[WylieCat]

Raise your hands if you have had the "divers seen huge catfish at the dam" story cirulated in your area.

It usually goes something like this:
"There were some scuba divers working at the bottom of the dam and they saw some huge catfish. One of the divers was so scared that he said he would never go down there again."

There are several versions; divers checking out a bridge footing, divers looking for a drowning victim, divers recovering a sunk boat, etc.

I heard it when I was a kid, and I accepted it as fact and always wondered what it would take to catch one. Of course since then I have found out that story has popped up around every body of water in just about every state in the country. I was fishing the other day and guess what I heard from someone, "hey, did you hear about those divers at the dam....blah blah blah."

I guess it shows that urban legends were around waaaaaaay before the internet.

 

[RiverratSC]

I've heard about every large lake in South Carolina. "They are as big as a car"

 

[Catbird]

I think the first story I head like this was when I was pretty young. I think we were at Cumberland Falls. My dad told me the area we were at was called Dog Swallow. He said he heard that there used to be someone that lived under the falls and had 2 german shephards. The story goes that the man and his dogs were swimming across the river and a large catfish ate one of his dogs. I belived that story for many years.

 

[elphaba7]

They wuz 10 feet long, and had whiskers as wide as the day is long, I tell ya!

 

[jason454ci]

Around these parts I think every lock on the river has been stuck shut. Wouldn't ya know the first diver goes down and swears there's a VW bug down there in front of the lock doors with the hood flopping open in the current. Then the second one goes down returning terrified to death, and refusing to go back down because it was a big ole flat with eyes the size of basketballs and anywhere from 10 to 20 feet long. To that I say let me at it, I'll wrestle that big ole hoss in one way or another. Make a darn nice world record.LOL

 

[Catcaller]

Around here the same...or at least a very similar rumor is repeated about the Disney dam on Grand Lake, Okla. The divers saw catfish down there bigger than a Volkswagon. Swore they'd never go back down "there". Another one is a guy took a shark hook...baited it with a freshly killed whole chicken and attached it to a winch on the front of his truck. The fish took the bait and smoked the winch motor. I've heard similar stories about most every dam I've fished.

 

[craddock1]

i heard all those stories but the one i really enjoyed was where this little old lady's chihaua ?spelling. anyway her two pound precesious was swimming in a pond in a city park when a 30 pound flattie had him for lunch. i didn't see that one but can easily believe it.

 

[Guest]

I've heard something similar, but it was one of Jaques Cousteo's divers that saw it when he went up the Mississippi River.

Ray

 

[BassMassey]

every where has that damn story........i wonder if it stemmed from something that actually happened somewhere??

 

[Sentry Dog Man]

I've heard the same "basic" story all my life for any dam that ever came up in a conversation.

It would be nice to know where the orignial story started. There may be some truth to it. Since, we all know there are some huge catfish out there, just by ones that have been caught. Thus, there have to be ones that are even larger.

 

[Tncatman]

if you go to the aquarium website you will see a picture of a diver and a 90lb blue in the tank face to face. i could see how a fish 100lbs in size would scare anybody because it pretty much is as big as you are if you go by the lenght of the fish and the size of you

 

[spoonfish]

Got bait?
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8404622/

 

[Tncatman]

yeah i saw that when it came out and i could see how the locals would be terrified of the water, legends have it they grow even bigger than that and wow that is scary. people have witnessed them eating humans alive

 

[Fatkat]

Someone started that rumor this year at Rockyfork Lake here in southern Ohio when divers were seaching for a man that drowned, I talked to a guy on the search team he said the water was so murky that you couldn't see a cat if you came face to face with one.

spoonfish, you would need a Volkswagon Beetle painted like a bluegill for bait for that one. lol

 

[Fatkat]

I hope the hardcore CPR guys don't see that article that spoonfish posted, they may go postal. (just kidding guys) :0a33:

 

[spoonfish]

Ya it's a shame they didn't release that fish. Can you imagine how old he most have been. I can only hope those boys educated them some on how to preserve such a magnificent fish.

 

[maddcatter]

My grandpa still tells me the storys of giant catfish the size of a volkswagon. I'm not sure if I ever really believed that story.

What I think happened was a diver actually did go to the bottom to search for something, saw a 50-70lb cat, and about crapped his pants. The guy exaggerated the story, the story spread, getting even more exaggerated. The people spreading the story forgot where this took place, so they told it as if it were at the local lake or river. Just my theory.

 

[JERMSQUIRM]

yep. heard them. big enought to eat the divers. lol. been around as long as dam's i guess. most are just that. stories.

 

[TIM HAGAN]

Well just remember that fish look bigger in the water first of all. And a 50 lber to us is a great big size cat but to someone who may not fish or never saw a cat over say 10 or 15 lbs. Well yes that 50 lber is a whale big as a car i was out with a guy when i hooked my 52 lber and he told his wife on the phone is was 6 ft long when is was only 42". but his biggest cat was 10 lbs before our trip now is 31.

 

[silver_dollar]

Yeah......I saw with my own eyes the results of an encounter with one of those monster cats! It was back in .......'47 I think it was...or maybe it was '52.......anyway....a diver friend of mine was trying to free up the rusted shut off valve in 90 feet of water at the local dam.

All of a sudden.....he saw a huge Volkswagon shaped catfish, sporting a huge swatstika on its side! This huge fish was actually speaking GERMAN, if you can believe it! And it caused my friend's hair to turn......SNOW WHITE!

My friend never took a bath for the rest of his life, just too afraid of water. As for his hair, all attempts to color it were met with dismal failure!

Sooooooooo....the next time you hear one of those MONSTER catfish stories, don't be too quick to dismiss them as Urban Legend. Because lurking out there....deep in the locks and gateways of our largest dams.....lies monster catfish...ready to turn your hair SNOW WHITE and create a craving for Lowenbrau beer! Believe it or not! Harland