An unidentified fish bearing (and baring) its most unusual teeth has been encased in ice and is awaiting further study after attacking a man in South Carolina’s Lake Wylie. As Frank Yarborough snagged the fish on his line, it looked to him to be anything but unusual. But what he soon found was a painful mystery as the mystery fish started chewing its way through his hand.
Yarborough is fine after the strange and painful encounter, but still scratching his head over what the fish could be or where it came from. When he first caught it he thought he had snagged a sizeable catfish. But the truth soon came out when he got the surprise of his life and felt fishy teeth digging into his hand. No fish in the area possessed teeth anywhere near what was seen jutting out of the foot long unknown creature that latched on to Yarborough’s hand.
The fish possesses almost human looking teeth.
The teeth look jagged and sharp, but unmistakably more human looking than many other animals. Yarborough says the creature is waiting in his freezer for further study, but will not be firing up the grill to cook his catch any time soon. After biting the hand that fished it, Yarborough was about to fling it back into the water when the fish’s unusual incisor looking teeth were discovered and he felt curiosity root itself deeply in his spirit.
Is it possible Yarborough has discovered a new type of fish? Or is this simply a transplanted fish from somewhere else? And has anyone ever heard of a fish with human teeth showing up? Actually, the answer to the last question is yes.
In 2006 in Lubbock, Texas a 20 pound fish was caught by Scott Curry who similarly noticed that his catch had mysterious teeth resembling a human grimace when its mouth was open. Curry’s fish was later identified as a pacu, a fish normally found only in the warm waters of South America. Could this new fish be similar? Distant relatives of the piranha possess teeth similar to those that dug their way into Yarborough’s hand.
But if it isn’t supposed to be there, where could it have come from? The trip is certainly too far for the fish to have made it on his small fins. Actually the culprit may be an exotic pet owner who either tired of the fish or could no longer take care of it and decided to dump it in the waters where it could live out the rest of its life. If the fish had been pregnant, or multiple fish had been dumped could there be a population of biting toothy fish in Lake Wylie? Even if there were, the population would likely meet its end as cold weather made the lake no longer habitable for the strange fish. But if another sighting were to turn up next year, this might suggest a native and not transplanted species.
Such a fish with incredibly bizarre teeth would most certainly be noticed fairly quickly if a large population became present. But if it is truly just a transplanted fish and not an ecological anomaly, then it will most certainly end up little more than a fisherman’s tall tale. Luckily he’s saving the evidence to prove it.