Night of the Living Toadfish
So...
...you've caught a few fish. And it's getting dark but you don't want to quit yet. Then you get another bite and you begin reeling in and you realize that you have not hooked your run of the mill snappper.
What appears at the end of your line has a huge mouth, glowing eyes, spines galore, freakish toad-like pectoral fins, mottled color, and a sickening slick shine, all of which you can just vaugely make out in the twilight.
I'm pretty sure this is a gulf toadfish or something very closely related. Yes, it does have poision spines. No, it was not fun to have in the boat.
This is a new species on my life list, but I don't ever want to catch a bigger one. Or a littler one.
posted by T. Brook Smith at 8:09 PM
5 Comments:
Awesome. :)
The resemblence to a gremlin from the 1984 movie is kinda creepy.
Brook - I caught an oystercracker years ago in the Delaware Bay - looked somewhat similar. Mostly head and jaws. Are they related?
Nasty looking critters, but good ADD to the lifelist!
Wolfy
Wow, that thing is crazy looking, never seen a fish like that before in my life. All we have over here in our freshwater lakes is Bass and pike, that's one weird fish. Pretty cool, thanks for the picture.
Thanks for the comments, guys.
Wolfy, I think those species are related, yes.
Ben. Imaging having to unhook a gremlin. Yikes. Wish I had caught him during daylight at least.
Fishing guy. I think things have greater potential to be gruesome in saltwater it's true. However, sculpins look a little like this and burbot and gar and bowfin and eels can be pretty freaky too.
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