For the naysayers, explain this one.
This happened in my new excavated pond with no water source inflow other groundwater and 3 or so acres worth of yard runoff. A year after completion and the pond was a little over half full, nothing had been stocked yet, I saw what looked like cat fish rolling at the surface. My daughter and I set out some lines with catfish bait and caught several 8-10" CC. No one has access to the pond without a visit by my two bullmastiffs that roam the property so I doubt they were put in by people.
In my opinion, catching several catfish rules out a bird carrying fish....drop one?, maybe, but several?
Eggs transported by an animal or wading bird? From a fish that tends to cavity spawn, in water that in many instances is deeper than what normal wading animals would encounter?
My money is on human intervention, or a high water event.
Here's a wild thought: if we're even remotely open to the possibility of an animal, or bird transporting viable eggs from one BOW to the next, why not consider that the fish we stock from a hatchery are introducing eggs from another species also? If they can stick to a bird's leg and remain viable, could they be stuck on the side of a fish, or in the transport water from the hatchery?
As long as we're considering all possibilities....
