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 ...
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And don’t forget that bull sharks sometimes travel far up rivers.
It looks almost prehistoric.
Biggest sturgeon I’ve ever seen caught in Martinez, CA was 8ft-10”, brought in on 25lb test line.
Sturgeon are really good eating, but yeah, they do look like dinosaurs.
Carp are scary.
Silver Springs has huge Alligator Gar.
In the early sixties my grandfather snagged a Lake of the Ozarks paddlefish that weighed fifty pounds. It was not as big as some cat fish he first took in the 30s and 40s but trying to get it in the boat by himself in his sixties was a big job.
The sturgeon are slowly making a comeback. During the COVID pandemic millions were killed to provide us with sturgeon’s masks.
I was 9 years old and caught a 6ft one in an irrigation ditch near Filer, Idaho.
I’d never seen one! I thought it was prehistoric! My Dad laughed so hard.
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.
There are signs on lakes and rivers in North Idaho asking you to report sturgeon sightings. I’ve never seen one.
We don’t have Alligator Gar here in my neck of the woods in NC. But we have Long Nose Gar Fun to catch. If you have the know how to clean them they are very tasty. But the eggs are poisonous to humans.
In certain places flathead catfish could be considered monster fish.
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I expected catfish to be on the list ... but at most ~150lb, they’re puny by comparison.
Bookmark
Very.
Quite.
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