The story of my Sandusky River Pacu
AUGUST 31, 2009 - FREMONT, OHIO
Almost everytime I go fishing, my mind drifts to a certain set of questions as I look at the water. "What is the largest fish to ever swim through this water?, or the largest in there now", "what's the rarest or oddest fish ever?, or right now?"... you get the idea. Maybe that is part of the love I have for fishing, the adventure of never knowing what just might happen. To further fuel this, we all have heard or read some great fishing stories to give us hope for one of our own epic tales. I had always rationalized in my mind that due to the amount of time I spend on the water, that I would stand a better then average shot at an amazing fish story. Fishing is often unjust though, and I relegated myself to the reality that because I was the type of person to celebrate an amazing catch the most, it was unlikely to happen for me. It just doesn't work out that the person who is such a fishing addict that they have their own hobby website for it, would actually be the one to defy the odds and make that type of catch...
...but defy the odds I did, and on August 31, 2009, I had to look no further then my outstretched hand to find a truly fantastic fishing story. I had brought to the net a Red Bellied Pacu that weighed 5.11 pounds and measured 20.25". A tropical fish that I caught in the Sandusky River near Fremont, Ohio. A fish that had the entire Great Lakes at it's disposal, but somehow found it's way to the end of my line.
The catch made many newspapers and you can see how the articles looked via the scans above, (L) Port Clinton News Herald, The Toledo Blade, Bucyrus Telegraph Forum, (R) Fremont News Messenger.
A few websites thought the fish was deserving of the front page. (L) FishingFury.com
(R) Fishing-Headquarters.com
Read on if you want the entire story...
Nothing stood out about that Monday, a normal day of work and on a whim I decided to stop by the folks place. They live on the Sandusky River, just north of Fremont, Ohio. It was somewhat unusual for me to try to squeeze in some evening fishing on a weeknight and I attribute my motivation to do so because of the rather poor luck I had been having. The previous weekend I had done awful and it had been quite a long time since catching anything noteworthy. After gorging myself on fresh apple crisp and vanilla ice cream, I waddled my way down to the water. I then rigged my big fish offering to target carp. I was in dire need of feeling a big fish on the end of my line and this usually is the ticket. My 'big fish' offering is just a simple way I've found to catch carp. I take a piece of bread, remove the crust, and knead it into a ball. I don't do any fancy rigging at all, simple single hook about a foot above a bell sinker. I do want to add that it was kind of neat that the bread I used on this evening was from Fremont. It was Nickles Whole Grain White Bread. For those who really like details I guess I'll add this info; the rod was an 8' Okuma Classic Pro, 10# Trilene XL spooled on a Shakespeare Alpha 2560P. So anyways, back to the story. I launched my bread ball out into the river and placed the pole into a gap between some irregular shaped rocks. My mom and I were conversating for quite some time before I saw that my rod had fallen over. Not sure if it was a fish or just my make shift rod holder failing, I strolled over calmly and lifted the rod back up. I did have a fish, and my line broke no more then 10 seconds into the fight. Duh!, I had remembered that the end portion of my line was getting some abrasions on it. I had completely forgotten to trim off a length of line. I will never know if that first fish I had on was the Pacu, but if it wasn't, that lost fish would play a vital role with me successfully landing my epic catch. About 20 minutes after the break off, it was deja vu as I looked over and once again my rod had fallen over. This time, as I approached the rod that was partially in the water, I could see it shaking a little. As I reached down to pick it up, I gave a quick tug to set the hook. Fish on. The fish actually made a weird shake right as I set the hook and after that rolled at the surface a few times. My mom had began walking over as I yelled, "GET A NET!". When it had surfaced, I caught a climpse of the orangish-red belly. The screaming for a net was a direct result of me thinking I was hooked into a world record Sunfish or Bluegill. The gear I was using was well equipped to handlle a fish far heavier then this one, so the fight was not long. The fish actually swam towards shore as I faught it, and I basically guided it in and beached it. My mom had perfect timing as she threw me a net right as I had gotten it out of the water and lifted it onto some rocks a few feet from the shoreline. It was a relief to know the fish was now secured.
At this point, I was intensely excited yet stared at the fish in relative silence. All that was running through my mind was a quote from the movie Predator, "What the hell are you?" . I know I was mistakingly calling it a Piranha and saying it wasn't a freshwater fish. Caught up in the moment, I just couldn't think reasonably enough to articulate that I knew it wasn't a cold water species. What I did know, was that this catch was not typical and beyond odd. As I tried to collect my thoughts, I ran to retrieve a cooler, and my parents began to summon neighbors. I placed the fish in the cooler full of river water and took a few deep breaths. Now that the fish was secured I thought out the next steps which basically were to get some photos, shoot a short video, and of course realize the fish was not native and should not be returned to the water. We took quite a few photos and shot the video to the right, then the only dilemna was figuring out what to do with the fish. The condition of the fish was outstanding, it swam in the cooler with no signs of stress, only making the ultimate decision of knowing it had to be destroyed - that much harder. On a whim, I did phone both the Cleveland and Toledo Zoo, to see if the fish could be donated to their aquarium. This proved to be a futile effort. I didn't have any idea where a pet store was, or if they would be equipped to accept it either. Sadly, I knew this fish had met it's demise. I never had gotten the exact weight of any fish that I had ever caught, so I would attempt to find a certified scale and then put the fish on ice. After that, taxidermy.
