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Fisherman Catches 9lb 'Goldfish' 15 Times The Average Size In Lake

Fisherman Catches 9lb 'Goldfish' 15 Times The Average Size In Lake

Ty Huock found the creature in a South Carolina lake

Dominic Smithers

Dominic Smithers

A fisherman has spoken of his shock after catching a 9lbs 'goldfish' - 15 times the the average size.

Ty Huock was out on Grove Lake in Greenville County, South Carolina, when he came across the enormous creature on 16 November.

It's not known how long the fish has been lurking in the area, but after weighing and measuring it at 15 inches, Mr Huock released it back into the waters.

According to the fisherman, he and his team temporarily stun the fish so that they float to the top and are able to be counted during routine checks.

Sharing a snap of the snapper to its Facebook page, Greenways, Natural and Historic Resources for Greenville County Parks wrote: "Anyone missing their goldfish? This 9lb goldfish was found in Oak Grove Lake during some recent testing at our lakes. The work included electrofishing, a method of measuring the health of the fish population."

Speaking of his utter disbelief at the catch, Mr Huock, the director of Greenways, told ABC News: "The dude had basically been hiding out for a couple of years and the jolt had just woken him up!

The massive 'goldfish' was found during a routine check of the lake.
Greenways

"As it was non-invasive I thought we should keep it - every lake needs its own Loch Ness Monster!

"We let him go after we measured him and he just swam back to whatever depths he came from.

"It's funny, a friend had come along just before and proclaimed, 'I fish here all the time and there's never any fish.' Boy, was he wrong!

"It's not a mutant fish - we're not downstream of a nuclear power plant."

Explaining the process behind the checks, Mr Huock added: "Periodically we do a study of the health of the fish and aquatic plants, so we hired a company to come and do electrofishing so they could be inspected for lesions or indications of poor water quality, and then returned to the lake."

But he stated that it is not harmful to the fish, assuring people: "It's not like the Simpsons movie.

"My son referred to it as like 'tasering the fish'."

It's about 15 times the size of the average goldfish.
PA

While the origin of the creature is not known, Mr Huock believes it may once have been someone's pet that had been thrown into the waters.

However, despite the claims that it is a huge goldfish, some have said that it's actually a type of koi.

Commenting on the post on Greenway's Facebook page about the catch, one user said: "Not a goldfish. It's a Butterfly Koi. It probably got too big for someone's backyard pond, so they released it in the lake."

Another blasted: "THAT IS A KOI! NOT A GOLDFISH! Y'all are supposed to be fish experts and I'm not even a fish expert nor is doing anything with fish a part of my job, and even I know that's a Koi."

A third simply wrote: "It's not a goldfish though. It's a koi."

According to Guinness World Records, the largest goldfish ever found measured 18.7 inches from nose to fin and belongs to Joris Gijsbers of the Netherlands.

Featured Image Credit: Greenways

Topics: World News, Fish, US News, Weird