Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Fishing urban legends

I started keeping track in 1985 of the number of people who've told me the following story.

"I know someone personally who knew some guys who were scuba divers on a mission to repair the dam at (insert name of lake here) and saw monster catfish that were so big they were afraid to dive again".

I'm now up to thirty times I've heard the story. Five of the stories were about Lake McConaughy in Nebraska. The other twenty-five were each at separate lakes.

My question is this: How many of you have heard this story? And how many of you believe it? And do divers really get sent to "repair a dam"? And were one of you PB forum members actually on a diving team that got scared by giant catfish? And why would a person be scared of a giant catfish to begin with? Do they bite?

Just wondering...

I've heard the same story about divers going into repair some underwater culverts in some lake north of Albany, NY. near a GE Plant, and the divers wouldn't dive anymore 'cause the northern pike were 6-7' long.

Catfish stuff; Deal or No Deal

I never have time to repair dams while scuba diving 'cause I'm always too busy cowtipping.

(Sunil...he's been welding again)

That's funny. Can you imagine the following conversation.

"Daryl, get yer dang scuba gear on, and go repair that big crack in the dam."

"But sir, I was just down there and the catfish were as big as volkswagons!"

"I don't care Daryl! That crack in the dam is getting bigger by the hour! Go fix that thing!"

"Attaining an unconfirmed length of 3 m, the Mekong giant catfish grows extremely quickly, reaching a mass of 150 to 200 kg in only six years.[6] The largest catch recorded in Thailand since record-keeping began in 1981 was a female measuring 2.7 m (roughly 9 feet) in length and weighing 293 kg (646 lb). This specimen, caught in 2005, is widely recognized as the largest freshwater fish ever caught."

SOURCE

I'll remember that the next time I'm repairing dams in the Mekong province.

SOURCE

That's probably what caused the crack in the dam!

When I worked offshore, we had divers dive around our platforms to do work and they used to tell us there were jew fish down around the legs of the platform that weighed a 1000 to 1200 lbs. Looking back on it I'll bet they told guys the same story on every platform they worked.

I have a friend who was first a navy diver , then worked offshore , then worked for the gov checking bridge pilings on the Miss River. He also would wrestle 100lb cats up from the oxbows. He said matter of factly he often saw large shadows (car size) swimming around when in the Miss river. I have seen film of very large fish around the offshore rigs. heybud I don't know if they were jew fish but they were telling you the truth about fish that big.

What do you think the car sized shadows were?

Dude had some sack, that's for sure. To swim with creatures like that, basically helpless in the water to the whim of a huge fish....

Black submersibles, the underwater equivalent of those black helicopters with the noise cancellation technology. :rolleyes: They keep flying over at night. It really bugs me how I can't see or hear them.

P.S. Sorry, guys, it's been a long week.

I know how small GSF are nipple biters, so I wonder what a big ol' bridge pilin' habitatin' catfish is gonna do to ya. It might not be pretty.

I understand Theo. He thought they were big catfish. There are written records of the settlers describing how indians caught cats that size in the Miss and they didn't use a 5 wt fly rod.

There were early white settler reports of, what, 300+ lbs catfish in the Mississippi. Find their big brother, and you're talking a small car.

Yes I have heard this story Many Many Many times and I am from a totally different part of the country....

This is exciting to hear about. Very good stuff. Makes me want to take up scuba diving.

Please, please BE PREPARED !

Bruce, I have heard about it on 3 or 4 Texas lakes. As I recall on one story, a VW went off the dam that they needed to recover. The divers were scared off by cats bigger than the VW.

Why did you originally want to become a diver, Daryl?

"Well, half of the dams in the country a cracked, and the other half are absolutely littered with VW's."

Now we know what happened to all those old Beetles. I mean, they never wore out or rusted, right?