There’s nothing wrong with being pleasantly surprised, especially when a record fish comes out of the deal.
Robert Abel of San Antonio found himself in this very situation when he caught the pending Rio Grande cichlid record for the Colorado River.
“I thought it was a bass when it first hit, the way it took off and how hard it was pulling,” Abel said. “Then it got about 10 feet from the bank and jumped out of the water, and I said ‘Wow, that’s a big Rio.’”
Fishing outside of Marble Falls, Abel was using an ultralite set-up with a nightcrawler under a float. He said he had caught several smaller Rios before the big one hit.
“The thing is, you never know what you’re going to catch,” he said. “Put the bait in a likely spot and see what happens.
“You have to get out there, pay your money, do some fishing, and you might just catch something good.”
The fish had a 10-inch girth and a length of 11.25 inches. It weighed 1.30 pounds.
