PlanetCatfish.com

The story was also covered in USA Today.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/2005-05- ... fish_x.htm

That's nothing compared to the european wels. 200 pounders aren't that rare!!

the UK record's over 100lbs

600 ponders have been rumoured from russia!

here's a nice picture off http://members.chello.at/armin.margreiter/privat.html



i'm going to the ebro in spain soon. i might see if i can catch one!!

IMNSHO it would be MUCH cooler to go SCUBA diving in that lake and handfeed and film those beasties instead of pester and exhaust them with hooks and all.

diving with large catfish, now THAT would rock!

I heard on the news that they want to sell it to an aquarium or some such thing. They showed it in a tub their the backyard. Is a Channel Cat? If so, I would suggest the next time somebody asks about their care, we post that picture.

(I'm with you, Sid. Too bad I can't dive. )

The husband and wife were on the NBC Today Show this morning and talked about hooking and landing this fish. At some point the fish died before they could keep it for display. They, with the help of Cabelas, are planning to have a latex cast made with subsequent molds/copies.

That's awful. while i see no problem with recreational angling, i do object to people needlessly killing creatures.

sid, one could argue that you shouldn't "pester" your fish by dumping them in a tiny aquarium.

if we all cared that much about fish, we would give all the money we spend on our hobby to a conservation organisation to prevent habitat destruction and pollution.

fishkeeping is essentially selfish. as much as we love our fish, we only keep them because it pleases us, not our fish.

back to topic though

diving would be great. i think i would soil myself very quickly if i saw a wels that big in it's habitat.

sidguppy wrote:IMNSHO it would be MUCH cooler to go SCUBA diving in that lake and handfeed and film those beasties instead of pester and exhaust them with hooks and all.

Looking at the wels, though, I wonder exactly what "handfeeding" would amount to with that species. As in, will the fish eat your hand?

I'd sign up for a Diving With The Big Cats tour... I think. It could be a bit dangerous, though. Isn't there a story about one of the Pangasius species actually killing a diver, nineteen-teens or -twenties? The liability waiver on the diving tour would be scary!

http://www.wcsh6.com/home/article.asp?id=23053

The whole episode reminds me somewhat of one of those monster movies where the monster is taken to the nearest big city of the time to be put on display. Sadly this one didn't wipe out half the city and return to the dark deep depths.

Fair enough if they were going to eat it, but they didn't need to take it to a sports store for display.

Jools

Jools, a popular show on one of the cable sports networks is Bass fishing for money. Yes, watching people catch fish. Fortunately, the throw the majority of them back. I cannot understand the compulsion to watch people catch fish.

I haven't eaten fish since I started caring for them.

Isn't there a story about one of the Pangasius species actually killing a diver, nineteen-teens or -twenties?

That was the story of the P. sanitwongsei inflcting a fatal, deep stab wound to the side of the fisherman who dived to clear the cast net that had snagged the 2.5-m long fish. This was quoted in Smith (1945).

Jools wrote:The whole episode reminds me somewhat of one of those monster movies where the monster is taken to the nearest big city of the time to be put on display. Sadly this one didn't wipe out half the city and return to the dark deep depths.

Fair enough if they were going to eat it, but they didn't need to take it to a sports store for display.

Part of me agrees with you. But then I ask myself -- If they were planning to give it aceptable long-term housing and keep it indefinitely (I know, that's a big "if"), how does this differ from collecting fish from the Amazon and hauling them back home (or having them collected and hauled to the local fish store for us to purchase)?

how does this differ from collecting fish from the Amazon and hauling them back home

I'd say there might be a few differences. I've never been collecting, but I imagine those here who have been on well thought-out, well-planned expeditions can spell out the differences. The only acceptable long-term housing for that fish was the river it came from. Was that a gravid female?

Elspeth wrote:Part of me agrees with you. But then I ask myself -- If they were planning to give it aceptable long-term housing and keep it indefinitely (I know, that's a big "if"), how does this differ from collecting fish from the Amazon and hauling them back home.

I see what your getting at (and that really is too big an if) but I'd not even attempt it with something this big (or likely to get this big) as the chances of survival are next to nothing.

Jools

As a youngster I heard about these guys that did this thing in the rivers and along the banks here in the midwest called, "noodling". One technique they supposedly use is burying a 50 gallon barrel half way in the sand in an ideal spot somewhere in the river at a depth of about 4-5 feet, they then put some bait (liver chunks, etc.) into the barrel and come back a few days later only to find these huge (Flatheads here in the midwest) laying inside of the barrel. Then, a diver creeps up on the fish and puts his arm inside the catfishes mouth then reaches to grab the inside gill hoping to pull the thing into the boat. I heard a story about a guy who did this and couldn't manage to pull the fish out of the barrel, catfish wouldn't let go, so his buddies (in the boat above) grabbed his feet and pulled him out as you can imagine, his armed was shredded when it was all said and done.

Here's an old noodling thread.