Search for Biggest Freshwater Fish

[Paul Boote]

No chance, now, Andrew. I produced a couple of full-length book manuscripts about my South American travels and fishing of the past eleven years, though, and pretty pleased I was with them, in their different ways, too. However, I made the decision two or three years ago that, sadly, they were not for publishing: the fishings I had written about, one by one, some even as I fished them, became a big-bucks international fishers' "zoo".

 

Not my scene at all, this sort of stuff, Andrew -- mega egos landing, big-bucks corporate bad behaviour, backstabbings, bitchings, multiple versions of the truth, people being erased from the record, local people (fine anglers, many of them) priced and out losing all of their fishing, in their own country -- you know, the stuff that you get at work and go fishing to escape from. I know it's Christmas, the season of goodwill to all men and all that, but in the case of the fishing-travel-biz boys I am willing to make an exception. May your lines and leaders ever be rotten.

 

[ 23. December 2004, 08:19 PM: Message edited by: Paul Boote ]

[Tim Kelly]

I expect those aligator gar get pretty big too. Wouldn't mind tangling with one of them. I'm amazed that the usually conservation minded US fisheries and wildlife people haven't done more to protect them and promote them as a game fish.

[Dick Dastardly]

Alligator Gar are a terrific sporting fish which very few US anglers even know about yet alone bother with! When I first started my research in to them I was amazed at how little was known about them.Believe it or not I am often contacted by US biology students and wild life rangers for information about them! The guys whose boats I use are totally bewildered at why I should wish to catch them despite seeing me catch treble figure fish and witnessing the great fight.Maybe its the smell!

 

Dont worry though Tim in recent years there has been more advances in their conservation.This has mainly stemmed from a couple of surveys that show the bigger gar (250lb+)are now quite rare,mainly due to excessive killing of them! They unfortunately lend themselves very well to the barbaric "sport" of bow fishing mainly due to their habit of breathing air.

[Rufanuf]

My bets are on the worlds 3 largest fish being in this order:-

 

1. Giant Freshwater Stingray

2. Arapaima

3. Mekong Giant Catfish.

 

Based on having fished for and captured all 3, having talked to many others who have also fished for and captured all 3. Based on basic ichtyological principles (if there are such a thing?) and based on many years of research taking into account all recorded specimens (validated or not), local rumour, local speculation, local knowledge.

 

The Giant Freswater Stingray comes from a family of fish known to achieve weights massively higher than the other two contenders. I think if this species had not been fished out completely (and 200kg fish are still being caught! These are juveniles really.) We would be seeing weights over 500kgs, and perhaps approaching a 1000kgs.

 

The Arapaima, as a predator grows rapidly, and despite the fact that very few are caught in the wild in the Amazon by recreational anglers, they still regularly come in at sizes over 140kg. In Thailand there are plenty of fisheries that have fish approaching 200kg, and some private collectors claim to have them approaching 300kgs.

 

Its a close call to put the Mekong Catfish in 3rd place. Theres no question of the document 646LB specimen caught by Thai Fishermen in 2005, but if you look at the pictures of this fish, it seems to me that its frame simply could not support more weight, it appears to almost be bursting at the seams and it may have been in spawn??? Not sure. That may well of been one of the most mature specimens of a Mekong Catfish that has or will ever be caught. My instinct tells me your looking at a fish there that is reaching its limit in size and maturity, wheres you catch stingrays and even Arapaimas at a 100kg and they have a distinctly juvenile feel about them. The scales or skin is perfect, the muscle tone seems young, the eye clear, so on and so forth.

 

Just my thoughts!

 

 

Ruf

[Ken L]

Well, this thread is a blast from the past !

Re-reading Pauls post, it does make me wonder why he's never persued publishing some of his stuff as an e-book where he would retain full editorial control and still make a few quid.

[Dick Dastardly]

Strangely enough we were discussing this on a recent thread.

[Ken L]

Going back to the original topic, I was told a story the other day and decided to see if I could confirm it on the net.

This is a tantalising hint that there may be another contender for the title.

 

Tass showed me a photograph of a Catfish that a Belgian fisherman caught in 1962, in Stanley Pool, which is the large pool between Kinshasa and Brazzaville. The fish weighed 444 kgs, which according to my calculations is 978 lbs. It was so large that, although he got it to the bank with a normal rod and line, a crane was requisitioned to lift it out of the water.

[Dick Dastardly]

But did you see the picture Ken! Spent a lot of my life listening to second hand giant catfish stories and not found one yet that rings true.

[Ken L]

Alas not. I was told it but a mate who came accross the story whilst researching Goliath Tiger Fish.

I suspect that I found the same reference that he did but there's no picture.

Further checks get a load of hits in french but unfortunatly, I don't speak the language.

 

There are giant catfish such as the Piraiba of Brazil that rival the Mekong cats and given the historical links between South America and Africa, there could easily be some rarely seen beast in the Congo system that's even bigger. Afterall, when was the Giant mekong stingray first described by science ? From memory, it's rediculously recent.

 

Edit: Found it, it was only discovered in 1987 !

Edited March 24, 2008 by Ken L

[Dick Dastardly]

Yes your right Ken.I had heard of the Mekong Cat and Chinese Paddle fish but only in the past decade the stingray. Also that strange Carp they get over there seems to be being caught at bigger weights than were thought.