Monster Catfish !

[Mullaway_Chaser]

These Are pics of some monster catfish ( Barbel ) sent to me by a friend . They were caught somewhere in South Africa , and aparently when the divers go down the dam retaining wall , they go in cages !!! enjoy

[Mullaway_Chaser]

just unreal !

[Mullaway_Chaser]

Huge !

[Mullaway_Chaser]

[Mullaway_Chaser]

[Doctor_Bait]

The last 3 blokes look like they're dancing with them

[thisbig]

how do you catch these mothers

[Mattman]

ROFLMAO Dr Bait,
they are some huge fishies
Matt

[Fisherman02]

hey fellas
from what i have read, they catch them by wiggling their finger in front of holes (where the catties live) like a worm and apparently the catfish latches on and then the guy pulls them up, many anglers would have been pulled under and drowned. But i imagine this is part of the appeal
cheers jack

[crab_xp]

Oh~~my God is that real fish?

[el_carpo]

Those are incredible! I wonder, what do they eat-----besides divers, I mean?

I've heard of that style of fishing. It's mostly done down south in the U.S. They find a log, feel for a fish, and stuff one end of it full of sand bags (preventing escape) and go and grab it with their hand in the open end. Another method they use is called noodling. They take a rope and let the fish bite their arm. They then feed the rope out of a gill and haul them out. Both, in my humble opinion, are completely insane!!! The catfish here get only to about 100 pounds-- Flatheads and Blues (that is very unusual but they do get that big). What is extra dangerous is the fact that huge snapping turtles live in the same holes and logs. The rare alligator snapping turtle grows to 500 pounds!!! Guys get grabbed by them and they don't let go. They then lose a limb or drown. Also, they get bit all the time by poisonous snakes. Our cottonmouth (a.k.a. copperhead) is a very agressive son of a gun and highly venemous (not that you Aussies don't know about poisonous snakes yourselves.) I don't even want to think about what a crocodile or alligator would do to one of these people. Not for me, no thanks. I'll stick to my rod and reel thank you very much.

Thanks for posting the pics! Absolutely incredible!

[northsboy]

Wholy shit!! Are they reel?? Them things would eat ya whole

[Mugil]

These catfish pics have been doing the email rounds with the description of ‘noodling’ or catching by hand. Some say they were caught in southern USA, others Asia and now it’s Africa.
It’s kind of amusing when they are actually European catfish or Wels and as far as I am aware have not been introduced into any other continent.
They were introduced into Great Britain and are a quite popular angling species there now.
The size however is real, they are one of the largest species of freshwater fish.
Cheers

[el_carpo]

Here ya go! Further information.

http://www.snopes.com/photos/noodling.asp

[Mugil]

Thanks for the link el-carpo, quite interesting. Goes to show though that you can’t believe all you see on the net.
They are not American cats.
I’ve attached some pics of record blue and flathead catfish which are the biggest North American species. Very impressive but quite different (and smaller) to those previously posted.
And if you think they’re big, check out some of the South American and Asian species.
Cheers