Now THAT's a catfish!
- Thread starter Jeff A
- Start date
What did it weigh?
I have no idea, I just found the picture on the Internet. Looking at it, I'd guess 150 lbs or so..
Wow, very impressive! You get the sleuth award for the day, if not the week!!!
Man the Internet is amazing.
Man the Internet is amazing.
great HOLY mother of all good fishes... that's ONE BIG FISH
if you go to google and look up "noodling", there are plenty of websites that talk about these huge catfish and how they are caught..
Interesting stuff and a good reason to use the swimming pool.
Interesting stuff and a good reason to use the swimming pool.
That fish is bigger than me!
Not a fake. Missouri is also known for huge catfish. The largest "recently" caught catfish was 117lbs in 1974, but much larger used to be common.
Anecdotal evidence and historical records indicate that larger blue catfish were once present in Missouri waters. A steamboat captain named William Heckman mentions in his book, "Steamboating Sixty-five Years on Missouri's Rivers," a blue catfish weighing 315 pounds taken from the Missouri River near Morrison in Gasconade County just after the Civil War. He also wrote that it wasn't uncommon to catch catfish weighing 125 to 200 pounds during the mid-1800s. More convincing evidence that larger blue catfish historically inhabited Missouri comes from an 1879 shipping invoice to the U.S. National Museum of a 150-pound blue catfish purchased at a St. Louis fish market by Dr. J.G.W. Steedman, then chairman of the Missouri Fish Commission.
I have also heard stories of catfish six feet and larger along the base of dams in Missouri. Supposedly divers inspecting the dams have reported huge catfish laying in emmense piles along the baase of the dam. But it is literally a case of my uncle who knows a diver who say the fish. Questionable to be sure, but there does seem to be some validity to the claim of missouri catfish growing to such a size.
Anecdotal evidence and historical records indicate that larger blue catfish were once present in Missouri waters. A steamboat captain named William Heckman mentions in his book, "Steamboating Sixty-five Years on Missouri's Rivers," a blue catfish weighing 315 pounds taken from the Missouri River near Morrison in Gasconade County just after the Civil War. He also wrote that it wasn't uncommon to catch catfish weighing 125 to 200 pounds during the mid-1800s. More convincing evidence that larger blue catfish historically inhabited Missouri comes from an 1879 shipping invoice to the U.S. National Museum of a 150-pound blue catfish purchased at a St. Louis fish market by Dr. J.G.W. Steedman, then chairman of the Missouri Fish Commission.
I have also heard stories of catfish six feet and larger along the base of dams in Missouri. Supposedly divers inspecting the dams have reported huge catfish laying in emmense piles along the baase of the dam. But it is literally a case of my uncle who knows a diver who say the fish. Questionable to be sure, but there does seem to be some validity to the claim of missouri catfish growing to such a size.
jlindy said:
im with you on that one.
Oh yeah,
What the heck would you use as bait?
What the heck would you use as bait?
haven't you guys seen the movie "big fish"? the bigger the fishbowl, the bigger the goldfish gets...
donwon said:
Ive seen this "noodling" thing as they call it on OLN before. To catch these giant catfish the people use there own bodies as bait.
The show followed a couple of extremely backwoods folks where they wade through the water and use there whole arm as bait. Sounds insane but ive seen it. The fish has like 3/4 of there arm in there mouth as the "fisherman" pulls it out of the water. They even have tournaments for this type of thing. Injury is not uncommon. 
looks like the guy holding the head used his arm (and maybe lost it)....
"were gonna need a bigger arm!"
"were gonna need a bigger arm!"
I actually grew up in Oklahoma and have seen this. I never tried it myself, but you'd be surprised at what is lurking in some lakes. These fish don't even have to be in lakes. I've seen guys wade out in 3 feet of water in streams, or "creeks" as we call them, and pull out 60 pound catfish. Like another guy said injuries are very common. The most often is thumbs. If you don't keep your thumb tucked in while underwater, a catfish will grab onto it and spin, taking your skin down to the bone with it. Alot of farmers will catch these out of their ponds and put the heads of the largest ones on a fence post so everyone can see. Some of the heads are huge! After seeing them, you can only imagine what the rest of it looked like.
I have also lived in Oklahoma and whenever we go water skiing they would scare us about huge "catfish" sightings..never saw one but the locals have..now I believe...
That is one BIG FISH....
That is one BIG FISH....
Are these catfish actually used for consumption once they are caught or are they kinda like trophies?
where they gonna find a pan for that thing?
Yes, some eat them. I never cared for them though. The bigger they get, the worse tasting they are. If anybody hunts deer you know what I'm talking about. The old deer are nasty. Hardly worth using for jerky. But the 2 or 3 year olds are very tender and tasty. Anyway, they are usually cut up, rolled in corn meal and fried.
Well, since catfish are bottom dwellers I question how good they'd taste. And yes, I'd imagine the older they get, the worse they'd taste cause that's more crap that they've eaten! 
haha, I think "crap" is a good term here. I've tried it several times over the years and I just never really liked the taste of it. I'd rather have some fresh salmon or something. They are fun to fish for though. The traditional way. Not noodling.
I used to go fishing with my dad when I was a kid. It was a lot of fun! I remember once we caught a catfish and we threw it back. I just thought it looked cool cause it had whiskers.
Catfish are fun to catch. I remember going with my dad when I was a kid. Now that I think about it though, I wonder why people take their kids fishing for catfish. All you do is sit there the whole time until one bites, which could be hours. I don't know any kids who have that kind of attention span. Maybe we did when we were kids, but video games corrupted them and now they have to have action 24/7.
Did you kiss it before throwing it back though? That's the rules! hehe
Did you kiss it before throwing it back though? That's the rules! hehe
White92 said:
What?? Eww! I've never heard that rule before!
I haven't been fishing in a long time. The last time was a few years ago when I went hiking somewhere in the Sierra Nevadas near Yosemite. I went with my ex-bf and his dad and we hiked up to this place called Mosquito Lake. We fished there and I was the only one who caught a fish. Haha!
It was a brown trout. 
