By Louie Stout

Here’s Something You Don’t See Everyday

Dar Deegan has seen some pretty amazing things on the river while doing water quality and fish surveys for Elkhart and South Bend.

The oddity he encountered recently on the St. Joe might be the most bizarre of all.

He and a crew were running an electro-fishing boat near the Lexington Landing bayou. The boat has long electrodes that drag in the water ahead of the boat. The electricity running from the electrodes stuns any fish within the top 6 feet of water temporarily so Deegan’s crew can scoop them up with long-handled nets.

Anyway, a bowfin – better known as a dogfish – popped to the surface.

But this was not a common dogfish sighting.

Protruding from its mouth was a 6-inch rock bass that ALSO had a 6-inch bullhead catfish stuck in its mouth. The rock bass and bullhead were dead but the dogfish was alive.

It’s not unusual to see larger fish with smaller fish sticking out of their mouths. It’s the way of nature.

But to see three fish orally entwined is truly a freak of nature.

“We’ve shocked up fish while they were in the act of eating other fish, but they usually spit them out,” said Deegan. “The dogfish is a different animal and wasn’t willing to give it up.”

One can only speculate what caused such a calamity, but Deegan suspects the rock bass tried eating the bullhead and died as a result of the catfish’s sharp barbells (often called “horns”) being stuck in its mouth and throat.

One might say the rock bass’ eyes were bigger than his belly and he therefore paid the price.

“Dogfish are scavengers and predator fish,” said Deegan, which means they will chase down and eat live fish as well as dead stuff. “My guess is the dogfish spotted the dead rock bass floating, saw it as an easy meal, and came up and got it.”

As creepy as dogfish are – they have a large fin down the back, canine-like sharp teeth and stink like last week’s garbage – Deegan says he rather likes them.

“They get a bad rap but they’re one of my favorite species of fish,” he said. “They’re kinda prehistoric, are mean as heck and are built like one big muscle.”

Deegan says they also help keep fish populations in check although they aren’t very common in the St. Joe.

As any experience angler will attest, dogfish will strike viciously at artificial lures and will even jump and fight like a bass. While that part is fun, removing your favorite lure from their toothy, clenched jaws isn’t, and if you net them or get them on the boat floor, your boat will stink the rest of the day.

A similar occurrence

Deegan’s experience with the dogfish reminds me of one I encountered some 20 years ago.

A neighbor and I were fishing a small lake for bass while our wives cruised around in a paddle boat.

We heard the wives yelling from the other end of the lake and saw them paddling frantically toward us.

When we went to investigate, the wives were dragging a small landing net next to their boat and began to describe what happened.

While paddling, they found a 13-inch bass thrashing on the surface that had something protruding from its mouth and was trying to shake it out. They scooped it with a landing net and brought it to us.

Lo and behold, that bass had a sizable bullhead stuck in its throat with a catfish horn poked through each side of its mouth. I was able to trim the horns back far enough with a pair of side-cutter pliers to free the catfish from the bass’ mouth.

This story had a better ending; we released them back into the lake and they swam away.