Weird catches: Part 2

[dsaavedra]

A few weeks ago I posted about several weird catches I had in one morning, including a fish with half a tail:

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This evening, I fished at a nearby location and caught another oddity.... a fish with half a head:

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After some brief research, I see this condition is called "pugheadedness", and is apparently quite rare. Because it is so rare, researchers aren't quite sure what causes it but they postulate that environmental conditions such as chemical contaminants, hypoxia, dietary limitations or excesses, and temperature variations may be the culprit, and there is also evidence suggesting the mutation may be genetic. Here are two articles I found describing the condition: https://vtichthyology.blogspot.com/2...nomaly-in.html and https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full...9.2021.1957772

[Big Mike]

Hard to believe that fish survived, I imagine catching food is tough with a mouth like that. For weird fish I put you ahead of the rest.

[dsaavedra]

Hard to believe that fish survived, I imagine catching food is tough with a mouth like that.

When this fish bit I was trolling with rod-in-hand and felt a series of small taps before the rod loaded up. I figured it was just small fish competing for the lure before one finally got it, as I've experienced this before. But after seeing the fish I'm thinking it was just the one frankenfish struggling to get the lure in its mouth. It fought weird too, kinda just rolled through the water like a catfish.

[Jigsup]

That’s interesting.

[J.A. Veil]

Dave -

Congratulations on finding some unusual specimens. I have heard of the pug-nosed stripers before but have never caught one myself. I have caught two stripers with a different type of abnormality -- a zigzag spine. Despite that ailment, they seem to swim and feed just fine. This one, caught in 2016, was 20" to 21" long.

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Speaking of "half" fishes, last week I caught a pickerel that had one of its tail lobes bitten off. Life is tough in nature.

And when fishing in areas with toothy top predators, it is not uncommon to wind in just the front half of a fish. Here are photos of half of a speck and half of a barracuda.

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[Slobber Bob]

A face only a mother could love.

[Mark]

Dave,

I caught a pughead striper in Whitehall Bay in August of 2014:

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I also wondered how such a fish could survive to adulthood.

Mark

[dsaavedra]

Interesting... thanks for sharing Mark (and good to hear from you again... been a while!)

John, if I reeled up half a fish in the Chesapeake I would be scared

[Red_Beard]

Dave,

I caught a pughead striper in Whitehall Bay in August of 2014:

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I also wondered how such a fish could survive to adulthood.

Mark

It's easier for these guys to survive than you think. What they won't do is grow to significant size. Bass largely catch their prey via suction, and these pug headed fish are still able to do that well enough for smaller and slower bait. Enough to keep alive and grow to the size of a small schoolie fish. What they can't really do is feed on the larger menhaden and other bait fish that a striper needs to consume to obtain larger sizes.