Reel Big: 112-Pound Catfish Caught in North Carolina

A gigantic, 112-lb. (50 kilograms) catfish was reeled in by a North Carolina man the day before Thanksgiving, according to local news reports.

The man, Riahn Brewington, caught the massive fish in the northeast section of Cape Fear River in North Carolina, local ABC affiliate WWAY reported. Despite its mammoth size, the fish was 5 lbs. (2.3 kg) shy of the state record for a reeled-in catfish.

Brewington said he could tell the catch was big, but he had only a 10-lb. (4.5 kg) line on his fishing rod.

A gigantic, 112-lb. (50 kilograms) catfish was reeled in by a North Carolina man the day before Thanksgiving, according to local news reports.

The man, Riahn Brewington, caught the massive fish in the northeast section of Cape Fear River in North Carolina, local ABC affiliate WWAY reported. Despite its mammoth size, the fish was 5 lbs. (2.3 kg) shy of the state record for a reeled-in catfish.

Brewington said he could tell the catch was big, but he had only a 10-lb. (4.5 kg) line on his fishing rod.

"In the water, it felt like it was pretty big … I thought it would have already snapped the line," Brewington told WWAY. "I didn't realize how big he was until I actually got my hands underneath him."

The beast pulled all the slack from the line, twice, during a 30-minute battle, before Brewington finally reeled in the catfish, WWAY reported. The fisherman took a few photos with the incredible catch, but then released the catfish back into the river.




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Did This Man Catch A Giant Catfish, Or The Spawn Of Cthulhu?

The Huffington Post | By Sebastian Murdock

Posted: 02/26/2015 3:24 pm EST Updated: 02/27/2015 2:59 am EST

Italian man Dino Ferrari reeled in a 280-pound catfish behemoth in Italy's Po River last week, reminding us all that we are but mere mortals at the mercy of otherworldly demons.

Ferrari fought with the beast for 35 minutes before Cthulhu and the Great Old Ones deemed our hero worthy enough to pull victory from the murky abyss.

Here's video of Ferrari holding the demon, seemingly afraid to move lest he suffer the wrath of the ancient creature.

Ferrari released the fish back into its netherwordly home. In exchange, Ferrari gets to keep his soul.

Read on ...

'Giant mutant catfish' near Chernobyl

9 July 2014, 12:42

A Russian fishing blog has sent anglers scrambling to catch giant mutant catfish said to be growing near the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

The blog even included a picture of one catfish which locals are calling Borka, and which they claim is over two metres long.

Access is limited to the area because of the risk of radiation poisoning and all fishing for food purposes in local waters has stopped.

But now there is renewed interest from sporting fishermen keen to land the catch of their life after it was alleged in blog that giant fish were being caught in the Pripyat River.

The river is polluted with radionuclides, but anglers say there are giant fish to be had in parts of the river near but outside the exclusion zone.

Local fisherman Kondrat Yudin, 38, said: "I suppose radiation could play a role but I reckon radiation is more likely to give them extra eyeballs and two heads rather than simply making them enormous in size.

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'Alien' Catfish Baffles Scientists

By Elizabeth Palermo, Live Science Contributor | May 13, 2014 06:38pm ET

A small, toothy fish, which researchers say resembles the terrifying creature from the movie "Alien," is turning out to be a big mystery for the scientists who study it.

Kryptoglanis shajii is a tiny, subterranean catfish with a number of defining skeletal features, including a bulging lower jaw similar to a bulldog's. The fish's strange, bony face has baffled researchers, who have been unable to classify the odd species.

Humans rarely catch sight of the tiny catfish, and it inhabits only one area in the world: the Western Ghats mountain range in Kerala, India. Though the fish lives underground, it has been known to emerge occasionally in the springs, wells and flooded rice paddies of the region.

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Tiny New Catfish Species Found in Rio Paraíba Do Sul Basin, Brazil

July 9, 2013 — Scientists discovered a tiny new species of catfish in the waters of Rio Rio Paraíba do Sul basin, Brazil. The new species Pareiorhina hyptiorhachis belongs to a genus of armored catfishes native to South America where and found only in Brazil. These peculiar fish get their name from their strange elongated mouth barbels that remind of cat's whiskers. The new species is distinguished from others species of the genus by the presence of a conspicuous ridge on the trunk posterior to the dorsal fin (postdorsal ridge).

This image shows the newly discovered catfish
 Pareiorhina hyptiorhachis.
(Credit: Gabriel de Souza da Costa e Silva; CC-BY 3.0)

The description of the diminutive new species was published in the open access journal Zookeys.

Pareiorhina hyptiorhachis is only about 3-3.5 cm in length, making one of the smallest representatives of the catfish order. Although the new species is only the size of a decorative fish, there are even smaller representatives in the group. Some of the smallest species of Aspredinidae and Trichomycteridae for example reach sexual maturity at only 1 cm in total.

Read on

Vandals kill, mutilate catfish raised for school project

Vandals killed 31 catfish at Woodland High School near Sacramento that were being raised as part of a Future Farmers of America project.
Several students had been working on a project raising channel catfish to show at the Yolo County Fair this week, the Woodland Record reported.

One student arrived at the campus Sunday morning and discovered all of the fish dead, either poisoned by a liquid herbicide or mutilated.

"They were all dead, either poisoned or their heads crushed, one of the students told KTXL News in Sacramento.

Police are investigating the crime as a "felonious killing, torturing, and/or mutilation of an animal or fish." The school's agricultural department is offering a $500 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the culprit.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/08/vandals-kill-mutilate-catfish-raised-for-school-project.html?lanow