LIVONIA, Mich. (WXYZ) \u2014 A group of 12-year-old friends in Livonia made the catch of a lifetime when they reeled in what appears to be a rare alligator gar fish, a species not native to Michigan waters.<\/p>\n
“It’s probably this big. It’s a monster fish. It’s like a once-in-a-lifetime kind of fish,” Nathan Wilson of Livonia said.<\/p>\n
Watch the video report below:<\/b><\/p>\n
Rare alligator gar caught by group of 12-year-old friends in Michigan pond<\/p>\n
The boys were fishing for bluegill at Jaycee Park in Livonia when they hooked something unexpected.<\/p>\n
“I really didn’t know what to do because I was a little scared,” Evan Mosher of Livonia said.<\/p>\n
“It’s pretty rare. It’s not even supposed to be here,” Max Murphy of Livonia. said<\/p>\n
Watch video of the alligator gar in the video player below:<\/b><\/p>\n
Video shows alligator gar in Livonia retention pond<\/p>\n
Gideon Martin said they were just having a typical day fishing. <\/p>\n
“We were just like fishing for some bluegill, paying a game,” Gideon said.<\/p>\n
The rare catch happened when the boys were reeling in a bluegill that was still on their line, which apparently attracted the larger predator fish.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
After catching the unusual fish, Max called his father, who was initially skeptical.<\/p>\n
“They call us up and tell us they caught this alligator gar. We were all a little skeptical about it. Then they sent us the pictures and we’re looking at it and get on Google and go, ‘ehh, maybe they’re right,'” said Ian Murphy, Max’s father.<\/p>\n
“It’s an intimidating looking fish and it’s something that would probably terrify a lot of people.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The boys released the fish back into the pond. When I interviewed the young anglers at the same location, we spotted the alligator gar swimming in the murky water.<\/p>\n
John Buszkiewicz with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources confirmed the rarity of the sighting.<\/p>\n
“Seeing these photos, it was clear that it was something that I have never seen before,” Buszkiewicz said.<\/p>\n
The DNR was initially skeptical because alligator gar are not native to Michigan waters.<\/p>\n
Hear more from John Buszkiewicz in the video player below:<\/b><\/p>\n
Web extra: DNR talks about alligator gar caught<\/p>\n
“The alligator gar are from the Mississippi basin,” Buszkiewicz said.<\/p>\n
According to Buszkiewicz, the fish was likely dumped in the park retention pond by someone.<\/p>\n
“It’s a little concerning. I don’t know how well the alligator gar can survive over the winter,” he said.<\/p>\n
For these young fishermen, the experience remains a highlight they won’t soon forget.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“I mean, it was a crazy atmosphere, like Stanley Cup finals type of stuff,” Nathan said.<\/p>\n
“Probably the catch of a lifetime,” Evan said.<\/p>\n
\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LIVONIA, Mich. (WXYZ) \u2014 A group of 12-year-old friends in Livonia made the catch of a lifetime when…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":75954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[159,67,132,68,837],"class_list":{"0":"post-75953","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-united-states","10":"tag-unitedstates","11":"tag-us","12":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114881161129308963","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}