The beautiful thing about fishing is that you never know what you are going to get.
Is that too close to the famous line from Forrest Gump about boxes of chocolates? I apologize if so, but regardless, fishing and chocolates have some similarities. Chocolate boxes have guides now though, do they not?
Anyways, this Oklahoma angler was fishing out on Kaw Lake, a reservoir near Kaw City, Oklahoma, when he managed to bring in what could be considered a catch of a lifetime. The young fisherman named Aidan had just learned how to snag paddlefish, and one could argue that he quickly became an expert.
Soon after, the Oklahoma man pulled out a whopper of a catch, and it wasn’t just your regular looking paddlefish. The fish, which was pushing 30 pounds, was a unique, all-black paddlefish. With the rarity of the catch, the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation posted the pictures to their Facebook page with the caption:
“Aidan has been fishing in Oklahoma his whole life. However, he never tried snagging paddlefish until last weekend when his friend Steven showed him how it’s done.
On Kaw Lake, what was already shaping up to be a memorable fishing trip was made even better when Aidan pulled a rare black paddlefish from the water weighing 28 pounds!”
Looks like they had one hell of a day at Kaw Lake.
The ODWC went to explain to Facebook users how a paddlefish can appear all black like this rare catch that Aidan got to proudly show off, saying:
“All paddlefish have the ability to be pitch black in coloration but we rarely see this in the wild. When adult paddlefish spend extended time in shallower tailwater habitats where water clarity may be greater, they will take on a darker coloration.
Effectively, these fish are getting a dark suntan. This could be a combination of melanistic traits and the effects of shallow and clear water habitats.”
Fish with a suntan, huh? I guess I’ve really heard it all at this point, but I’ll take the ODWC’s word for it. They’ve never led me wrong, and in fact, they’ve always led me to some almost unbelievable fishing stories like this one.
