280-Pound Catfish Caught In Italy, But Is It The Biggest Catch Ever? [Video]
Dino Ferrari is no doubt still reeling from his record-breaking catch: A 280-pound catfish. The fish was measured and found to be just shy of eight feet and nine inches.
It’s actually bigger than the average person, so big that just looking at the catfish makes you wonder whether or not its eaten at least one human to get to such an impressive size.
Dino Ferrari is keeping mum on exactly where it was that he hooked the monster catch. Ferrari probably suspects that while his fish is one for the record books (the largest ever caught with a rod and reel), there are even bigger catfish out there.
And Dino would be correct. Although massive, the catfish hooked by Dino Ferrari isn’t the largest in Italy.
Another fisherman reeled in a 298-pound wels catfish. As it turns out, the Italian record holder for largest catfish was the same species as what Ferrari reeled in — and it was caught in the Po River.
As sports fishermen in the region connect the dots, the Po River will no doubt be flooded with people wishing to outdo previous records. However, if they want to try their hand at the largest catfish ever caught, they may be better off heading to the Amazon.
Although a 280-pound catfish is an impressive catch any day of the week, the current record for a catfish ever caught goes to a gentlemen who pulled in a roughly 342-pound lau-lau or piraiba catfish in 2009.
The largest catfish on record nearly eight feet and nine inches and weighed nearly 646 pounds! The Amazon river is home to a variety of unusual fish and “river monsters.” It’s very possible that the largest catfish known to the world has yet to be caught.
Now comes the inevitable question that usually arises whenever record-breaking catfish and carp catches make the news: How do they get so big?
According to HowStuffWorks, a catfish can grow to such incredible sizes due to “through a number of evolutionary tricks.”
ICYMI: Italian fisherman reels in 8-foot-9 catfish that tips the scales at 280 pounds. » http://t.co/7Q5xeXyFct pic.twitter.com/om467OnRGH
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) February 27, 2015
This includes cannibalism (gobbling up siblings as babies) and a desire to eat anything and everything. Although catfish switch over to a herbivore diet after their first year of life, it doesn’t stop them from trying to put as much in their bellies as possible.
If left undisturbed, there’s no reason Dino Ferrari couldn’t happen across yet another huge catfish that’s as large as or bigger than what he previously reeled in.
Catfish do come in a variety of species and sizes, but it’s the biggest ones that tend to capture the imagination. They also make for great photos!
[Image Credit: Sportex Italia Facebook]
