Giant catfish caught in Italy

Catfish are pretty common in the Philippines but the species here don’t usually grow to man-eating proportions.

 

This apparently isn’t the case in Italy, where Dino Ferrari caught a 280-pound (127kg) catfish in the Po River.

 

 

According to Davide Valla, who is with Ferrari’s sponsor company, Sportex, this is a record-breaking catfish caught with a spinning reel. It took Ferrari 40 min to actually bring in the fish and then bring it to shore. Ferrari’s twin brother, Dario Ferrari, also helped.

 

“It’s a Silurus glanis,” said Dino Ferrari. “The American catfish doesn’t grow to such large dimensions—at most it can weigh 50 kg.” Silurus glanis is the scientific name of the wels catfish.

 

Luckily for the catfish, the Ferraris decided to release it back into the river after taking some photographs.

 

Measuring 8.75 feet long, it’s hard to imagine that this actually isn’t the largest catfish ever caught. Another wels catfish weighing 298 lbs was previously caught, also from the Po River. In 2009, a 342-pound lau-lau catfish was snagged back in Brazil.

 

Even more terrifying is the Mekong Giant Catfish which reportedly has a maximum weight of 650 pounds. In fact, the largest catfish ever caught was a Mekong giant catfish in 2005. It was 9 feet long (2.7 m) and weighed 646 lbs (293 kg). — Bea Montenegro/TJD, GMA News