During a bizarre water incident, a woman discovered that dogs aren’t the only animals who enjoy playing fetch.
Katie Fitz (@katie.fitz44) was enjoying a day out at the lake with her pet when she tossed a ball into the water for him to go and grab. However, she was shocked to find that another creature beat her dog to the punch: a fish.
In a video documenting the unlikely series of events, the scaly ball bandit manages to fit the entire sphere in its mouth. But the buoyancy doesn’t allow it to get very far.
This prompts Fitz to swim into the water after her dog’s toy as the beige and white pup watches from the dock in what looks like a state of disbelief. “Funniest thing I’ve ever seen. It literally jumped out of the water and caught it,” Fitz wrote in a caption for her post.
Toward the end of her clip, she grabs the fish with her hand as she swims back to the dock, with her dog’s ball still in its mouth.
‘Never Have I Seen Someone Catch A Bass While Swimming’
Folks who saw Fitz’s video couldn’t believe their eyes. “This is what cell phones were made for bc nobody would ever believe this,” one person wrote.
Someone else echoed this exact sentiment, writing, “Honestly I wouldn’t have believed you if you didn’t have a video.”
Another person couldn’t help but notice the irony of Fitz’s ability to inadvertently catch a fish with a ball. “Some dude off to the side with very fancy expensive lures is watching this right now,” they wrote.
Surprisingly, this isn’t the first time someone documented a fish catching a ball that was meant for their dog. Back in 2021, Kimberly Foster Hyde was out with her golden retriever, C.C. Much like Fitz, she and her pup were spending some time at a lake and tossing a ball around. After one throw, a bass came up and tried swallowing the huge object whole.
The dog owner posted about her experience on Facebook, where she shared a video of the ball-snatching aftermath in question. C.C. sniffs the fish in the clip and is sporting the same look of concern that Fitz’s dog was giving off in her video. Probably worried about whether or not she was going to get her ball back.
Hyde told the Dodo at the time, “It was definitely a shock to see. It took everyone a second to really process that the fish had caught the ball. It was a funny sight for sure!”
Can You Teach Tricks To Fish?
Martial arts movie megastar Jackie Chan garnered headlines in 2007 for training one of his fish to roll over in the water and let him pet its belly. According to Tropical Fish Care Guides, getting your water-dwelling pals to respond to specific physical commands is entirely possible. Although the outlet does indicate that there are some specific breeds that respond better than others, like “Betta, Oscars, Parrot Cichlids … [and] Goldfish.”
When it comes to Betta fish, there are lots of folks who’ve managed to train them “to follow their finger[s], eat from their hand[s], swim through hoops and jump out of the water.” Like many other animals, utilizing food as a reward system can help positively reinforce an expedient trick-learning journey. One man, Dean Pomerleau, demonstrated how he was able to train his goldfish, Albert Einstein, how to play soccer. In fact, Albert actually holds the Guinness World Record for being the fish “with the largest repertoire of tricks.”
According to Guinness World Records, Albert can also play fetch. He “will retrieve a ball dropped into his tank off the bottom, nudge it to the surface and into Dean Pomerlau’s waiting hand,” according to the record-keeping authority.
@katie.fitz44 Funniest thing I’ve ever seen. It literally jumped out of the water and caught it #fyp #dog #foryoupage #funny #fishing
As for Fitz and what ultimately happened with the bass who took her dog’s ball, BroBible has reached out to her via TikTok direct message for further information.