Jim Hatch I didn’t realize that was what you did for a living.
QUESTION…I spoke to a gentleman out fishihng the other day. He told a friend of his is an undewater welder and was working at the “Lock and Dams” at Kentucky Lake. He swore he would never fish work there again after he say CATFISH as BIG as VW BEETLES!!
Ever heard of this??
The guy said he had pictures…
Kahuna :lol:
Yup, and the both got the engine in the rear too!
The story is about a guy named ‘Rob’ it was only sent in by Jim Hatch. I received the story from a friend last year, I guess it’s probably been going around the world via e-mail for a while now.
The story I got on the catfish was that the diver was suffering from
nitrogen narcosis. In reality, the catfish was only a little larger than a
Harley. 
Warm regards, Jim
Jim,
Thanks. Being so close to the York, Pa. plant now I know why the locals call big cat fish “Hogs”. 
While probably true I heard the same stuff in the 1950s from people who knew people who said they knew a diver working below the Bagnell Dam on Lake of the Ozarks. Those bruisers are down below every dam between Croatia and China I swear to Pete. Could be urban myth, could be that sweet and free chum coming from the inner workings of the dams. Knowing all of this, why hasn’t one of those VW Bug cats ever been nabbed? Certainly not for a lack of trying. Haul out them Clousers and your five-weight! JGW
All I can say is, ask to see the pictures. I used to hear the same stories White43 heard and I never saw anyone with pictures. So, I want pictures.
.
Like “white43” I have been hearing this story at least 3 or 4 times a year since the late 1950’s. I don’t care where I have been across the country, I have heard this identical story concerning one of the local large lakes. Why don’t one of you “1 weight” guys try for one of these lunkers? Bound to be at least a line weight world record in it. Talk about bragging rights!
Larry Compton :lol:
This talk of divers seeing giant catfish, reminds me of a story I keep hearing about pike in Jarvis lake, near Hinton Alberta. I’ve heard it from many people and many times, but apparently many years ago (50’s or 60’s) the military was training divers in the lake and reports of guys seeing big northern pike the size of a man are legend around here now. I’ve yet to see many pike much larger than 36" around here let alone anything the size of even a small man. Though there have been a few 40 plus inch lunkers taken buy guys around here in the last year or so, I think I would have to see it to belive it when it comes to gigantic pike lunkers the size of a man. A mans leg I can for surely see but a 6 foot 100 plus pound northern pike.
I just can’t picture a lunker like this actually existing or there would be one mounted on display around here. I have seen some of the provincial record fish pike at 38lbs and brook trout at 13lbs ( record is up to 14lbs or so now) So I know someone if they caught something as big as these fish of legend would have had it mounted to prove thier story.
-Hillard
Bigfoot lives down in southeastern Oklahoma. The locals tell of his raiding garbage cans at night and other sordid tales. Even the discovery channel has been down there to film a documentary.
:shock:
How about this?
Gary
mtb4jc,
Details?!? WHAT is that and WHERE is that? And how was it taken? Prolly not on a #14CDC&Elk on a 3wt. fly rod.
That’s Hooooge!
Details, please!
Bill
Very big catfish just downstream of dams is no urban myth. I had a frat brother who used to dive just downstream from Pickwick on the TN River. He wore a black body suit and said that big cats would move up beside him as if he was just another big catfish. One of my grandfathers worked turnbines for TVA and saw many large cats being caught around dams. Just below Cheatham Dam on the Cumberland here at Nashville is said to be a good place to try to catch a 100-pound or larger catfish. This is fishing deep in the water and not fly flishing.
Kahuna,
Kentucky Lake was impounded in 1944 and big catfish stories have abounded here since then! I am a fisheries biologist for TVA, stationed at Paris, TN; my area of responsibility has included Kentucky Lake for nearly 30 years. I know of several large cats caught below Kentucky Dam, the largest just over 100 pounds back in about 1972 (if I remember the year correctly). A fellow by the name of Jewell Copeland, from Marshall County, KY caught the big cat.
Other big cats, including a fish around 130 pounds in Alabama, have been verified from the Tennessee River. Most of these fish are blue cats, although some big flatheads are occasionally caught. I’ve worked with some diving crews in the Kentucky tailwater, but they have not reported any “Volkswagen” sized cats during the dives I was a party to. However, one of our TVA divers did collect a super-sized washboard mussel from the depths of the river there. It weighed almost 10 pounds and was aged at 99 years. But I digress.
I sincerely doubt car-sized catfish in the Tennessee River. Fish of 150 or so pounds would not be too far-fetched, but I would be looking for wheel weights in any catfish caught that weighed over 200 pounds (again, from the Tennessee River)!