Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations World Record Catfish dies in transport

With a belly like that I'd die in transport too! After a lifetime of eating people in cement boots that high cholesteral diet had to catch up with it!

You really think it would taste good? Probably taste like a turd sandwich!

There were no violins at the funeral, however, there were some fiddles.

A turd sandwich might be better for you - how long has a 124 lbs BC been soaking up man-made toxins in the bottom of a river?

Good question. It would be interesting to know how old this fish is.

The local paper reported that this fish was 30 years old! Maybe he told before he expired?

Theo, my latin is rusty. What does the non carborundum .... thing mean?

Sunil, are you nuts? Anytime Theo does anything, the trail is loaded with meadow muffins. You may have just stepped in something stinky. The guy is just not trustworthy.

My Latin is rusty too, but I think Theo's message is something to the effect of "Don't let the bastards grind you down".

Carborundum is something like a grinding stone and illigitimatus is illigitiate or "without parent" .

DANG it GUYS!!! Have some dang respect...huh?? If it were a 25 pound Large Mouth most of YOU would be attending a funeral of some sort, playin a violin with tears!! Most of have NEVER cuaght a world record and NEVER will!!!....just fooling around yall's stupid littel skimpy 3 acre or less mud hole trying to OVER STOCK the thang with Large mouth bass!!

Bruce: Take a gold star. (I will not claim the motto is Latin, rather "Jack Latin.")

DD: You have uncovered my basic essence, but for the record, I prefer "pony pucks."

big_pond: While I wouldn't eat it with someone else's mouth, I find the big BC's passing sad. On display at Cabela's would have been nice, since Cecil will not touch catfish and hence would have refused to grow it out to 300 lbs.

I am afraid between habitat modification/loss, pollution, and the losses experienced with even the best catch-and-release fishing, will we never again see a 300 pounder out of the Mississippi like in Mark Twain's day - but 124 lbs is damn impressive!

W. Robinson: Some Jack Latin advice "Carpe Diem" - a Carp a day (keeps the doctor away).

So Samuel Clemmens (Mark Twain) said there were 300 pound catfish in his day? Very possible but then again the man was one hell of a story teller! I heard he had a nasty habit of groping women when he was plastered.

Excerpts from a book I have called Catfishing by Chris Altman and published by the North American Fishing Club:

On May, 1854, P. R. Hoy, a naturalist who traveled through Missouri wrote, "A lad caught on hook and line today a catfish weighing 136 pounds" from Grand River near Chillicothe, Missouri".

(Still from the book) In 1879, the U.S. National Museum tried to obtain a large catfish taken from the Mississippi River, In November of that year, Spencer F. Baird, US Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, sent a letter to Dr. J.W.G. Steedman, Chairman of the Missouri Fish Commission, asking for his assistance with the acquisition. The following quote from Dr. Steedmans reply to Professor Baird suggests catfish of that size were not uncommon: "Your letter requesting the shipment to you of a large Mississippi catfish was received this morning. Upon visiting our (fish) market this evening, I luckily found two--one of 144 pounds, the other 150 pounds. The latter I ship to you by express."

(Book) In his book, Steamboating Sixty-Five Years on Missouri's Rivers, Captain William L. Heckman mentions a blue cat weighing 315 pounds taken from the Missouri River near Morrison, Missouri, just after the Civil war. He said that at that time it was quite common to catch catfish (probably blues) weighing 125 to 200 pounds from the Missouri River.

All of the above is from the book. Certified scales? Of course not. However, I don't have much problem believing that in a new continent with a sparse population and no pollution, it is close to real. However, 315 pounds sounds like a fish story. But then, who would believe the size of the "average" NBA player?

Well considering natural selection rewards fish that become large and escape predation to carry on their genes, and man comes along and selectively removes those larger fish it's entirely possible.

In other words as anglers we are our own worst enemy if our goal it to keep catching a sustained population of large fish.

I remember reading some of the observations of Lewis & Clark on the size and number of fish in the Great Lakes (smallmouth and lake trout), and it almost made me cry to see that is gone forever. It was something to the effect that 4 foot lake trout were the norm and smallmouth of 5 to 6 pounds were easily spotted in the shallows.

When the first settlers were here in New England it was nothing to easily capture massive lobsters right off the piers, and Atlantic salmon were so common that indentured servents has a clause in their contracts that they couldn't be fed them too often. Atlantic salmon runs were so thick they were easily captured with a pitchfork.

Great info Dave, too funny Cecil ! Big_pond...just be thankful you dind't attempt your first "noodling" adventure with that one ! You might have been a modern day Jonah

p.s. Cecil, who doesn't grope women when they're plastered

I will guarantee you that Robinson sneaks out at night somewhere in Rocky Top and samples the sweet meat of the catfish and has to be restricted from the buffet until he eats the 3 bowls of coleslaw and 2 baskets each of ff and hushpuppies that have piled up in front of him.

Then the next day, he invites his high class friends to "the bass lake" and is agasp when a big channel devours his Big O, (middle of water column swimming bait) and acts as though he doesnt know what it is or how it got into his prize pond. Hypocricy rules! :p