Freakish fish caught during white trout frenzy.
Curiosity killed the cat, and apparently nosiness can do the same thing to redfish. Just ask Dylan Laborde.
The Greenwell Springs angler was catching white trout and specks near the Leeville Bridge in late July when he felt something nail his white double rig. Laborde set the hook, and when 14-pound-test line ripped from his reel, he knew he had hooked something big.
What he didn’t know is that he had joined a battle with some kind of freak.
After a fight that lasted 10 to 15 minutes, Laborde got the 19-pound redfish to boat-side and saw that it was unlike any he or his family had ever pulled over the gunwale.
“We discovered it had a nose or some sort of growth we hadn’t seen before,” Laborde’s father, Brandon Janet, said.
The fish had a tumor of some kind on its snout that made it look like it had a nose like those found paired with glasses and worn to costume parties.
The fish was too big to be palatable, and besides, the anglers weren’t sure it was safe to eat, so they released it to stick its nose into someone else’s business.
