Invasive!

[bignose]

I would have like to say that I caught this beast but I found the carcass at a local small community pond in Central Howard County (not Columbia).
What is concerning is that this is definitely a Blue Cat fish.
The fish was every bit of 3 feet and 20+ pounds.
The pond drains into the middle Patuxent River. These are a much bigger problem than the Snakeheads were.
I don't know whether it was living in the pond or was recently caught and dumped there.
I notified the DNR.


IMG_0483.jpg

[Big Mike]

They are apex predators when they get that size. Could you easily wipe a ponds fishery out.

[bignose]

The DNR kinda just blew me off….Thank you for your concern, Blue Cats are an prolific invasive species ( what'd think I'm an idiot? why do you think I reported this?) yada, yada, yada, perhaps it swam in at high tide (the pond is 30 miles upstream from tidal water), or maybe somebody dumped it there illegally (Duh!).

They didn't seem very upset so, O.K., no big deal.
I figure it was a dump in but I don't know how long that eating machine had been in the pond.
Or if it has friends in there.