[Brutom]

Since Carp are European/Asian fish, from a similar climate, which were transplanted and thrived in America, I wonder if Wells could also be brought here and intigrate successfully with the fish we have already?
Maybe its not possible, or a good idea for some reason...but I wouldn't at all mind them being available if they caused no harm otherwise.

 

[flaboy]

while I agree, the thought of a giant wels cat would give me goosebumps, the effect they would have on our local fishes could be devastating.
I'll bet a trip to where they are and catching one big as me is a fasinating thought!
I wonder if they think about pullin one of us in to them? LOL

 

[zmany2k]

i hear what you're saying and i used to think the same thing to when i was younger, but i've been absolutely obsessed with these cats for quite awhile, so i've done a little research. i would love to be able to catch them in the states, but they are predators like blue cats. they would most likely decimate the fish populations back home. these cats have been known to take anything from a full grown duck on down to night crawlers. as a matter of fact, i read an article two week ago about one that ate some poor german lady's wiener dog while it was splashing around near the bank.

and yes flaboy, these bad boys require a kinda light drag. at least, as light as you can handle. you can see a good testimonial to their awesome strength from the many video clips available from the internet. as for anyone getting pulled in, i'm sure it's happened more than it gets reported. when i first discovered this fish for myself in '92, i did a little research in the libraries for them and found an article in an INFISHERMAN magazine about a filipino fellow who went fishing for them in the rhine river near mannheim germany who was never seen again. all of his stuff was found sitting on the bank. him and his rod were not there. at the time, they weren't sure what happened, but they believe he was yanked into the river and consequently drowned.

i would also like to post here a quick thank you to the board staff for adding this thread so quickly. i asked them and it was here in less than 8 hours.

if any of you all have any questions about these giants, ask hoppy 4. he's an experienced wels fisherman.

 

[redneck88]

if i remember right on a catfishing forum for texas i was reading and a guide caught one here in texas,cant remember what lake though,but i could be wrong.

 

[Sean]

Do these fish taste good?

 

[redneck88]

by the way they look i wouldnt want to eat one,looks like a half slug half catfish.

 

[Sean]

Yeah but looks can be decieving when it comes to food. Hell if you cook slugs right they're not half bad.

 

[BIG GEORGE]

Here we go again tryin to fool with mother nature. When are we gonna learn to be satisfied with what has been provided for us and leave things be. LOL!

 

[LilRyjoe04]

I would love to take a trip and catch one of those monsters! That would be amazing to pull in a catfish as big as my boat. I can only amagine how big it's head would be

 

[crazy]

I need a bigger boat if i want to go after one of them things.

 

[Jagal]

I read on the internet that in Russia wels catfish can reach up to 600 lbs. Rest assured that my first trip off this continent will be straight to Russia so that I can rent a boat and not come back to shore untill I catch one.

 

[zmany2k]

it seems that our "worldly" scientists just never spend any time in the water. i've got my fisherman's guide book from the "sportfisherman's class" i had to take to get my german liscence, and it says that they can only reach 500lbs. the largest i've been able to find record of is barely over 200. it's the same story with the paraiba catfish in south america. they say it gets to 600 (one place tried to say 1200 but i call Bull$#!- on that one), but they can only prove 250lbs. now, the mekong river in thailand can back it up for huge cats, and just huge game fish in general. they have the largest freshwater gamefish collection in the world. they even have a freshwater stingray. but that river ladies and gentleman holds the freshwater record right now at 646lbs (i might be off by a pound or two here). it's the ugliest cat i've ever seen, but it still weighed over 600 lbs. it's was a vegetarian though. looked like a whale shark. the eyes are set really low on the side of it's head.

but jagal, if you're at all serious about that, france, spain and italy are more well known for wels in the 150+- range. it's just really hard to find any acurate data out there about what lives in the foriegn waters.

 

[HOPPY4]

They are if you get a smaller fish! Smaller fish being up to 20lb. and maybe larger if they are caught from a river. The meat is Fatty by our catfish standards and has a reddish color when cleaned. The fish that are caught from a lake are more affected by the size question. They do not have to work as hard to move around and therefore their muscle texture is lower. The fish that are in rivers must constantly maintain a position and the ability to hold the bottom and move through the current makes them a better quality at larger sizes. If you are going to take one for eating, then a Smaller fish is the ticket! One of my trips to France was a shock! On the side of the river was a fish of about 7ft. long and it had the area from behind the head to the just before the tail cut out. Whoever did this was lower than low in my book. They could have placed back into the water as a minimum, but it was left there to rott. This for me HURT and I hope to never see it again. This magnificent fish was killed and for no real reason. :sad:

HOPPY4

 

[JERMSQUIRM]

while it would be cool george is right. this is a bad idea. the thought would be nice but even like north carolina where the flathead was introduced it has caused some fish to become endangered. i just read and article from N/C that said fishermen should always practice catch and keep there with all flathead catfish.

a fish the size of the wells would be eating our channels that we say are just a great catch for lunch. and everyday. sure it would be cool to have them here but not at the expense of loosing what we call nice size fish at the cost.

the asian carp that are commonly called bighead are in the river here and are just destroying it. there are schools of hundreds everywhere and they jump into boats and have injoured fishermen from it. they just got into the system by a flood at a research facility in the 80's and are bad already.

think of killer bees, snakeheads, and japeneese bettles too. they got here and now we have a mess. the beetles were introduced here to control the aphids from what i understand. now there thick as thieves and hell ate up tons of leaves in my garden this year and my buddies grandpa had to have a tree sprayed cause they were stripping it. ate a crap load of my flowers too making some plants that were gourgeous last year look poor this season.

well i don't want to sound like im badgering ya for the idea. i like the idea. it just wouldn't be good for the ecosystem. just thought ide give a few reasons why its bad.

+ what would those bass fishermen think. they would be eating thier fish up. lol.

 

[Jagal]

I am quite serious about going to europe one day and going on a wels catfish expedition. Unfortunately, I'm thinking that is going to take a while so I will have some time to research the subject quite extensivley.lol.

 

[zmany2k]

if you are serious about it jagal, then south america offers a very large catfish that can grow larger than a wels. they also have many other extremely large fish to check out. or the mekong in thialand. europe and thailand are safer places than south america, but south america might be more economical. just a little food for thought.

 

[DeerHunter01]

brought out of archive