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One man hit the jackpot of fishing at Clear Lake in Minnesota
According to KSTP, Rick Konakowitz caught what fish experts say is as rare as winning the lottery.
Knoakowitz was fishing at Clear Lake, near New Ulm, when he caught a golden crappie.
"I thought maybe it was a sunfish or because of the color," Konakowitz stated. "When I pulled it out, I looked at it and said 'what is this?'"
"They're extremely rare in wild populations," Dr. Alec Lackmann, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Minnesota Duluth, told KSTP.
After seeing the photo of the fish, he noted that "it was pretty striking to see such a vividly bright orange golden color like that."
Lackmann says a golden cappie has an over-expression of pigment, making it similar to an albino animal, which is what makes its color bright yellow and gold.
"It's a rarity for sure for any one individual to manage to catch one,” Loren Miller, a fish geneticist for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, told KSTP.
Knoakowitz joked and said that he went out and bought two lottery tickets after his lucky catch.
In the Facebook post below, you can see just how bright the golden crappie is.