Joshua Nelson was fishing with two buddies on Storm Lake in Iowa on Monday when he made a bizarre catch: a rare albino catfish.
Nelson of Moville was using a jig with a butter worm when he hooked the 6-inch albino catfish, much to his surprise.
“My two buddies were very surprised, also,” Nelson told FTW Outdoors.
“I just never caught one before. I didn’t know what to think honestly. They’re not common.”
Nelson referred to it as a “unicorn” when describing the albino catfish to The Storm Lake Times.
An official from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources told The Storm Lake Times that a few albino catfish were spotted in the last batch of catfish raised at the Rathbun Fish Hatchery, which last stocked Storm Lake in September.
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Albino catfish rarely grow very big since they’re susceptible to predation because they are so easy to see by bigger predator fish.
Nelson told The Storm Lake Times he released the catfish back into the lake “because I thought maybe someone else would enjoy catching it.”
Photos courtesy of Joshua Nelson.
