once hooked a large mudpuppy on a texas rigged worm, a real surprise![/QUOTE]

Would have been somewhere around 1985-1986

A couple of years ago, there was an article in Lou's paper about a black lab that pulled a good size spoonbill out of a pond near Shelbyville.

I also remember catching a fish that looked like a carp. The game warden called it a "Red Tailed Horse Fish". Caught it out of the Missouri River. Never have seen another one .

[QUOTE=Dakota Kid;373752]I also remember catching a fish that looked like a carp. The game warden called it a "Red Tailed Horse Fish". Caught it out of the Missouri River. Never have seen another one .[/QUOTE]

I could be wrong but i believe the correct name for that is a River Redhorse.

WONDER IF ANY OF YOU HAD HEARD OF THIS FISH. [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj3R3eLLs7A[/url]. COPY AND PASTE, SORRY.

[QUOTE=BOURBONBALES;373764]WONDER IF ANY OF YOU HAD HEARD OF THIS FISH. [URL]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj3R3eLLs7A[/URL]. COPY AND PASTE, SORRY.[/QUOTE]

Never seen that one.. I wish cell phone cams had been around back when I caught that Hellbender.