Man fishes with sonar in North Dakota lake. Then he pulls up a ‘1-in-a-billion’ bright golden catch

A fishing trip reportedly turned into a once-in-a-lifetime moment after Jamestown angler Ethan Bear reeled in a unique walleye from an undisclosed lake in eastern North Dakota. Bear caught the unusual fish on July 10, 2026, after spending about six hours on the water with two friends.

The group had already landed several trophy walleyes before Bear spotted another fish on forward-facing sonar in roughly 19 feet of water. He said he cast a jig tipped with a nightcrawler toward the mark, and the fish immediately struck. 

“I pitched at it, and instantly it just shot up and destroyed [my bait],” Bear told Outdoor Life. As he fought the fish toward the boat, he and his friends noticed something unusual.

Whatever it was, it was golden

Bear then told Outdoor Life that everyone in the boat noticed an unusual flash beneath the surface and fell silent as they tried to figure out what they had just seen. When the fish came up again, one of his friends immediately realized it was a rare golden walleye and exclaimed, “Oh my God, it’s a gold.”

The fish measured 27 inches long. Rather than keep it for a traditional skin mount, Bear photographed the catch and released it back into the lake. He told Outdoor Life that he generally releases walleyes longer than 21 inches and plans to order a replica mount instead. 

What made Bear’s catch extraordinary was not its size but its vivid golden color. According to Outdoor Life, the fish likely exhibited xanthism, also known as xanthochromism, a rare genetic pigment mutation.

In walleyes, normal scales reflect blue wavelengths that combine with yellow pigments to create the familiar olive-green appearance. Fish with xanthochromism lack that blue structural coloration, leaving them bright yellow or gold instead. 

Walleyes rank among North America’s most popular freshwater sport fish. The species belongs to the perch family and thrives in cool lakes and rivers across the northern United States and Canada.

Anglers prize walleyes for their challenging behavior and mild-tasting white fillets. North Dakota also manages numerous lakes specifically to support healthy walleye populations. 

Scientists and fisheries experts consider xanthism extremely uncommon across freshwater fish species. Wired2Fish previously reported that Florida biologists sampled more than 255,000 largemouth bass over a decade without documenting a single case of xanthism. 

Wired2Fish reported that experts they spoke to called Bear’s a “1-in-a-billion” catch. Bear chose not to reveal the lake’s location because he wanted to protect the fishery from increased fishing pressure, according to interviews with KFYR and Outdoor Life.