Yahoo Sports Angler ‘panicked slightly’ at sight of vivid yellow ‘Mandarin catfish’
When Martin Glatz first saw the color of the fish he was reeling in, the German fisherman couldn’t believe how beautiful it was, and his reaction was an apparent rush of adrenaline, along with the thought that he didn’t want this one to get away.
“At first, I was expecting a big pike,” Glatz explained to Field and Stream. “The fight was comparable to a large 47-inch pike. When I saw what color the fish was, I panicked slightly and yelled at my brother to call for the net.”
The vivid yellow fish was netted and was identified as a “Mandarin catfish,” sometimes called a golden catfish.
The Etang de Azat-Chatenet fishery in France described the Mandarin catfish as the same as a European wels catfish but one that is leucistic. “Leucism in a fish is a condition in which there is partial loss of pigmentation in an animal which causes white, pale or patchy coloration of the skin,” the site states.
Glatz took some photos and then released the fish with hopes it will grow to be “very big,” he told Field and Stream.
The wels catfish, a freshwater fish native to Europe, can grow to over 8 feet and weigh over 400 pounds.
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Glatz, who fishes two to three days a week, made this catch and release on Oct. 4 while fishing with his twin brother on a lake in the Netherlands.
“Friends, I still can’t quite believe how beautiful the little guy was,” Glatz wrote on Instagram. “I’m still overwhelmed.”
Angeldomaene, an outdoor equipment store in German that sponsors the fishing twins, called it a “dream fish.”
Photo courtesy of Martin Glatz.
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