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Thu 30 Jun, 2005 02:22 pm
No Fish Tale: Thais Catch 646-Pound Fish
By DANIEL LOVERING, Associated Press Writer Thu Jun 30, 9:52 AM ET
BANGKOK, Thailand - This big one did not get away. Thai fishermen netted a 646-pound catfish believed to have been the world's largest freshwater fish ever caught in Thailand, a researcher said Thursday.
The nearly 9-foot-long Mekong giant catfish was landed May 1 by villagers in Chiang Khong, a remote district in northern Thailand, and weighed by Thai fisheries department officials, said Zeb Hogan, who leads an international project to locate and study the world's largest freshwater fish species.
He confirmed it was the heaviest fish on record since Thailand started keeping such statistics in 1981.
The fishermen had hoped to sell the fish to environmental groups, which planned to release it to spawn upriver, but it died before it could be handed over and then was chopped up and sold in pieces to villagers as food.
Hogan, whose work is funded by the World Wildlife Fund and the
National Geographic Society, said he is planning to write a paper about the catch for a scientific journal.
"That's the best way to document this kind of thing," he told The Associated Press by telephone.
The Mekong giant catfish was listed as critically endangered in 2003 after research showed its numbers had fallen by at least 80 percent in the past 13 years.
Fishermen believe the catfish species has been declining largely because of dams and environmental damage along the Mekong River ?- home to more species of giant fish than any other river, said an earlier statement
by WWF and the society.
I saw that article...very interesting!!
Thanks for sharing!
Vernon and Elroy, two brothers in Missouri have a hobby of crawling along shallows in the rivers and "grabbin flathead catties" by the mouth and bringing em up to skin and make into catfish fry strips. I would imagine that this Mekong mama would consider Vernon (who is a big boy) "bait"
Here's the pic of this huge baby!
Aren't all the fisherman around the world wondering what the heck they used for bait? Or, how they reeled him in?
It's not like you expect to have to have deep sea line for fishing in a river. How does one bring that in without a crane?
use 20 lb line, a metal leader and keep your drag set open. This will wear im out inabout a week.
I know that for big flatheads they use rope "trotlines" which are lines stretched across the river with ropes tied off at intervals and set with very large tuna hooks with dead chickens for bait. They put bells on the lines to signal when something is on.
Or else they use dynamite.
In one photo i saw, two boys down on the Tennessee had used a logging chain . . .
HOLY SH*T!
Nah, they didnt use fishing line for THAT.
It was a baseball bat!
Unsubstantiated rumor has it that the line was a cable used in bridge spans and was hauled in with the aid of a bulldozer.
farmerman wrote:Vernon and Elroy, two brothers in Missouri have a hobby of crawling along shallows in the rivers and "grabbin flathead catties" by the mouth and bringing em up to skin and make into catfish fry strips. I would imagine that this Mekong mama would consider Vernon (who is a big boy) "bait"
That's Tickling catfish.
My brother-in-law used to tickle catfish in the Wabash near Mt Vernon. They'd crawl along the shallows like you said, looking for holes in the steep mud banks where the catfish would lair tail first. They reach into the holes and grab the catfish and hurl it up on the bank. My brother-in laws main concern was finding a snapping turtle, fortunately they usually went in a hole head first.
I've also seen him (and 'Chummy') catfish using scrap steel pipe. They'd leave the pipe in the river marked with a milk bottle float. Fishing was done by simultaneously plug both ends of the pipe and drag the whole thing up on the shore. If it worked they have one for supper.
Rap
They grab em in the mouth right? As a kid, i got stung by a bullhead catty's dorsal spine and it wnt in like a needle and then , in a few days got all infected and I hadda go to the hospital.
How could these guys claim that they werent trying to catch an endangered fish when they was a fishin with suspension cables and bulldozers? They probably used F-16 tailhooks for the shank.
Yep and they wore heavy leather gloves, although that wouldn't matter to a big snapper.
My particular favorite was fiddlers--catfish about 12 inches long rolled in batter and deep fried. Three fiddlers, chips, a lettuce wedge salad and a fishbowl of beer is damn near the perfect lunch for a working man. The best I've ever had was at the
Dogtown Tavern
Along the Carolina coast they sharks fish using steel cable as a leader on 1000 pound test line.
Rap
When I used to work down near Imokalee Fla, They had a restaurant there that had a lunch that would make ya think it was heaven.
Small catfish fried up in a cracker crumb coating, help yourself to the dippins , either a mayo and onion and pickle mix, or a butter, or a horseradish.
three sides including collards and hamhocks
crowder peas
fried okra slices (no snot in the center)
spiced tomatoes
Then ya had yer cornbread or hushpuppies. Nobody down there ever heard of a "salad bar"
And an endless glass of the sweetest ice tea, made your teeth hurt.
AND
a great big hunk of key lime pie or an orange coconut mix, very nice .
Tough little town, good food.
I heard a story about a guy in Delaware who tore the tow-rope eyelets out of the transom of his Carolina Skiff by tying up a strong wire leader on which there was a big shark on the other end.
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