Giant Catfish

[crpntr133]

Kinda like a friend of mine that has this story..Him and a buddy go diving out of a small boat in a local strip pit looking for a car. He goes down, alone, to see if they have the right spot. A few seconds later he comes up really fast and almost jumps in the boat right out of the water. His buddy drags him in the boat as he can tell something is wrong. After he is in the boat he tells his buddy that there was a HUGE catfish in the car. It had to have been every bit as big as he was, and he wasn't small. His buddy tells him to go back down and get the fish out of there. To which he replies, sorry I can't he had the windows rolled up and the AC on.

 

[Foo]

To which he replies, sorry I can't he had the windows rolled up and the AC on.

Ha that's funny!! I remember seeing huge apaloosa cats when I was a girl, caught in a trot line in Lake O' the Pines in ETx. I don't know how much they weighed, but probably at least a hundred lbs, they skeert me. :11:

Foo

 

[freshwaterdiver]

Just meant a diver while diving at Sterns Island this morning who has seen, what he said was, a 8 foot Catfish while diving near the pecan grove near Hippie Hollow. Said it scard the @#$$ out of him. He said he had a camera but was too freaked out to do anything and by the time he compsed himself it was gone. He said is was affraid to go looking for it.

From everything I have heard they like to stay deep. I am ready to go "hunting".

 

[LewisR]

When I was a kid we used to go fishing below the dam, there used to be a tree there they hung the catfish heads on to showoff the big fish they caught. I am sure some of those came from some large fish. I am not sure about 200lbs. but I bet they were close.

 

[TxSkawzall]

Hey yall,

Thank you for all of your replies. I'm really excited to see so much interest in this topic. I'm also glad to be here, yall sound like a good bunch of folks.

Well, like you all said, I've heard the stories too. Many from my grandpas, and a few from uncles and friends. The most common story I hear from my family members is one about dam repairmen at Buchanan, going down in small submersibles. I know there is alot of room for exaggeration and "scary" story telling with the subject of big fish, but maybe there is some truth to it.

Well, if it really is true, at all, then I think someone just has to document it. I am not a scuba diver, and have only dove in small lakes and rivers for fun. I am excited about the topic, and really kind of want to make a project out of it.

Anyways, let me know any updates if you ever get them. I'm a student at UT, and will be all over central Texas over the summer.

Glad to be here, and like Freshwaterdiver said, I'm ready to go hunting!

Have a good one,

Phil

 

[freshwaterdiver]

Phil,

Don't know if you know this or interested, but UT has a great Scuba Diving program and you can take it as an elective. Form what I hear and from what I have seen the professor is an old time diver and an excellent instructor. If you do not want to go that route, I am sure several on the board would be glad to point you in the right direction. Again if you are ready to take the "plunge".

Come on lets go hunting.

 

[Cudabait]

All the 'big enought to eat a man' catfish stories I've heard report them being found at the base of dams where alot of 'food' ends up. Biggest one I've ever seen with my own eyes was when I was a kid, about 40 years ago. A friends of my Dad's caught a blue channel cat in the San Jacinto River on a trot line that weighed over 150#.

Yea, Dee...it was most likely a Blue Catfish....in the late 1800'S they used to catch them up to 350 lbs. in the Miss River. See:
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/fish/infish/species/catfish.htm.

Regards,

 

[cjames]

I'm with ya, we'll make a docu-drama about the "Killer Catfish of Lake Travis". I'm sure there will be some link with run off from the Armadillo World Headquarters or something.

 

[Lukiedukie]

They just caught one in east asia I belive that was over 300lbs. I iwll see if I can find the link to the story

 

[fmw625]

I've heard stories of super large catfish, "big enough to eat a man" in the Pearl River below the spill way of Barnett Resivoir reported by divers. After becoming one (a diver), I don't know how they got close enough to see them in all the muck from the spill way without being eaten. Rumors are rumors until being proven otherwise.