The largest catfish in the world, TOP10 with photo examples

Catfish is one of the largest predators that inhabit the underwater river world. With a sufficient food base, the catfish is able to live for more than one hundred years, while gaining weight up to 500 kg and growing in length up to 4-5 meters. It is indicated that the largest catfish was caught in Uzbekistan about 100 years ago. It weighed about 430 kg and was up to 5 meters long. Unfortunately, there is no official confirmation of this fact. You can find a mention that in Ukraine, in the Dnieper River, a catfish was caught, weighing 288 kg, which managed to grow up to 4 meters in length.

Catfish of this size can easily swallow an adult, as evidenced by official data. Some experts claim that there are cannibal catfish. But such claims have no scientific evidence. In the case of the discovery of human corpses in the belly of the river giant, it is believed that the people were already dead. Simply put, these people drowned in due time, and only after that they were swallowed by a catfish.

In our time, the number of large catfish has sharply decreased due to the difficult environmental situation, as well as uncontrolled human fishing. In addition, modern tackle has great potential in terms of catching fish. Despite this, weighty underwater predators still occasionally come across. In order not to be unfounded, we can present to your attention an overview of the largest catfish in the world, caught not so long ago.

1 – Belarusian som

In tenth place was a catfish from Belarus, the length of which was 2 meters. It was caught by a local fisherman in 2011. When he and his assistants were fishing with nets, after the next cast, the nets suddenly refused to be pulled out of the water. For a whole hour, the fisherman and his comrades pulled the nets out of the water. After the catfish was pulled ashore, it was weighed and measured. With a length of two meters, its weight was 60 kg. The fishermen did not release the catfish, but let it go to the roast.

2 – Weighty catfish from Spain

In 2009, in the Ebro River, an albino catfish was caught by local fishermen, the length of which was more than two meters, weighing 88 kg. Briton Chris from Sheffield managed to catch him. He tried to pull the catfish out on his own, but he failed. Chris had to ask for help from his friends, who also came to fish with him. It took more than 30 minutes for the catfish to be on the shore. The catfish was released after being photographed by Chris and his friends, who helped pull the catfish out of the water.

3 – Catfish from Holland

Eighth place goes to catfish from Holland, which lives in the recreation park “Centerparcs”. The park is very popular with tourists and locals. Moreover, everyone knows that a huge catfish lives in the reservoir of the park, up to 2,3 meters long. This huge representative of the underwater world was nicknamed “Big Mom”. The river monster eats up to three birds floating on the lake a day, as evidenced by the park’s guards. “Big Mom” ​​is protected by the state, so fishing here is prohibited.

4 – Catfish from Italy

At the beginning of 2011, Italian Robert Godi managed to catch one of the biggest catfish. He rightfully occupies the seventh position of this rating. With a length of about 2,5 meters, its weight was 114 kg. An experienced angler did not even hope that he would be so lucky. Soma was pulled out by six people for almost an hour. Robert admitted that he arrived at the pond with friends in the hope of catching bream. The fact that instead of a bream a huge catfish pecked is a great rarity and surprise. But most importantly, we managed to pull out the catfish. After we decided on its size and weight, the catfish was released back into the pond.

5 – French catfish

In the river Rhone, tourist Yuri Grisendi caught the largest catfish in France. After measurements, it became known that the catfish has a length of 2,6 meters and a weight of up to 120 kilograms. The man who caught him is engaged in a targeted hunt for such giants. Moreover, he catches not only catfish, but also other large representatives of the underwater world. Therefore, the catch cannot be called random, as in previous cases. After another monster is caught, it is filmed as evidence and released back into the water. There is nothing strange about this, because this is a hobby of this fisherman.

6 – Catfish from Kazakhstan

In fifth place is a giant from Kazakhstan, which was caught on the Ili River in 2007. It was caught by local fishermen. The giant had a weight of 130 kilograms and a length of 2,7 meters. According to local residents, they have not seen such a giant in their entire lives.

7 – Huge catfish from Thailand

In 2005, in the month of May, the largest catfish of these places was caught on the Mekong River. It weighed 293 kg, with a length of 2,7 meters. The reliability of the data was established by Zeb Hogan, responsible for the international project of WWF. During this period, he researched the presence of the largest fish in the world. The albino catfish that was caught is one of the largest representatives of freshwater fish that he noted in his work. At one time he was noted in the Guinness Book of Records. They wanted to let Soma go, but, unfortunately, he did not survive.

8 – Big catfish from Russia

This huge catfish is not in vain in third place. He was caught a few years ago in Russia. This event took place on the Seim River, which flows through the Kursk region. It was witnessed by employees of the Kursk Fisheries Inspection in 2009. The weight of the catfish reached 200 kg, and its length was about 3 meters. Underwater fishermen-hunters absolutely by chance saw him under water and managed to shoot him from an underwater gun. The shot turned out to be successful, and the anglers tried to pull it out on their own, but it turned out to be beyond their power. Therefore, they took advantage of the help of a rural tractor driver on a tractor.

After it was pulled ashore, local residents noted that this was the first such huge catfish they had seen in their lives.

9 – Catfish caught in Poland

In second place is the largest catfish caught in Poland. He was caught on the Oder River. According to experts, this fish is more than 100 years old. This specimen weighed up to 200 kilograms with a length of 4 meters.

A human corpse was found in the belly of this animal, so experts had to be invited. They concluded that the man was already dead when he was swallowed by this giant. So the rumors that the catfish could be a cannibal were again not confirmed.

10 – A giant caught in Russia

According to some statements, this huge fish was caught in Russia in the 19th century. They caught him in the Issyk-Kul lake and this giant weighed 347 kg with a length of more than 4 meters. Some experts claim that at that time, at the place of capture of this catfish, an arch was built, resembling the jaws of this huge underwater representative.

Unfortunately, in recent years, there has been a sharp decline in fish stocks in our lakes and rivers. Fish are increasingly suffering from pollution of water bodies with various chemicals that enter rivers, ponds and lakes from fields. In addition, waste from industrial enterprises is dumped into the water. Unfortunately, the state does not conduct a special fight against such pests in human form. At this rate, there is every reason to believe that humanity will soon be left without fish at all.