Fisherman Catches Piranha In NC River

CHARLOTTE, NC -- A North Carolina man caught more than he wanted to eat while fishing for his dinner on Sunday.

Jerry Melton says he was fishing in the Catawba River in Gaston County, North Carolina, when pulled up a fish with a rather odd bite.

Turns out it was a one pound, four ounce piranha, a fish with a voracious appetite know for chomping down on whatever it gets its teeth into.

Melton says he didn't know what he'd caught until a fellow fisherman told him.

Jerry says "actually, there was a guy down there and he said 'That might be a piranha.' And, you know, I said 'That ain't no piranha. They ain't got piranha around here.'"

A wildlife officer says piranha are illegal to possess in North Carolina.

He says whoever owned the fish probably dumped it in the river when they got tired of it.