Posted on 04/20/2009 1:48:55 PM PDT by JoeProBono
I am the owner of the lake located behind the old Rockmart High School on College Street.
A few weeks ago I observed that there was something floating at the top of my lake and I called my grandson to come check out the situation.
When my grandson arrived at my house, he and one of his friends floated out in the lake to see what it was. Once he was out in the boat, he realized that it was an injured carp that I had purchased when the fish was only 8 inches long.
He and his friend pulled the fish out of the water with a net to see what was wrong with the fish.
After observing the fish, they noticed that one of the fins was severely damaged and needed medical attention.
I wasn’t sure how to go about aiding an injured fish, but definitely wanted to. I asked my grandson to put it back in the water and we would figure out a way to help the fish.
A couple of days later, my grandson came back and was going to attempt to aid the fish’s fin, but the fish could not be found at the top of the lake anymore.
Thinking that the fish had just passed away, we thought nothing else about it.
Next thing I know, I had some of my friends calling with questions regarding a fish that was caught out of my lake that was on the front of The Rockmart Journal’s sports section. Come to find out, it was the same fish that was injured.
Dear editor:
I don’t think that it is very sportsmanlike to catch a fish that was injured and unable to put up a fight. A fish that can only swim with one fin and floating at the top of the water shouldn’t be that much of a struggle.
If the fish wouldn’t have been injured, it would’ve taken a lot bigger of a fishing pole than the fisherman used.
The fisherman claimed it took over 30 minutes to reel in the injured fish, but that is hard to believe when my grandson pulled the fish out of the water with his bare hands and a net!
I was very bothered that someone would go out of their way to catch an injured fish that can’t even swim properly and then have the audacity to submit it to the newspaper for publication.
Lottie Sanders
Rockmart
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