OLATHE, Kan. — Police in Olathe, Kansas were called in to help snag a 60-pound grass carp found in a drainage ditch adjacent to a neighborhood lake.
Olathe school resource officer Jamie Schmidt, who is spending her summer working as an animal control officer, said a man out walking on Persimmon Road found the fish dead on Friday in a subdivision near Persimmon Lake, reports KCTV.
“He called the shelter and said there’s a four-foot long fish, it’s dead in a culvert and we need someone to come out and pick it up for us,” Schmidt said. “I’m a fisherman, but I’ve never caught a fish that big.”
Jamie Schmidt with the 60-pound grass carp. (SOURCE: KCTV)
It was the department’s first ever fish call. When Schmidt was on her way, she thought it was a fish tale.
“You know men and their fish stories, so I’m thinking it is going to be not big at all,” she said. “I see it and I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, he was real!’ It actually was four feet long.”
She managed to wrangle the fish, which measured over 3.5 feet long, and took it to the station.
“It was so heavy and it was still wet, so it was all slippery,” Schmidt said. “I was all excited and took a picture with it and told all my friends, ‘This is my big catch of the day.'”
Neighbors who live near Persimmon Lake where the fish is believed to have come from were amazed by the size, but say they see giant carp swimming out there every night.
“We knew they were pretty big, but 60 pounds is bigger than I thought. My husband will be amazed,” Charlene Hughes said.
So far this summer, Schmidt said she has caught a rooster and a bat.
Animal control in Olathe said it was likely all the rain the area had last week that brought the fish up to the drainage ditch, but he was too big so that when the water went down he couldn’t swim back.
