Whirlgig Fish is a fearsome critter related to the Giddy fish.
Description[]
They always swam in circles. They were taken in the winter months through holes in the ice, like their relatives. The loggers smeared the edges of the holes with ham or bacon rind. Smelling this the fish would swim around the rims of the holes, faster and faster, until they whirled themselves out on the ice; thousands of these fish were captured this way.
Explanation[]
This tall tale could have come from people seeing trout or salmon infected with Myxobolus Cerebralis or Whirling disease. This disease causes the fish to have spinal deformation in the tail causing them to swim in a corkscrew till they die.
Further reading[]
"Whirligig Fish" from Paul Bunyan Natural History (1935) by Charles E. Brown