It Really Was That Big!

Someone in Texas just caught a 121 lb. catfish. Biggest in state history.

My father told me some stories about some grates at the bottom of Bagnell Dam in Missouri (the dam that caps off the Lake of the Ozarks). Divers went down there in cages to fix the grates and in short notice asked to be pulled back up.

The reason for this was the catfish. Catfish will grow about as large as their environment will allow them to grow. So if you drop a baby catfish in a fish tank, it will grow to a certain proportion to fit in the tank. In a pond, a bit larger. At the bottom of Bagnell Dam, catfish have plenty of room to feed and grow. . . some of the catfish the divers saw at the bottom of the dam were reportedly (and keep in mind that folks from Missouri have the Mark Twain streak in them) large enough to swallow a grown man. At least the divers thought so.

Needless to say, that’s a big catfish!