Oddball fish sometimes make the list

Published 4:00 pm Saturday, April 30, 2016

The first question to ask may not be how a 4.68-pound goldfish came to be taken by a bowfisherman on Lake Fork recently, but instead of how did it live long enough among the lake’s big bass to grow that big.

That may never be known, but Shane Kirk of Mineola is the proud holder of the lake’s bowfishing goldfish record with the fish that measured 16.126 inches in length and 15.75 inches in girth.

Kirk’s goldfish is not a first on Lake Fork. In fact it is just barely larger than the old record of 4.48 shot a year ago.

Statewide Kirk’s and Lake Fork’s heavyweight goldfish record is light years away from the statewide bowfishing mark of 12.77 pounds, a 25-inch fish taken on Lake Ray Hubbard in 2009.

Sitting among the hallowed Lake Fork and state bass record of 18.18 pounds and others, it does look a little strange.

Maybe more so even than the 7.96-pound hybrid striped bass record for the lake, a catch that is a little difficult to explain because of course Fork has never been stocked with hybrids by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. To that point, however, neither have white bass or goldfish.

A list of Texas state freshwater records is a mix of the expected, the odd and the unusual. Like an 8.95-pound red-bellied pacu from the San Marcos River, most likely a surprising catch for someone fishing for bream with a red wiggler. Then there is the head-shaking 1.21-pound oscar caught on Greenbelt Lake north of Clarendon in the Panhandle.

There is a completely other list of odd-lots on the record books like the American eel mark of 6.45 pounds, a 42-inch fish caught on Lady Bird Lake in Austin in 2001, or the rare 7-pound gray racehorse caught in 2004 on Lake Austin. Both are native species that just don’t show up often at the scales.

There are also those that are remnants of TPWD’s stocking past. A 4.13-pound walleye lake record on Lake Palestine. A 9.06-pound musky on Lake Nocona. A 16.31-pound orangemouth corvina from Lake Calaveras.

Those are marks most likely cast in stone because after some wild days of stocking in the 1970s and 80s the department has become more focused (or maybe less fun) with its stocking.

Although aquarium species will be submitted, and if valid, accepted as a record from time to time, it is not something TPWD really brags about. To be honest department biologists would probably prefer they stay in aquariums, get sent down toilets or buried in the backyard when their time as a pet runs out.

In some cases releasing a fish into public waters is neither illegal nor dangerous, but not always.

“A person is supposed to have a permit from us to introduce any fish with the exception of native, nongame fish, into public waters,” said Ken Kurzawski, TPWD’s Inland Fisheries Information and Regulations coordinator. “We also exempt persons using non-native fish such as goldfish and carp when being used as bait.”

Kurzawski said because of the nature of the beast the odds of odd records becoming rampant is not very good.

“Yes, it’s always a surprise when you see a big goldfish in the wild as they would seem to have ‘Eat Me’ written all over them,” he noted.

However, this is Texas and if something strange can happen it probably will like the time Kurzawski actually collected a pacu from a cove in Lake Conroe only to have a fisherman call a few weeks later with a second from the same cove.

The vegetarian pacu have not become a problem beyond creating the occasional fear of an invasion of flesh-eating piranha which appear similar.

Unfortunately some aquarium species are more invasive than others and have the potential of becoming conservation disasters on the scale of kudzu if not fireants.

“Probably the number one example of aquarium fishes causing problems is the armored catfishes. They have been showing up recently in substantial numbers in spring-fed streams in South Texas and the Houston area. With the abundances we are seeing in some streams, they are most likely having some sort of negative impact,” Kurzawski explained.

Aquarium owners without the heart to properly dispose of a pet that has gotten too large or fallen from favor are not the only ones who have changed the fisheries landscape in Texas. Tilapia and sheepshead minnows both seemed like good bait options for fishermen at one time.

Although on the department’s list of prohibited fish the tilapia have become a popular bowfishing target on power plant reservoirs.

“Sheepshead minnows are native to Gulf waters but got introduced as bait in some fresh waters in West Texas where they hybridized with or out-competed some native, endangered pupfishes,” Kurzawski explained, describing a much more serious impact.

Making cases against illegally dumping fish can be difficult for the department. It might be years before anyone realizes what has happened, and by then the perpetrator and evidence are long gone. The damage, however, may only be beginning.

“Fortunately, most fish that are released don’t make it by either getting eaten or not being able to reproduce in our waters. The best reason not to introduce any aquarium fishes is that, if you do release a non-native fish, you just never know what it’ll do in our environment,” Kurzawski said.