Posted on 07/20/2026 8:48:50 AM PDT by MtnClimber
Amongst Americans, there's a common view that river monsters live elsewhere – in deep, wide rivers zig-zagging across foreign, untamed lands. Think vast Eurasia.
And it's true, the supercontinent is home to some seriously ginormous freshwater fish. Beluga sturgeons, which live primarily in the Caspian and Black Seas but sometimes swim up their adjoining rivers, can extend over twenty feet in length and weigh more than 2,000 pounds! The species rivals the great white shark for the title of largest actively predatory fish. Further south and east, the Mekong River is home to stingrays and catfish that regularly tip the scales at over a quarter-ton.
But in the United States, where our homes, vehicles, meals, and more are super-sized, we have resident river giants, too. Meet the three largest fish to inhabit America's winding waters.
White sturgeon grown for caviar at Willow Creek Ranch, Likely, California, USA, south of Alturas.
1. White Sturgeon. Many a child exclaims in awe at the sizable sharks they see at aquariums across the country. They'd be even more amazed to see a fifteen-foot-long, thousand-pound prehistoric fish prowl the rivers of the Pacific Northwest. Such an encounter would almost certainly be with an older white sturgeon, which can live in excess of 100 years. Expanded sport-fishing means that these specimens are far rarer than they used to be, but it's not unheard of to see individuals close to ten-feet-long, weighing over 400 pounds.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearscience.com ...
The guy or the fish? I would have thought catching that he’d have a smile on his face!!
The first picture almost looks like a cross between a snake and a fish. You can almost see how reptiles evolved out of sea creatures.
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Carville?
“Sturgeon are really good eating, but yeah, they do look like dinosaurs.”
Sometimes appearances can be deceiving. Sturgeon do not have teeth. Instead, they possess specialized, wide “crushing plates” in the back of their throats (pharyngeal areas) to grind up hard-shelled prey like clams, mussels, and crustaceans. So they are not dangerous in the accepted way of thinking. Certain species (such as the Gulf sturgeon) are known to launch their large bodies high out of the water, hitting boaters and causing serious physical trauma or death. So getting hit by a possible 300 pound fish flying through the air might be painful. But otherwise, they are not aggressive and are good eating.
wy69
I've watched the YouTube vids and given it a try on a long nose gar just over 4 ft. long. I concluded I should have just got out a chain saw, or perhaps a come-along to do the skin pulling.
Taste-wise, the gar wasn't bad - it came out of fairly decent water. But, large ones are high in mercury, due to being an apex predator, and (mainly) thanks to pollution that makes it here from China.
I'd take (prefer) a 4 lb. catfish out of good water any day. Either will give you a good fight on moderate "weight" gear like the almost ubiquitous Zebco 33 "combo". Alligator gar are touted as a solution for "jumping" carp, but I suspect large blue or flathead catfish are a better solution for all but the very biggest jumping carp.
The Blue and Flathead Catfish in the 5-7 lb range are gold. Anything over 10 lb I just dont like the taste. I always throw those back. And that's the case for all species. The smalls eat best.
The key to gar from what I have seen from my friends is split the back open and scoop the back meat out with an ice cream scoop. Pretty good.
Big prehistoric fish in France Park limestone quarry (west of Logansport, IN) is the American Paddlefish (aka Spoonbill Sturgeon).
Key Facts Scientific name: Polyodon spathula
Why it looks prehistoric: a “living fossil”, basic body changed very little in 150 million years.
Size: Can grow up to 8 feet long (some reports even larger).
Weight: Adults commonly reach 100–200+ pounds. The largest recorded specimens have exceeded 300 pounds.
The 8’-10” beast I was talking about was 210#.
One of my sawmill reps caught one on the Clearwater River. About ten miles upstream from Lewiston, ID.
He said it was about 10’ long based on its length next to the boat. It is a bottom feeder sucker fish. He had to reach into its mouth to remove the hook.
Another friend caught a 5’ Sturgeon(baby) near the mouth of the Merrimack River in Newburyport, MA. They pulled it out of the water into the boat to take a picture of it. All the other fisherman in boats around them started yelling to put it back in the water. Apparently, it is a $10,000 fine to even take one out of the water.
I was down in the British Virgin Islands snorkeling about thirty years back. We were anchored off Peter Island. There was a big Grouper in that bay and it was his territory. I swam up to it then backed off because he looked to be well over 200 pounds. His name was Charlie according to the boat captain. I think I was too big for Charlie to swallow, but I was not taking any changes.
Northern California , they would catch sturgeons there at the Carquinez Strait, which connects Suisun Bay to San Pablo Bay , a meeting of the salt water of the ocean and the fresh water from the Delta of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers.
That would get your picture in the local paper , huge fish .
Too many reports about ancient catfish larger than man inhabiting waters around large dams. It’s believed that they account for the bodies of some people who’d gone overboard never being found.
Maybe you’ll wear the damned life vest now.
It occurred to me the photographer placed him there for perspective. And did it it in a slightly misleading way.
I’ve lived in South GA and the Atlanta area all my life and never heard of anyone calling alligator gar a cuisine. I did catch one once as a teenager but it was only about 18 inches long. I do not remember what we did with it but we did not eat it.
Carp is widely eaten in Europe so we tired it while stationed there and it was delicious.
Everything evolves. Nothing stays the same.All of the many climate, geological, mutational selective pressures “make a guarantee” that all and everything evolves...well maybe not in this case.
WHICH STATE? I LIVE IN SILVER SPRINGS, NEV & WE HAVE NOTHING LIKE THAT.
I saw what you did there.
I feel bad for the gar. Idiots just go kill them with a bow and arrow for fun and don’t even eat them. I saw them all over the banks of rivers in Texas.
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