Posted on 11/26/2006 9:02:59 AM PST by FLOutdoorsman
An English school caretaker nearly drowned as he set a record for hooking the largest catfish in Europe, a 226 pound monster christened "Jaws" in Spain.
It took two friends to keep Carl Smith of Owestry from being dragged into the River Ebro in Spain after fighting the giant fish for 35 minutes, The Times of London reports.
"The force of the tug practically sent me crashing to the ground," Smith said. "It's mouth, with rows of sharp teeth, made it look like a man-eating shark."
European wels catfish are reputed to eat anything that can fit into their huge mouths.
The catfish was released after being weighed, measured and photographed with Smith holding his tail.
Common in Spain, Italy and Greece, the catfish generally weigh between 80 and 100 pounds.
The previous European record was 224 lbs.
Now that's a cat fish, it has a normal tail. Almost as big as the cats here ( kidding, but we do have huge ones here)
[Uh... Why is the guy on the left wearing fatiques? Or is the European fish smarter too?]
You'd be fatigued too after fighting something like that fish.
Pervert!
that's quite a catfish, indeed! yum!
grilling up some, much smaller, catfish here tonight :)
I saw a news report about that a while back. Never seen anyone do that before, we just catch them the regular way, hook and line, crayfish, night crawlers or some herring for bait.
We don't see any swamp buggy racing in these parts either.
Southerners do some peculiar things...
It's a catfish not a damn piranha
I thought they were playing "fetch".
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
What's the point of releasing it?
They got 'bottom-feeder' written all over'em.
Does every river town have an urban legend about divers and "catfish as big as cars"? LOL.
If it's not farm raised, I wouldn't eat it.
wonder how many men that one has eaten.
"That would be right here at Lock & Dam 14 on the mighty Mississippi.
:)"
You're right, the little ones never make it past #14. We've got all their big brothers down here at #18.
(first liar doesn't stand a chance)
I don't know the answer to that, but that one catfish fed an entire remote village in Thailand.
I guessing a catfish that big would be pretty old.
Wonder how it would taste.
LOL! Our local legend says that the catfish by the 800-acre municipal water supply lake's dam are either the size of a couch or a Volkwagen Beetle.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
