TOP 10 WEIRDEST LOOKING FISH EVER CAUGHT
Beautiful, ugly, weird-looking - it's all in the eye of the beholder when it comes to fish. One person may look at a largemouth bass and see nothing strange about it, but someone from across the planet would marvel at its unbalanced huge mouth- to-body-size ratio or odd colourings. So not every fish look strange to everyone, but there are certainly some out there that would make anyone's most weird- looking fish list, no matter where they're from. The seven fish below are some of the weirdest looking fish anglers have ever caught, either by accident or on pur- pose.
Hogfish
Take a look at that snout! The hogfish is a colourful member of the wrasse family, possessing a protruded snout, ideal for searching out crustaceans buried in the ocean floor. Not only is it weird looking, it also is one of those rare animals that changes sex during its life cy- cle, beginning out as a female before turning into a male after three years or so. They are found predomi- nantly around Florida and the south Atlantic, reaching lengths of three feet and weighing no more than 25 pounds. The hogfish above is the 21-pound, 15-ounce South Carolina state record.
Blobfish
Wesley Covington holds up his world record hogfish.
Perhaps there is no weirder looking fish in the ocean – or more miserable, or
uglier - than the blobfish. Making its home off the coast of Australia and Tasmania, the blob- fish is a gelatinous mass without the typical swim bladders most other fish possess. To get around, it instead lets the natural ocean current move it along as it floats around just above the ocean floor at depths of over 2500 feet. They grow no more than a foot long and not all that uncommon an accidental catch for anglers, though they are not at all a species regularly targeted.
I Shoot and Fish E-Zine March 2012
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