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World’s Largest Catfish — WOW!!

[H/T to Tom E for this one]

World's Largest Catfish
Photo by Suthep Kritsanavarin of the World Wildlife Fund

The above image is of a 646-pound Mekong giant catfish, netted in Thailand - full story here - the fish now holds the record for the largest freshwater fish ever caught. Originally there were plans to release the fish, but it died while in captivity and was eaten by a village near where it was caught.

All I got to say is if anything like is around here it will be on Melton Hill right below the ORNL / Y-12 dump stream. That is HUGE. What a fish story too….

“Yeah babe me and the guys were busy netting a 640+ pound catfish ALL DAY. … Uh where is it….uh…well it died….so I just gave it to some guy that looked like he needed that was on the bank….”….. SURE YOU DID CLYDE AND YOU WILL BE SLEEPING ON THE FUTON FOR A WEEK FOR THAT ONE!!!!

Seriously that just is one more reminder about how little we know and understand about large species. There could be larger fish out there, and it is possible there are numerous animals in remote areas of the earth that we have never seen or photographed. This story also shows that if you give a man a fish he will eat it, but if you give him a fishing net he will feed a village and create a fish story.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, June 30th, 2005 at 7:58 am and is filed under Current / General, Misc, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

47 Comments

how big was the net did they catch it in a river or a lake

Comment by darryl wilson — 7/4/2005 @ 9:54 pm
PLEASE ANSWER ME PLZ

Comment by darryl wilson — 7/4/2005 @ 9:57 pm
It was caught in a river and the net was the standard size used in the area. Thanks for asking and sorry we did not get back to you faster.

Comment by neil — 7/5/2005 @ 7:56 am
What did u catch it on? Did it give u a fight as you brought it in?
Instead of eating it why wouldn’t u get it stuffed or something, you
would think a Bass Pro Shop would want it to have in their stores or
something…not just to be eaten and forgot about! Just imagine how
many people would of actually wanted to see the real thing in front of
their face in a store instead of looking at a picture on the net!

Comment by Kenneth — 7/5/2005 @ 4:08 pm
Kenneth, we did not catch we just found the story and picture online and put up a post about it with a picture. Based on the story the fish was caught with a net and they planned to put it back in the river but it died so the entire village ate it. We agree that many would want to see it “face to face” if they could have kept it alive.

Comment by Frank — 7/5/2005 @ 5:19 pm
Is there an estimate of how old this fish was?

Comment by Michael — 7/8/2005 @ 6:19 pm
I have been trying to find pics of record fish its kinda like krypto zoo stuff. I have heard about other giant cats and would like to know if you have any info on them in the states. thanks

Comment by mike — 7/17/2005 @ 8:07 pm
Sorry I do not have any info other then about this large catfish, and it was caught in Asia, not the states. Wild stuff though. If you get a site up or find some data I would be interested in looking at it so keep us updated.

Comment by Frank — 7/17/2005 @ 8:54 pm
couldnt they just make a replica

Comment by matt — 7/18/2005 @ 6:38 pm
That does sound like a good idea, but I do not know.

Comment by frank — 7/18/2005 @ 8:20 pm
Damn that is one big cat

Comment by Anson Kinney — 9/30/2005 @ 3:38 pm
Do they know what type of catfish it is

Comment by Jerry — 10/28/2005 @ 12:38 am
Oh my gosh thats the biggest fish I’ve ever seen. and I’ve seen some bigt fish.

Comment by Margarita — 10/30/2005 @ 8:39 pm
Stopping by! I am trying to start my own blog on data mmc recovery.Can you point me to good free blog software company or a cheap one if not free?. Thanks, TIMOTHY

Comment by critical disaster information recovery — 2/10/2006 @ 3:17 pm
Anybody know how we get an RSS feed for this blog? I am not very tech savvy and would really like to get updated info on this blog. Thanks!

Comment by Fish Hooks — 2/27/2006 @ 1:33 am
WOW that is one bir fish how exactly did they catch it?

Comment by michael wade — 5/5/2006 @ 10:47 am
that is a big fisha nd i wanna kno wht u cougtht it on and im going out there and im going to try to catch a big poppy like that

Comment by wes lezu — 5/6/2006 @ 1:50 pm
how long did it take to catch it? how many people?

Comment by troy pruitt — 8/28/2006 @ 1:06 pm
how old was the fuckin fish dude?!!!1

Comment by BOB ALOOLEY — 8/28/2006 @ 7:40 pm
that fish looks like its fake and if it is real why didnt u release it after u measured the fish

Comment by rafal — 9/1/2006 @ 12:18 pm
How long is the fish????? email me back.my email is superkiran001@yahoo.com

Comment by Kate — 9/13/2006 @ 8:20 pm
why do you have a picture of a dog with a square tough at the top of your website excuse typing erorrs

Comment by alix powell — 10/31/2006 @ 9:27 am
answerme!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Comment by alix powell — 10/31/2006 @ 9:28 am
The picture at the top is random. That is just one of many. That is one of the dogs of Team Swap’s directors in real life. He is the chief site proofer and coder enforcer around here.

Comment by admin — 10/31/2006 @ 7:04 pm
I’m in Texas where we have some Big CatFish………..But this 1 tops the cake. But you know there is some strange things that happen around the lakes here in texas and we really do not know what is @ da bottom of da lake…Have you been down there to check it out…..I sure haven’t……And you haven’t either…..So we just might have 1 lurking…hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Comment by R.C.Cooper — 11/2/2006 @ 3:39 pm
if that cat fish would have been caught on a rod and reel,it would have took a long time to land it.also,it would have took a big bait to get it.

