Freshwater Jellyfish Are Real Things

I thought I had seen and heard it all when it comes to the outdoors and this weekend I saw something I never knew existed...freshwater jellyfish.

Yes freshwater jellyfish are a real thing. Forgive me if you have heard of them, but I was shocked when I saw them in the water.

I went down to Indiana over the weekend to hang some tree stands with my buddy Brian on some excellent hunting property. It was pretty hot out when we got done so we popped over to my my buddy's parents' house and took a dip in a really clean lake.

Brian's girlfriend was there along with her kids and he said, "hey, let's drive over to the other lake and see the jellyfish." Right then I said, "what?" Brian then proceeded to say that there are freshwater jellyfish found in only the really clean lakes and you can only see them a couple times a year when the conditions are right. I wasn't sure if he was pulling my leg but I was definitely intrigued to see the phenomenon.

So we go for a cruise on the pontoon, head through a channel and come out into another lake and the water was crystal clear. I thought the first lake we swam in was clean but the second lake was even clearer.

We drive almost to the other side of the second lake and just began to float. While they were are all looking over the edge for jellyfish, I was casting my rod and managed to catch a few large mouth bass.

Then they started spotting the jellyfish and finally I saw one, then two, then several. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. You could see them coming up and swimming around. I'm not sure what attracted them to come to the boat but it was a sight to be seen.

The kids brought a few nets along and caught a few of them. The photo that comes with the article is a jellyfish in a white bucket. I have video below that shows it swimming.

[video width="368" height="656" mp4="https://townsquare.media/site/43/files/2020/08/Freshwater-Jellyfish-Video-1.mp4"][/video]