Arriving at Wal Mart (State Route 53), I walked up to the meat counter and explained my request to Lisa. She was more then a little confused by the request and said she would call the manager to come up front. I expected to see security, but she did in fact call the manager, Waco Brown. Like a high price attorney making a closing argument, I made my case for allowing me to weigh the fish on a certified scale. Waco was very nice and agreed to my request. As he headed back to the area where the fish would be weighed, I went to my vehicle to retrieve the cooler full of water that was housing my live catch. As I entered the store, the Wal Mart Greeter stopped me and firmly stated, "All returns must have a sticker". It was very funny opening the cooler revealing the very much alive toothy fish, and saying, "Go ahead, you do it". After that short delay, I was soon weighing my fish with Waco and another employee named Brian Bartlett. I wasn't going to push my luck with requests, so it didn't bother me the sticker said "Catfish Fillets" that are previously frozen at $5 a pound, for a price of $25.55, or that it said they needed to be used or frozen by Sep 13, 09. I just liked it that I had documentation of the exact weight of the fish! After the weighing and the numerous curious bystanders viewing of the fish, it was time to head home. I decided that I would call Rob from Riverfront Marina and show him (and his family) the fish on my way out of town. They were pretty shocked at the catch and I was feeling even more stoked over it after Rob stated he hadn't ever seen anything like that come out of the river.
His family have had the marina and campgrounds for many decades, with countless thousands of anglers coming through, so when he said that - I was even more excited over the catch. After hanging out there for awhile, I was back on the road heading home. I called everyone I knew that loved fishing, as I drove. While my wife was excited for me, she insisted the fish not go past the garage. She thought the fish was pretty "gross", which instantly made it score more 'cool' points with me. The fish would stay in the cooler overnight.
The next morning I took the fish to the ODNR Sandusky Research Station. I wanted to verify what the catch was for sure, as well as learn anything else about it. I was met by a fish biologist, Travis Hartman. He was very nice and spent quite a bit of time talking to me and examining the fish. I learned a great deal about the species and the frequency that anglers encounter exotic catches. Please read the closing comments to hear more about that.
My last stop would be at Jim's Taxidermy in Port Clinton. Jim has been doing taxidermy since 1983, and it was the first Pacu ever brought to him. I have always admired his work when visiting his studio, and there was no question he would be up to the task of creating the mount.
The author poses with the fish shortly after it was landed, the Pacu on ice heading home and a toothy close-up!
While somewhat embarassing as I'm calling it a Piranha and saying it isn't a freshwater fish, the raw footage clearly shows how in shock I am over the catch. I relive the experience everytime I watch this!
I contacted the Fremont News Messenger regarding the catch to see if they had any interest in the story. That same day I was contacted by Matt Manning. At the time, I did not know the News Messenger was owned by Ganett, nor knew that Ganett owned 13 Ohio newspapers. Matt interviewed me, and subsequently, his excellent story published in a host of those newspapers. I will never know exactly how many ran it, but the three locations I phoned, all did. I was pleasantly surprised with the response, I honestly didn't know if people would be as enthusiastic over the catch as I was. I then decided to contact Steve Pollick from the Toledo Blade. With those smaller newspapers giving me a boost of confidence, I thought I might as well see if he thought it was newsworthy too. I have been a longtime fan of his outdoor column and it was very cool to get to talk to him. While I did take the back seat to his headline story of a 52" Muskie, he did cover my catch with a small picture and superb write up. Over the following days and weeks, the story surfaced quite a few places, the most far reaching being ESPNoutdoors.com. It was my 2 minutes of fishing fame!
Closing comments
Through the catch of this fish, I was able to become a much more informed angler. I learned from the ODNR that invasive species are brought to them several times a year from anglers like myself. Apparently, the aquarium trade can commonly sell species that outgrow their intended captive environment. At this point, rather then humanely killing the fish, some choose (wrongly) to release their fish into a waterway. Along with messing up the natural balance of the native species, they also can introduce diseases to the ecosystem. While my catch was exciting, it really should not have happened.
The aforementioned facts have always made me have mixed feelings about the catch. I am, and always will be excited over the catch, but I also wanted to use the story as a way to inform folks about the very real threat and problem of invasive species. In the time since my Pacu catch, the topic of invasive species has really become a 'hot button' as the Great Lakes are threatened by Asian Carp. While that is a macro level problem, I just ask each person to do their own responsible part when it comes to their aquarium/hobby fish.
So from start to finish, there is my story. I hope you have enjoyed reading about it as much as I have enjoyed writing about it. I imagine I will tell the story my entire life with the only problem being that I took the fish to a certified scale. I have no idea how to make the fish grow now, as every great fishing story demands!
The USGS stamp on the photo will take you to the official entry for the catch.
The completed mount at the scene of the catch, the mount hanging at Jim's Taxidermy, a celebratory 'Pacu Dollar' at a local eatery.
A special thank you: Travis Hartman - ODNR Biologist, Nate Tessler - Bass Pro Shops aquarist & owner Nate's Fishery Technologies LLC, Waco Brown - WalMart Store Manager in Fremont, Rob Zoller & family - owner of Riverfront Marina & Campgrounds, Jim Wendt - owner of Jim's Taxidermy, Steve Pollick - writer and outdoor columnist at The Toledo Blade, Matt Manning - journalist at Fremont News Messenger (Gannett), the friendly folks at Lagoon Saloon, and of course my MOM & DAD!
