—  “I saw this really weird looking thing on Lake Sam Rayburn. It looked like a jellyfish or something. I thought I was seeing things.”

    I recently spoke with a reader who sheepishly described seeing this strange looking thing on a fishing trip. I told them that was alright.

    I have seen these two and the first time, I thought I was seeing things.

    Then after a second look, I realized what appeared to be a jellyfish really was floating around the boat dock at my friend’s cabin. That might not seem so strange at first but when you consider the boat dock is on the north end of Toledo Bend reservoir, you have to admit it seems a bit odd.

    I grabbed a net and scooped up the round, gelatinous object. After some examination it was obvious this thing was not a jellyfish, but its identity remained mysterious.

    As I begin to poke the thing with a stick, my wife Lisa looked at me and said, “Remember that scene on ‘The Blob’ where the guy pokes it with a stick and then it covers him up and eats him. That might not be a good idea.”

    We had a good laugh about that but part of me was thinking something weird like that might just happen.

    After shooting a few photos of this “blob”, I put it back in the water and let it resume loating around and looking gross. When I got home, I did some research and found out what it was.

    An online guide to wildlife called the “Urban Pantheist” featured a short article on these things which are “bryzoans”.

    “You may encounter a colony of animals called bryozoans, or as that obsolete scientific name translates, "moss animals". Bryozoans make cockroaches look like spring chickens: their fossil record extends back 500 million years. The vast majority of the thousands of species in this group live in salt water, with only 50 or so found in fresh water,” they said.

      “Hundreds of thousands of individual animals (or "zooids" in zoological jargon) live together, secreting a jelly-like matrix, growing quickly in favorable conditions.”

    “Each zooid has tiny tentacles with which it grabs food particles. Rapidly growing bryozoan colonies are alarming to some people, and may create problems when they form on intake pipes and other structures. However, it seems that their presence and growth may potentially be a good indicator of water quality,” they reported.

    Billy Higginbotham with the Texas Agricultural Extension Service (TAES) gets lots of calls about these strange objects in the summer.

    "These unusual blobs may range in size from a softball to a basketball and are actually freshwater invertebrates," Higginbotham said.

    "Also called 'moss animals,' they are a sign of good water quality and do no harm," Higginbotham said.

    In a news release sent out by TAES, Higginbotham said a rarer sighting in Texas is the freshwater jellyfish.

    “Bell-shaped and translucent with tinges of white or green, and an inch or less in diameter, the creature appears in swarms in ponds and lakes. Like saltwater jellyfish, it has stingers it uses to immobilize prey. But freshwater jellyfish stingers cannot penetrate human skin, and they do not harm fish.”

    "But their appearance prompts pond owners to wonder what kind of creature has invaded their pond," he added.

    I have seen lots of strange things in the great outdoors and I still rank my first encounter with a zoid the most unusual.

    Even today it is hard to imagine that thing originating from somewhere other than a meteor crashing from a distant world.

    I guess I watched “The Blog” too many times as a kid.

    Chester Moore, Jr. is The News Outdoors Editor. To contact Chester Moore, e-mail him at cmoore@fishgame.com. You can hear him on the radio Fridays on “Moore Outdoors” on Newstalk AM 560 KLVI or online at www.klvi.com