{"id":264370,"date":"2026-08-13T03:52:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T03:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/264370\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T03:52:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T03:52:12","slug":"crazy-8-year-old-boy-reels-in-piranha-while-fishing-at-lake-in-pennsylvania-dad-says-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/264370\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Crazy’: 8-year-old boy reels in piranha while fishing at lake in Pennsylvania, dad says"},"content":{"rendered":"

An 8-year-old boy expecting to reel in a bass while fishing with his father caught a piranha from a lake in Pennsylvania. <\/p>\n

Michael Coffey said he was fishing with his son, Seamus, when the boy hooked an unfamiliar fish. <\/p>\n

“It was a crazy thing,” Michael Coffey said on Facebook Messenger.”He was reeling in a fish that wasn’t a normal fight,” he added.\"'Crazy':<\/p>\n

‘Crazy’: 8-year-old boy reels in piranha while fishing at lake in Pennsylvania, dad says (Photo courtesy of Michael Coffey)<\/p>\n

Coffey said he urged his son to reel the fish in slowly so he wouldn’t lose it, assuming it was a bass. Then, the boy eventually pulled it out of the water. <\/p>\n

At first, Coffey said he wasn’t sure what kind of fish it was and took a few guesses. He said it appeared to be a bluegill or something similar — but bigger. <\/p>\n

But, he said, Seamus identified it right away. <\/p>\n

“He was very quick to correct me and yell, ‘No, that’s a piranha!'” Coffey said.”He knew it was a piranha from his educational fishing videos he watches all over the world,” Coffey added.\"'Crazy':<\/p>\n

‘Crazy’: 8-year-old boy reels in piranha while fishing at lake in Pennsylvania, dad says (Photo courtesy of Michael Coffey)<\/p>\n

ABC News<\/a> reported that Fish and Boat Commission spokesperson Mike Parker confirmed the identification.<\/p>\n

“Our biologists have confirmed that this is some species of piranha,” Parker told the media outlet, adding that the unusual catch likely resulted from someone releasing a pet into the lake.<\/p>\n

The outlet said the odd catch — which happened on Saturday morning at Ridley Park Lake — prompted wildlife officials to warn against releasing exotic pets into the wild. <\/p>\n

Parker said exotic animals can become difficult or expensive to care for as they grow, leading some owners to abandon them, according to ABC News<\/a>. Releasing exotic species into Pennsylvania waterways is illegal and can result in fines or prosecution.<\/p>\n

“We did humanely put it down and put it in the water,” Coffey said.<\/p>\n

Parker said that was an appropriate decision, per ABC News<\/a>, adding that the piranha would likely not have survived long in Pennsylvania’s environment and could have posed a threat to the public or disrupted the local ecosystem. <\/p>\n

Officials reportedly said they do not believe the discovery indicates a larger population of piranhas is living in Ridley Park Lake and urged anyone who catches or spots another exotic fish to notify the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An 8-year-old boy expecting to reel in a bass while fishing with his father caught a piranha from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-264370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}