Josh Webber, 35, and his family frequently fish the Penobscot River, just behind the airport in Old Town.
Memorial Day was no different. He and his wife Sarah and one of their five children — twin daughter Marley, 11, — made their way down the path to a little shore behind the airport, near where the pontoon planes are tethered.
Webber cast his line with its bobber and a worm on the hook into the edge of some lily pads near a small island about 30 feet from shore.
Suddenly, a fish hit the bait and took the bobber to the bottom of the river with it. Webber said he thought he had hooked a pickerel, but the fish was not acting right.
He started reeling the line in and about 5 feet from shore, he could see the bullhead, a bottom-loving fish that usually is the color of mud.
The bullhead, also known as catfish and hornpout in Maine, got more interesting as it was reeled in closer to shore.
Webber couldn’t believe his eyes. The fish had distinct black and white markings, making it a rarely seen piebald bullhead.
Piebald fish are usually black and white and are a rare occurrence in nature, according to A-Z Animals. The color pattern comes from a gene mutation that affects the fish’s pigmentation, similar to how it occurs in deer, moose and other animals.
The fish probably weighed about a pound and was estimated to be 10 inches long, although he didn’t measure it, Webber said Friday.
His daughter Marley was excited to see that the fish’s fins had a pink hue, he said.
So what happened to the fish?
It was released, Webber said.
“I do catch and release. I don’t eat fish. And even if I did, that guy deserved to go. He lived to see another day,” Webber said.
