Angler Reels In Rare Sea Creature, Calls It 'Catch Of A Lifetime'

A Tennessee angler has reeled in a rare fish during his recent fishing trip near Reelfoot Lake.

Victor Siwik shared the image of the sea creature on a private local outdoors group on Facebook, and identified the species as a ghost-white carp.

Siwik, who lives in Reagan, was visiting Reelfoot Outdoors with his wife, and had headed for the solo fishing trip in the hopes of catching a paddlefish.

He was about to head to the shore when he said to himself, “one more cast,” he told Field & Stream about his May 29 catch. What hooked on to his line was something he had never seen before.

“I saw that white tail come out of the water and I was like ‘daggum, I cannot lose this fish,’” he told Field & Stream, adding the fish was about 41-pound and 4-foot-long. He called the fish "a catch of a lifetime."

“Caught and landed this bad boy on rod/reel alone and had to put my arm in its mouth and out its gills to keep it from getting off. It’s been an amazing weekend that I’m super thankful for,” Siwik said.

In the Facebook post, according to Yahoo News, the white carp hints of yellow and black on its scales with reddish fin tips.

“It almost took the rod from my hands when I first connected,” he said.

Field & Stream reported the odd coloration on the fish could likely be due to a melanin condition called leucism, which causes lapses in pigmentation.

Siwik took the trophy home as the creature was a type of invasive species.

“I was blessed enough to get the fish of a lifetime ... this weekend,” he said on Facebook. “I told myself ‘one more cast’ and I’m extremely glad I did!”

Last month, a British schoolboy set a new world record after he reeled in the biggest-ever carp to have been caught by an 11-year-old. Callum Pettit pulled a huge common carp weighing 96 pounds 10 ounces. A video taken on his father Stuart's GoPro camera shows Pettit being visibly surprised and repeatedly saying "that's massive, dad." "We didn’t have any idea of the size of it until we got it into the net and even then we thought it could have been a 60-pound or 70-pound fish," Stuart told Outdoorlife.