Rumors started circulating early Thursday morning that a rare fish had been caught near the low water crossing on Lake Austin.
The fish in question is the once thought to be extinct yellow-bellied sucker fish. A relative to the threatened blue sucker fish, but not to be confused with the yellow-bellied sapsucker.
Long before Mansfield Dam had been constructed, the yellow-bellied sucker thrived in the swift waters of the Colorado River.
The yellow-bellied sucker needs cooler water temperatures and a steady current to spawn and survive. So it was shortly after the completion of Mansfield Dam in 1942 that sightings of the fish were rare. By 1944, it was believed that the yellow-bellied sucker fish had gone extinct.
That was until early this morning.