Are You Safe from Fish in Your Lake?

Given the choice between an ocean, lake, or pool, my favorite to swim in is a lake. I grew up near a lake and spent some of the best moments of my childhood there. Pools are too sterile, and some of the fish living in the ocean are too scary.

This is not to say I've never been attacked by a fish in the lake. We had a school of perch living under the dock. One day I had my face half-submerged in the water and found myself face to face with one of the little guys. I started making kissy faces at it to see what it did. It saw the flash of my braces, swam up to me, and bit me on the upper lip. It drew blood.

A woman boating on the Illinois River was hit in the face by an Asian carp that jumped out at her and hit her in the head. She was actually knocked unconscious and sustained other injuries as well. The carp respond to boat noises by leaping out at the source of the noise. These fish can be upwards of 50 pounds.

In Lake Erie, people have been bitten by an unidentified fishy object. The doctor who treated them speculated that the assailant was a bowfin. This is a primitive fish known for aggressively guarding its eggs and young. At lengths of up to one meter, a fish of this size can inflict a strong bite with its sharp teeth. The bowfin is very similar to when it originally lived in the time of the dinosaurs. Though the Loch Ness monster is shrouded in mystery, I would be more concerned about this smaller yet more menacing monster.

A similar fish is the alligator gar, another primitive fish. It possesses the requisite sharp teeth, as well as thick armor-like scales. They can be eight or nine feet long. Anglers catching such a fish will probably be scratched or bitten in their struggle to drag it out of the water. This doesn't fascinate me, as I feel that would be part of the bargain. This fish has declined in numbers due to its unpopularity as a threat to other game fish. Certainly we are a bigger threat to it than it is to us.

Still, the thought of sustaining a large, bloody bite from an enormous primitive fish whilst enjoying time in a trusty lake both horrifies and fascinates me. Not knowing what's in the lake, how large it is, or its proximity to my feet reassures me that a few things in life are still a mystery.

findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BQK/is_1_9/ai_112350788
www.fishingmagic.com/news/article.asp
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowfin
mdc.mo.gov/conmag/2003/01/40.htm