Looks like a goldfish to me, probably just got too big for the aquarium it's owner had it in. There isn't anywhere else close by in the area she caught it in to dump one. It's just an orange carp anyways and looking at the stomach on it doesn't look like it was having any problems surviving in the pond!

Muskie bait...

LMBO at Nate

Its a big old fantail goldfish for sure.

The hook seems to be embedded on the back not in the mouth, even though there is a bobber. Was this fish foul hooked or a staged event? It's a pretty fish just the same.

That's one MONSTER GOLDFISH!!

My gold fish took a 1/2oz flippen jig!! I thought I caught somethin that hung out to long around the chemical plant at first! haha

Ask Matt from Mattlure how big goldfish can get, he was the goldfish world record holder for many years.

That is NOT a giant, and she didn't catch it. Looked like she snagged it

Its more of a medium size. The ones at a local pond I hit are eaily pushing 12 maybe even 15 pounds. They are the biggest goldfishies I have seen.

Im curious to hear Matt's story.

First off, yes, this is a straight up fantail Goldfish. Domesticated for color and finnage.

I worked on a fish farm in Arkansas, and yes, this is a pretty big one. Looks to be maybe about 4 or 5 lbs, which is about how big our breeders got.

However, I have caught numerous wild strain Goldfish (almost always confused with a completely different species, the common Carp) from 5 lbs, all the way up to 10 1/4 lbs (foul hooked that one on a rattletrap). Even the guys at the fish farm could hardly believe I had caught an actual 10 lb Goldfish, but again, that was a wild strain version, with a small tail, and bronze color.

Now, a Koi, or the domesticated version of the common Carp, can get very large.... over 30

lbs for sure. Many years ago, we netted a 20 lb solid orange one from a local duck pond

Bassfishermen, this ^ is what you are almost certainly seeing. But don't feel bad, like I say, Goldfish and Koi are SOOOO commonly confused with one another, whether or not they be domesticated for color / finnage, or the wild strain versions.

Peace,

Fish