Said the Bowling Green, Virginia angler, "I'd never seen one that color! And I've been fishing in that pond for more than 20 years."
Byrd caught the 11 1/2-inch chain pickerel in a 14-acre private pond in Caroline County on a Whopper Plopper lure (one of my fishin' buddy Skip's favorites). A retired veteran, Byrd kept the fish and contacted Scott Herrmann, a DWR regional fisheries biologist. Herrmann explained that the fish was exhibiting a "wild genetic pigment mutation" but otherwise was normal.
"This coloration is extremely rare," said Herrmann. "It pretty much falls into a one-in-a-lifetime category of catches. The normal coloration expressed in the green of a chain pickerel is from the xanthins of the yellow pigments. Blue pickerel express the rare mutation that is axanthic."
The chain pickerel is a native fish of Virginia, common in rivers and streams and also found in reservoirs and impoundments. With a long, slim body, its typical coloration includes yellowish to greenish (almost black when young) sides overlaid with a reticulated or chain-like pattern of black lines. Pickerels have fully scaled cheeks and gill covers. The blue-mouth mutation has been reported in chain pickerel in Maryland and Pennsylvania, but they're quite rare.
The proud angler kept his "exceptional" catch and, according to reports, is having it mounted.
I will add only this one note of caution: Whether you catch a regular pickerel or one of these exceptional specimens, don't make the mistake I once witnessed an unseasoned angler make. He mistakenly thought he could lip a chain pickerel just like the bass he always had caught. I watched in horror as the "pick" literally skinned this unwitting angler's thumb.
No comments:
Post a Comment