Fish Are Biting--Anglers Have the Scars to Prove It

A state fisheries biologist said he is shocked and baffled by the puncture wounds and teeth marks on people who claim they were bitten by fish in Lake Mendocino, according to a report published Friday.

“We are amazed about the size of the bites, and we’re really concerned,” said Wendell Jones, a state fisheries biologist, in an interview with the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat. Sophisticated electroshock equipment will be taken to the lake so biologists can find “what’s out there,” he said.

Fish will be zapped at various spots in the lake 100 miles north of San Francisco. They will be taken into a state Fish and Game Department boat to be examined live after they recover from the shock, Jones said, adding that he hopes to have some answers within a week.

“That damn fish bit the hell out of me,” recalled truck driver Earl Johnson, after his painful encounter Sunday with a sharp-toothed fish in shallow water on the lake’s eastern shore. Johnson had puncture wounds around his right ankle.

Large Tail Fin

Michael Hubley, 13, of Santa Rosa, said he was camping with his family on the lake’s north shore when he was bitten on his left foot on Saturday.

“It chomped down right on top of my foot,” said Hubley, who was in about 18 inches of warm, murky water at the time. He described the predator as six or seven inches in diameter with a tail fin about the size of a human palm.

Dr. Jim Katzell, of Ukiah, treated Johnson and two other fish-bite victims--both youngsters who had been swimming in the lake--and said he is as puzzled as anyone else.

“They (teeth marks) actually look like the imprint of a jaw,” Katzell said.

Whatever is out there has townsfolk speculating, including one longtime resident who suggested that it just may be the “granddaddy of all stripers.”

However, Jones guessed that the fish that attacked Johnson and the others may have been a member of the sunfish family protecting its spawning ground. That could include large- and small-mouth bass, popular catches at the lake.