'Hunchback of trout-in-the-dam': Fisherman catches a rainbow trout with an enormous bulge on its head - and experts have no idea what it is
- Fisherman Adrian James caught a rainbow trout in Goulburn River, Victoria
- He was surprised by the large lump on the fish's back and shared image online
- Many experts and social media users have said they are not sure what lump is
A fisherman who reeled in a rainbow trout with an enormous lump on its head has turned to the internet for answers about the bizarre catch.
Adrian James caught a rare 4.5kg rainbow trout in Goulburn River, near Thornton in Victoria's northeast, and took to social media to boast about the capture.
'Not sure what the lump is,' he captioned the photo, which showed him decked out in fishing gear while holding the enormous trout.
Fisherman Adrian James (pictured) has shared an image of a rainbow trout he caught in the Goulburn River, Victoria
Online users were equally stumped by the huge lump on the trout's head.
'A rare one lump rainbow camel fish,' one friend joked.
'That doesn't look good at all! Some parasites are most probably guilty for that lump! Otherwise it's a good size trout,' added another.
'Hunchback of Trout-in-the-dam,' wrote a third.
Steph Watts from Recfishwest - a fishing community - said she had never seen anything like it before.
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'First of all, this fish appears it was caught from a wild population, and not an aquaculture facility where some fish are more exposed to infections,' she told Yahoo News.
'Secondly the growth appears in an unlikely area on its back and is not close to organs,' Ms Watts said.
Dr Andrew Chin from James Cook University's Centre for Sustainable Tropical Fisheries and Aquaculture said the bump could be a cyst or a cancerous growth.
The large lump on the fish (pictured) has shocked experts who are not sure what it could be
