That's just awesome. 

I was fishing a local lake a few years ago and out of the corner of my eye, I spotted something orange. I first thought someone threw a traffic cone in the lake. As the boat got closer I observed a big orange Koi. I only seen it that one time, but I now look for it every time I'm there.

That one is from France. Brian. 

I’ve also seen a nice koi or two in the French broad river 

Dang, and here I clicked thinking this was going to be about using big Goldfish to catch trophy class Bass lol.

 

That's one ugly fish.....same as every other carp ?

My buddy sent me this link and said “I flushed it down the toilet 30 years ago, look how it’s grown”

It's known as "The Carrot". Reportedly it is often seen but elusive to catch.

They are used as live bait in the Potomac and it’s not uncommon to see them when the water is clear enough.  I would imagine they fall easy prey to osprey and snakeheads as well as blue cats. 

I've caught a few around here, biggest around 9 lbs. Goldfish are great bait, but illegal in a lot of places. There is this gold and silver one where I pickerel fish in the winter that's over 30 lbs, I see him every so often, but he's very shy.

I hooked one a couple years ago on a jigging spoon that came off at the boat, I was pretty disappointed. It was orange/black/silver, pretty cool looking fish. 

That's a snack that smiles back!

We do have one, I have seen him swimming once and a few ppl have caught him.

This is one of the pictures came up when google search and definitely from our lake.

 

Off the subject- but why do people hold some fish by the eyes?

I hate it when I see people do that. 

I was watching a youtube channel and one of the guys was holding all the pike he was catching by the eyes. 

That's not good for the fish that is being released. I'm pretty certain it can cause eye damage to the fish.

3 hours ago, mrpao said:

Off the subject- but why do people hold some fish by the eyes?

I hate it when I see people do that. 

I was watching a youtube channel and one of the guys was holding all the pike he was catching by the eyes. 

That's not good for the fish that is being released. I'm pretty certain it can cause eye damage to the fish.

I somehow didn’t notice that until you mentioned it. I’ve never seen that before, what in the world????

On 11/24/2022 at 10:30 PM, Bass_Fishing_SoCal said:

We do have one, I have seen him swimming once and a few ppl have caught him.

This is one of the pictures came up when google search and definitely from our lake.

 

Pretty sure the OP and this are koi and not goldfish.

9 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

I somehow didn’t notice that until you mentioned it. I’ve never seen that before, what in the world????

I remember it being an old technique to handle pike. Makes no sense in this case.

1 hour ago, Chris Catignani said:

Pretty sure the OP and this are koi and not goldfish.

No, they are goldfish, which are in turn just funny colored carp hybrids.

4 minutes ago, Deleted account said:

No, they are goldfish, which are in turn just funny colored carp hybrids.

The most a goldfish will ever grow is about 12 inches.

3 minutes ago, Chris Catignani said:

The most a goldfish will ever grow is about 12 inches.

Goldfish (carassius auratus), come in many varieties, and yes, some will only grow to a few inches or a bit more, while others will grow to similar sizes to carp, also once in the wild, they will cross breed with other carps. Those little chubby things with the bug eyes and double tails are the same species as some of those big ones swimming around in some waters, kinda like dogs, there are yorkies and great Danes.

The dead give away are the barbels...which goldfish dont have.

On 11/27/2022 at 10:13 AM, Chris Catignani said:

The dead give away are the barbels...which goldfish dont have.

This^^^

And as mentioned goldfish might only get slightly big than 12".

Carp/koi can get pretty big.

Here's a big one at my home lake. Looks around over 30" long

 

 

On 11/27/2022 at 9:55 AM, Deleted account said:

Goldfish (carassius auratus), come in many varieties, and yes, some will only grow to a few inches or a bit more, while others will grow to similar sizes to carp, also once in the wild, they will cross breed with other carps.

Carp (Cyprinis carpio) and comet goldfish (Carassius auratus) aren't even in the same genus.  They are equally related to the tiger barb (Puntigrus tetrazona), a common aquarium species.  In other words, same family, but not closely related.  No comet goldfish will grow to the size of a koi or common carp. Common or Eurasian carp and koi or Amur carp (Cyprinus rubrofuscus) aren't even the same species, though are closely related and can probably hybridize.