What the heck is it?
June 2002
Click Here for
larger picture.
Tom Lane posted on the message board and I asked that he send me the pic to
put into the liars ring. Thanks, Tom.
I caught a fish this past weekend
and I have absolutely no idea what it is?
It was a tail walker and a
fighter. It took 6 tries to get it in a net, then it bit a hole in the mesh,
and flipped around and twisted the hook snap off the leader while I was trying
to remove the hook. It also continued to chomp down on the needle nose pliers
I was using, making a popping sound when chomping down. A Saltwater Piranha
maybe. I didn’t let it out of the net.
It had more like a two tooth
beak than a mouth inside the bottom front of the head and the gill slit was
turned backwards from most fish and they were not external opening gills, but
holes (almost) in the fishes side. It was brownish green on top (scarred too),
silver on the sides (very fine scales almost like a sardine) and the belly was
white with lateral lines. The body and head were almost alike (like a boxy
milk carton shape). It weighed 6.3 Lbs., (about 2’ long) but it was a very
interesting and unusual catch for me and Joanie. I returned it to the water
after weighing and photographing it. I let it keep the hook.
I also broke a new 50# rod out
there when another fish I hooked headed for Matagorda under the boat. Yeah I
had the drag set to pull out with about 20-25# of effort. After a brief
attempt to steer the fish (with a half a rod) It cut the line on the
propeller.
An Answer from Parks and Wildlife
Tom,
The fish you caught was a smooth puffer (Lagocephalus
laevigatus). This
species can be found from New England to
Argentina, including the Gulf of
Mexico and can reach lengths to 2 feet.
It is not considered a common fish
and is rarely caught by hook and line.
The current Texas state record is
10.75 lbs, 30 inches, caught in April of
2001. Little is known about other
life history aspects of this species but
they generally inhabit
inshore/nearshore areas over sandy or muddy
bottoms. They feed on other
fish and shrimp. Most puffers are
toxic, containing a very potent and
potentially deadly neurotoxin that is
concentrated in the liver, skin and
gonads. It rarely seeps into the
muscle however, extreme care must be given
when cleaning and any fillets that could
have been contaminated should be
immediately discarded.
Lance Robinson
Texas Parks & Wildlife Department
Coastal Fisheries Division
Dickinson Marine Laboratory
Texas Gulf Coast
Fishing
