What’re the odds of this?
Any angler who goes out on the water, goes with the ambitions of reeling in the catch of a lifetime. Of course, we’re talking about state and world record sized fish.
However, I highly doubt anybody expects reeling in something like this…
According to WOWT, an Elkhorn man was having a casual day of fishing on the Missouri River just west of Yankton, South Dakota.
Except, this didn’t turn into one of those “ordinary fishing trips,” because he left the Missouri River with what is believed to be a 90-million-year-old fish fossil.
The fisherman, Andy Moore, recalled the once in a lifetime catch:
“It’s the feeling you get when that fish bites your line. It’s that primordial jolt you get in your spine, and it goes through your brain.”
Moore was competing in a fishing tournament when he made the lucky catch, and as it typically goes the day you reel in something special, he was struggling big time:
“I pitched my jig and it’s horrible. It’s like way left and I’m like oh man.”
He actually stumbled upon the ancient fossil by accident, after his line had gotten tangled in the back of a rock.
Once he paddled his kayak over to the spot, that’s when he discovered the fossil:
“I get up to it and I’m like oh wow that’s kind of cool. I thought it was a big catfish skeleton or a deer skeleton. Something told me to take a picture of this.”
He snapped the picture and posted it online, and that’s when everybody began to comment and text him about the gem he may have found:
“It was like, ‘Uh, dude. Did you know that’s a 90-million-year-old fossil that’s in that picture?’ I’m like what?”
Moore then contacted a biologist from the Army Corps of Engineers, and they went back to the rock where he had discovered the fossil in the first place:
“The geologist guy saw it and he’s like he just jumped out of the boat in his boots goes up to it and he goes oh my god.”
The biologist confirmed with the outlet that it does appear to be an ancient predator fish fossil that’s up to 90 million years old.
Moore concluded:
“I’m still kind of mind blown about the whole thing. Because I have the discovery of a lifetime.”
Although he didn’t do well in the tournament, you know what they say…
“I’d rather be lucky than good any day.”
