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Sandusky River Pacu
A U G U S T  3 1,   2 0 0 9
Sandusky River Red Belly Pacu!
At the time that I am revising this page, it has been nearly four mounths since the catch.  I still don't know where to start with trying to explain what this catch meant to me.  Maybe the best place to start is just by saying, "It happened to me!", I got to be the one to make an incredible odd catch!  It's obvious I'm a multi species fishing fanatic as evidence by having this website.  I dare say how much time I spend combing the web for interesting fish stories to share.  Those stories I find seem to make my mind often drift while I'm fishing to thoughts of what just might be swimming in the water in front of me.  Knowing how much time I spend on the water, I tried to be optimistic that one day I could have a real amazing fish story.  Fishing is often unjust though, and I relegated myself to the understanding that because I wanted it so much, it was unlikely to happen for me.  It just doesn't work out that the person who might appreciate something the most, 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 epic fishing story.  I had brought to the net a Red Bellied Pacu that weighed 5.11 pounds and measured 20.25".  I honestly still can't believe it myself. 
Port Clinton News Herald
Fremont News Messenger
Bucyrus Telegraph Forum
The Toledo Blade
water's edge.  Mom decided to join me.  She would spend her time casting a jig/grub combo (actually untangling the line she crossed but we'll forget about that), while I was fashioning my 'big fish' offering.  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 the following information; 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 noticed 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 net was a direct result of me thinking I was hooked into a world record Sunfish or Bluegill.
So let the story begin...  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
As I faught the fish closer to shore, it surfaced again which revealed it's black tipped fan shaped caudal (tail) fin.  Now I was beyond perplexed as to what it was and just wanted it landed.  Oddly, it ended up swimming directly towards the shore.  This path it was taking towards shore was about 15 feet to my left so I didn't try fighting it too hard and rather just kept 'guiding' it in.  As I walked over the rocks I could see the fish came all the way to shore with a few small twigs wrapped around the line.  I pulled the fish a few feet onto the shore and then positioned myself between it and the water.  My mom's timing was perfect as she threw the net down to me from the small breakerwall.  The fish was now pinned in the net and a quick flip over and it was secured.  The first few moments I just stood there in shock looking at it.  I was stoked to get it landed and highly confused as to what it was.  My dad had also made it over at this point and I just kept saying "I just caught an amazing fish!".  The camera is always in my tacklebox and we immediately shot photos.  My folks know I am mostly a catch & release type fisherman, and one of the few rational things I was able to articulate right away was that I knew it wasn't a native species and should not be returned to the water.  Along with pictures, I shot the footage to the right.
I placed the sticker from the certified scale on a sheet of paper and had two employees witness it.  No one could dispute the weight of my 5.11 pound Pacu.   
We did a few more photo sessions, did a measurement, and then placed the fish in a cooler full of the water from the river.  The fish was alive and doing fine.  While my mind was still racing, this is when the catch started to really settle in.  I phoned my friend Nate Tessler, who was able to correctly identify the fish over the phone as a Pacu.  My father had gotten the neighbors to come over to see the fish as I was contemplating my next move.  I called both the Toledo and Cleveland Zoo's hoping I might actually have a way to talk to a person from the aquariums, but it was after hours.  I knew it was a long shot but I would have loved to have donated it.  I decided to try to get an official weight on the fish, so my next destination would be the Wal Mart on State Rt. 53, a few miles from where the catch was made. 
Arriving at Wal Mart, 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 totally 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!  Continuing home, I began to make some phone calls to fishing buddies.  My friend Matt Adams didn't answer or the fish would have made another stop before home.  I did connect with Brent McGlone who knows a thing or two about amazing catches (go to my stories and articles page to see it) and chatted his ear off until arriving home.  I had called my wife shortly after the catch, and while she was excited for me, 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 a cooler of ice 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.  As exciting as the catch was for me, I was sad to learn just how often these type catches occur.  He stated that a few exotics are brought in each year.  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.  While my catch was exciting, it really should not have happened.
After concluding my visit with the ODNR, it was off to Port Clinton, Ohio.  The final destination for my pacu fish was Jim's Taxidermy.  Jim has done taxidermy since 1983, and this was the first pacu brought to him.
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 backseat to his headline story of a 52" Muskie, he did cover my catch with a small picture and superb write up.
The following days and weeks I began to see the story surface in other places such as fishing websites and news outlets.  Some were expected and others were complete surprises.   I'm guessing the ODNR did a press release of their own.  Each time I came across it I got to re-live the experience all over again, so I wasn't going to complain!  Probably the most far reaching media with the biggest audience was ESPNoutdoors.com.  It was more less just a few sentences that linked back to the News Messenger's original story, but cool nonetheless.  My few moments of fishing fame! 

So this is where my story ends for now. .. but more to come when I get the mount back... stay tuned and thanks for reading!
After debating this for some time, I decided to leave the native audio on the footage.  While my excitement is a bit embarrassing, as well as me calling it a Piranha, and saying it "isn't a freshwater species" - it just captures the moment too well to exclude.
The catch was front page news on several websites...