Comment by joel carter sr. — 1/30/2007 @ 3:55 am
Wow i think iv seen bigger though lol

Comment by Guy — 2/24/2007 @ 3:59 pm
wow what a catch guys bet u that was a handfull to catch lol

Comment by warren — 4/10/2007 @ 4:14 am
wow i sure would like some of that

Comment by robbie — 4/10/2007 @ 4:17 am
did you harpoon that XXXXXXXXX? cause i think you would have to

Comment by big dane — 4/25/2007 @ 1:24 pm
This is a huge fish. (everyone commented on it so I had to say something). Really though that fish is freak’n huge. You could feed a medium size village with that. A little batter dip, cooking oil cubes, a hush puppy or two.

Comment by Travis — 5/8/2007 @ 4:50 pm
The netted catfish is certainly large, however, mississippi mud cats have been known to reach that size and are seen frequently under the Pedestrian bridge to the Museum on the island in Memphis. just stand on the bridge on a clear day and use polaroid sunglasses. A little research should prove this is true.

Comment by garry Ferguson — 5/18/2007 @ 7:35 am
From Plantcatfish -

http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/species.php?species_id=262

Common Name(s) - Appaloosa Catfish, Appaluchion, Flat Belly Catfish, Flat Head Catfish, Goujon, Mississippi Catfish, Mud Catfish, North American Flathead Catfish, Tabby Catfish, Yellow Catfish

The current rod and reel record from Elk City Reservoir in Kansas stands at 123 pounds. Commercial fishermen have recorded flatheads at five feet long and 140 pounds.

————————–

From Myths from the deep -

http://mdc.mo.gov/conmag/2005/04/30.htm

The international record blue cat wasn’t much bigger. It weighed 121 pounds when it was taken from the Texas side of Lake Texoma in January 2004.

Those are modern-day records. A 150-pound blue catfish was found in a St. Louis fish market in 1879. It came from the Mississippi River.

There’s even a record of one twice that size. In”Steamboating Sixty-five Years on Missouri’s Rivers,” Captain William L. Heckman wrote about blue cats weighing 125 to 200 pounds and mentioned one from the Missouri River in Gasconade County that weighed a staggering 315 pounds!

A life of eating and lounging results in the growth of some hefty flathead catfish, too. The current worldrecord flathead weighed 123 pounds. The Missouri record flathead catfish weighed 94 pounds and was taken from the St. Francis River in 1971. Every summer you’ll read stories of flatheads caught that exceed 60 pounds.

————————–

From Flathead Catfish World Record -

http://members.aol.com/w15ham/fhwr.html

WORLD RECORD:
IGFA 91-4+ L. Lewisville, TX 3/28/82
FHF 92-0+ Toledo Bend, TX 2/25/95

TN 85-15 Hiwassee R. 7/25/93

————————–

If you are seeing 600+ flat head / mud catfish off of the Memphis bridges you need to catch it and set the TN / US / World record. As you can see above there seem to be some disagreement on the current numbers, but none are over 150lbs. Good luck on catching your record setter, and we wish you the best. If you catch one please keep us updated as we would love to update our post with your record catch.

Comment by admin — 5/18/2007 @ 12:01 pm
Thought I’d look up worlds largest to see if my uncle had
Caught the biggest. Man was I dumbfounded when I found
this site. That’s one big fish!!! definitely beats my
Uncles catch at brookville, Indiana. We don’t know the
weight but it was about 7 feet long.

Comment by EricL — 5/23/2007 @ 2:28 pm
you never xxxxx answered that dudes question how old do ya’ll think that xxxxxx is xxxx

Comment by david from houston — 6/8/2007 @ 3:10 pm
where did you find or catch it @ well for the anwser e-mail me at alecmeeker14@yahoo.com

Comment by alec meeker — 6/10/2007 @ 11:43 am
i cant beleve how big that fish is if i hade that fish it would probly be in area 51 nevermind area 52!

Comment by jacob — 10/22/2007 @ 8:02 am
wow thats HUGE!

Comment by JESSICA — 12/18/2007 @ 11:17 am
WOW THATS HUGE!
:]]

Comment by JESSICA — 12/18/2007 @ 11:19 am
okay…. first off……. That’s a BIG dang fish!! But Really almost even more amusing than that is reading all the comments left on this Blog with a nice thiiick country accent……………WOW HOOOOLY HICKFest!!! and im a fuckin red neck myself!! omgosh LOL

Comment by chrissy lee — 1/25/2008 @ 9:36 pm
I think their weight balance is wrong

Comment by Abebe T. — 4/5/2008 @ 7:57 am
HOLY SHIT THAT IS A FUCKING BIG CATFISH YOU PEOPLE ARE FUCKING CRAZY FOR NOT MOUNTING THAT BITCH ON A WALL DUMBASSES

Comment by matt — 4/10/2008 @ 4:15 pm
Thats no catfish.. thats a north vietnamese river salander.

Comment by Steve — 4/22/2008 @ 8:07 am
[...] World’s Largest Catfish” catch happened in Thailand: (more info - that is a 646-pound Mekong giant [...]

Pingback by Weird Big Fish! | This is Life — 5/22/2008 @ 10:40 pm
how long do you think it would take to clean that cat i wouldn’t wanna clean it or eat it. it would be too —- tough

Comment by scott — 7/2/2008 @ 1:15 pm
you would have too use a —– ax to cut his head off with

Comment by scott — 7/2/2008 @ 1:16 pm
i bet there are a whole lot more fishermen there now =]

Comment by Gage — 7/15/2008 @ 3:01 pm