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Fishing trip turns a bit fishy
  
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By YVETTE OROZCO
Grant Brown got more than he asked for during a routine weekend fishing expedition last Saturday morning.
The 5-year-old Deer Park resident was perch fishing at Crenshaw Park when he managed to reel in something a little more exotic than a standard perch.
“I pulled him out and I said, ‘wow,’” he said.
It wasn’t the eight-inch size as much as the sharp and jagged teeth.
Grant, who is an experienced fisherman for his five years, could only surmise that the intimidating teeth on this particular catch might not belong in the Pasadena pond.
People, even policemen, gathered around Grant, his father and their catch.
His father knew it was a long way from South America and Grant’s suspicions were just as strong.
“It looked like a piranha and just when I was thinking that, he said it,” said Grant’s father, Dennis Brown. “I mean, how many kids will catch a piranha?”
Once home, the family researched further on the Web. It was the right size, had the right markings and, more importantly, the right teeth. It looked just like a piranha, the much-maligned carnivorous fish with a big appetite for live food.
While its reputation is glamorously deadly, experts say that notoriety is overrated and the fish is likely to stick to a diet of other fish and dead animals.
“It is a piranha that somebody must have had in an aquarium and dumped out,” said Brown.
According to Sam Metzger, engineering coordinator for the city’s public works department, the incident, while unusual, is not unknown.
“We have found several aquarium fish in Vince Bayou,” she said.
Apart from the bottom-feeder in the bayou, there is two-footer that lurks not far from the Wastewater Treatment Plant.
“Now, you know that guy was dumped down the toilet or his owner took him down to the bayou and dumped him in,” said Metzger. “These are obviously not native fish.”
Non-native wildlife can often create disruptions to natural habitat, said Metzger, but isolated incidences are no cause for alarm and it is likely that the Brown’s catch was a lone hunter.
While its stay in Pasadena was cut short by a 5-year-old fisherman, the Browns now have a new member of the family named Spike.
Spike is now frozen in the family freezer but his next trip will be to a taxidermist – for posterity and for a young fisherman’s bragging rights.
The family will be back to the park to fish, but so far, Spike is the highlight of a budding aquatic life.
“It’s the coolest fish I’ve every caught,” said Grant.
The 5-year-old Deer Park resident was perch fishing at Crenshaw Park when he managed to reel in something a little more exotic than a standard perch.
“I pulled him out and I said, ‘wow,’” he said.
It wasn’t the eight-inch size as much as the sharp and jagged teeth.
Grant, who is an experienced fisherman for his five years, could only surmise that the intimidating teeth on this particular catch might not belong in the Pasadena pond.
People, even policemen, gathered around Grant, his father and their catch.
His father knew it was a long way from South America and Grant’s suspicions were just as strong.
“It looked like a piranha and just when I was thinking that, he said it,” said Grant’s father, Dennis Brown. “I mean, how many kids will catch a piranha?”
Once home, the family researched further on the Web. It was the right size, had the right markings and, more importantly, the right teeth. It looked just like a piranha, the much-maligned carnivorous fish with a big appetite for live food.
While its reputation is glamorously deadly, experts say that notoriety is overrated and the fish is likely to stick to a diet of other fish and dead animals.
“It is a piranha that somebody must have had in an aquarium and dumped out,” said Brown.
According to Sam Metzger, engineering coordinator for the city’s public works department, the incident, while unusual, is not unknown.
“We have found several aquarium fish in Vince Bayou,” she said.
Apart from the bottom-feeder in the bayou, there is two-footer that lurks not far from the Wastewater Treatment Plant.
“Now, you know that guy was dumped down the toilet or his owner took him down to the bayou and dumped him in,” said Metzger. “These are obviously not native fish.”
Non-native wildlife can often create disruptions to natural habitat, said Metzger, but isolated incidences are no cause for alarm and it is likely that the Brown’s catch was a lone hunter.
While its stay in Pasadena was cut short by a 5-year-old fisherman, the Browns now have a new member of the family named Spike.
Spike is now frozen in the family freezer but his next trip will be to a taxidermist – for posterity and for a young fisherman’s bragging rights.
The family will be back to the park to fish, but so far, Spike is the highlight of a budding aquatic life.
“It’s the coolest fish I’ve every caught,” said Grant.
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justjanice01 wrote on Oct 4, 2008 10:16 PM: