Somewhat rather off-topic

[Chevko]

but i was hoping someone could help me with this... It's random and rather off-topic and doesn't pertain to aquarium fish at all. This is an experience I had several years back, might have been 14 or so.

I was fishing with my parents, second time that I can remember this location, the first time I got stung by a bumble bee when I was like 5 or something. Anyway. This was potentially out in Arkansas or otherwise near the Missouri state line closer to the bootheel side of things. The place we were it had long sandbanks and really fits into my nightmares, but that doesn't really describe it. It had a low water level compared to the height of the sandbanks. Now, onto the fish or whatever it was...

I did not get a good look at it because it caught me off guard and scared the bejeezus outta me. I had just crossed the tree that served as bridge to the area we were fishing (I was exploring or something) and was coming back up on the sand. There was this random, big splash and when I went to look, the sand was heavily disturbed, but from what I remember of it, I think I saw something long and heavy (again, nightmare fuel, I'm probably imaging it 20 pounds heavier than it actually was, especially as this memory is a good 7+ years old). I do know for about 90% positivity that it wasn't a turtle and highly doubt it was a snake.

To my question, has anyone ever seen a long fish in northeast Arkansas/southeast Missouri do this? Or has my memory of it just been warped starting from when I was startled? This bugs me from time to time just like a movie I can't remember the name of.

[aemaki09]

Are you sure it wasn't a catfish? They get huge long and heavy...and live practically everywhere in the country.

[Chevko]

But do they breach themselves? Normally a fish dragging itself out of water and onto warm sand to sun themselves is a special kind of fish, in one of two ways.

[RoMay]

If your not faint of heart go to youtube and type in Catfish hunting pigeons. Nothing to grafic mind you, but a defent show that catfish can breach... AND apperently you get the same result with breaching catfish. Either or it was a trout because trouts do get big.

[Shirleythebetta]

It was probably a catfish. It's pretty normal for them to hop up like that and they come in many shapes and sizes and colors.

[Chevko]

o__o;; It is? Catfish normally get out of the water?

... *Edges over to Youtube.*


... I will forever see them as tiny orcas now. But this was at least two feet up on the sand? =\

[shellieca]

OOPS never mind . . . sorry, don't know how to delete a post once posted.

[Chevko]

Maybe a mudpuppy... I remember there was a splash, maybe a couple, and when I looked over the sandbank it looked like something had a panic attack in a "circle" before floundering back into the water. The kicker is that I don't know if it was SE Missouri or NE Arkansas. They look the same.

[Shirleythebetta]

Originally Posted by Chevko

Maybe a mudpuppy... I remember there was a splash, maybe a couple, and when I looked over the sandbank it looked like something had a panic attack in a "circle" before floundering back into the water. The kicker is that I don't know if it was SE Missouri or NE Arkansas. They look the same.

It could be, they are found in that area and they are salamanders so they have legs. But yea, catfish are weird. It could have gotten into shallow water and splashed around to get back to deep. They are strange, they will take a bite of about anything. I watched one as a child crawl on the grass and bite my dads friends bare foot when they went fishing one day. Half his foot ended up in it's mouth. It weighed about forty to fifty pounds.

[Chevko]

This wasn't on shallows or anything, this was on sand at least two feet above the water line and resting there. I made some noise as I got closer and then the thing had a panic attack floundering to get back to the water. It couldn't have been a snake for all the noise it made getting down the sand and into the water. It splashed all the way into deeper waters. Mudpuppies seem to be the most likely candidates.