‘What the heck is this?’ Ice fisherman reels in rare ‘golden’ fish at Minnesota lake

What’s a ”golden crappie?”

Lifelong fisherman Rick Konakowitz wasn’t quite sure himself, even as one hung from the end of his fishing rod, he told McClatchy News.

It was around 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 2, when the Minnesota angler reeled the rare fish out of frozen Clear Lake, near the town of New Ulm. He was aiming to catch crappie or walleye, but what came out of the ice was strange and vibrant, a kind of fish he’d never even heard of, much less seen.

“I pulled it up and I couldn’t tell what it was and I thought maybe it was a sunfish because of the colors … but it had the body of a crappie and it was really golden,” Konakowitz said. “It was like ‘what the heck is this?’”

He took the fish home and after sharing photos on social media, soon learned it was a ”golden crappie,” or more scientifically, a xanthic crappie.

Xanthism is a genetic mutation that causes an animal’s skin pigments to turn orange or yellow. There are few verified reports of xanthic crappies in the wild, and experts say such fishes are “extremely rare.”

And compared to photos of other caught golden crappies, Konakowitz’s fish appears particularly bright and colorful.

Measuring in at around 9 inches, the crappie isn’t really a traditional trophy fish, but there’s no denying it’s special.

Konakowitz plans to have a replica made of it, he said, adding that he’s following very strict instructions to properly store the fish and preserve its color until he does.

“This stands out to me as a once-in-a-lifetime fish,” he told McClatchy.

This story was originally published February 7, 2022 at 10:12 AM with the headline "‘What the heck is this?’ Ice fisherman reels in rare ‘golden’ fish at Minnesota lake."