Mystery: Fish out of water

This morning I noticed something on the ground, close to my pond and did
not
recognize it as being the largest goldfish we have. He is about 8 or 9
inches,
very fat.

We had dug a new 8 x 12 ft. pond in the fall and filled it with well
water,
an airstone, lots of that green underwater oxygenating plant (elodea?)
and
slowly added most of the goldfish from a smaller pond. It has a deep end
of
about 3 ft., the rest is a little shallower. We live in North Carolina,
on
the coast. Nights have been in the high 20's and 30's lately. The
goldfish
were slow but active until the pond got a skim of ice. Only the large
goldfish continued to be seen above the plants, but even he was down
deep
this past cold spell.

That is why it is unbelievable to me that what I saw this morning (from
my
window) was that fish lying on some stones, not moving. I thought it was
something reddish blown into the yard. He was there for a minimum of 5
hours
before we checked it out and put him back into the water!

What do you make of this? I still find it incredible that a fish can go
all
that time without water, but he seems fine now. And how did he get out?
The
pond is undisturbed otherwise.

Charlie