# Re: Big fish and little strings **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 14, 2004, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-big-fish-and-little-strings/234224 "2004-03-14T12:35:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![The\_Immortal\_Mango](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/da6949/32.png) [@The\_Immortal\_Mango](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Immortal_Mango)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2004, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-big-fish-and-little-strings/234224/1 "2004-03-14T12:35:53Z")
Last night I was watchign a movie. It was called grumpier old men or somethign like that. I wasn’t really paying that much attention, I ahd the sound switched off and was listening to Bowie’s greatest hits. The only reason I was awake was because my girlfirend had only just left didn’t feel much like sleeping. Anyway to the point (just in my defence I know i often take time to reach the poitn but I feel the backgroudn often help set the scen and you can see how I the questions arise in my mind and I don’t appear as if I belong in Bedlam), part fo the film was about a giant catfish. I’ve noticed quite a few story lines about giant catfish in american shows so i want to know what the big deal with giant catfish is. Are they just an urband legend or do you really get big catfish, if you do i can see the apeal but if not then how did they come about? And whilst we are on that subject what’s the deal with the Alligators underneath New York, or the bear under Moscow, or the Boar under London? Where does our fascination of monsters under our cities come from? And to bring in the string why does string start to swing round when you hold it over your palm? ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2004, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-big-fish-and-little-strings/234224/2 "2004-03-14T12:40:08Z")
[http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/science/12/01/cambodia.catfish.ap/](http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/science/12/01/cambodia.catfish.ap/) ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2004, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-big-fish-and-little-strings/234224/3 "2004-03-14T17:29:41Z")
**Lib** ’s link shows a Mekong (Chinese) giant catfish… [this](http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_2004_catfish.htm) page shows one caught in a lake in Texas. [This](http://www.cites.org/gallery/species/fish/giant_catfish.html) page shows a better picture of the Asian giant catfish. There used to be even larger catfish in European lakes and rivers but they are both extremely rare and a good deal smaller these days. There’s one in a lake in Germany which is famous for allegedly eating a dog; it may or may not be the fish pictured [here](http://www.livejournal.com/users/jwz/234136.html) which washed up on the shore of the lake a year ago. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2004, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-big-fish-and-little-strings/234224/4 "2004-03-14T17:41:34Z")
> [@The\_Immortal\_Mango](#): > > And to bring in the string why does string start to swing round when you hold it over your palm? You’re probably referring to the [ideomotor effect](http://skepdic.com/ideomotor.html). It’s the same effect that’s believed to occur in dowsing and the use of a Ouija board. It boils down to unconcious muscle movement. ---
**Author:** ![grisham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f08c70/32.png) [@grisham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grisham)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2004, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-big-fish-and-little-strings/234224/5 "2004-03-14T18:42:18Z")
I live in Ohio and the biggest catfish that I have ever heard of being caught around here was like 72 pounds. I don’t know what you consider giant but thats a pretty big one. ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2004, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-big-fish-and-little-strings/234224/6 "2004-03-14T21:58:32Z")
The big deal is because giant catfish _exist_. While a seven pound bass is a big bass, catfish routinely grow to over forty pounds, with record fish in the 120-140 pound range. A friend gets stringers of forty-plus pound catfish out of… _(you didn’t think I was going to reveal that, did you?)_ Few freshwater fish get bigger than a catfish, with a few exceptions like [sturgeon](http://www.firstcastadventures.com/images/sturgeon1.jpg) and [alligator gar.](http://faculty.evansville.edu/ck6/bstud/hugegar.html) ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2004, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-big-fish-and-little-strings/234224/7 "2004-03-14T22:04:03Z")
> [@Really Not All That Bright](#): > > **Lib** ’s link shows a Mekong (Chinese) giant catfish… [this](http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_2004_catfish.htm) page shows one caught in a lake in Texas. > [This](http://www.cites.org/gallery/species/fish/giant_catfish.html) page shows a better picture of the Asian giant catfish. > There used to be even larger catfish in European lakes and rivers but they are both extremely rare and a good deal smaller these days. There’s one in a lake in Germany which is famous for allegedly eating a dog; it may or may not be the fish pictured [here](http://www.livejournal.com/users/jwz/234136.html) which washed up on the shore of the lake a year ago. Whoops. The picture of the Texas catfish listed above is a possible hoax. [Here](http://urbanlegends.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://espn.go.com/outdoors/fishing/s/f%5Ffea%5Fcat%5Fblue%5Frecord%5F121%2D8%5FBurkhead.html) is the catfish that was really caught in Texas. Much smaller, but still a good 150 pounds. A lot of the dive and tackle stores around Cocoa Beach and Merritt Island have at least one guy who claims to have seen giant saltwater catfish in and around the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway (Indian River). Nobody’s ever caught or photographed one, though. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2004, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-big-fish-and-little-strings/234224/8 "2004-03-14T22:05:59Z")
> [@cornflakes](#): > > Few freshwater fish get bigger than a catfish, with a few exceptions like [sturgeon](http://www.firstcastadventures.com/images/sturgeon1.jpg) and [alligator gar.](http://faculty.evansville.edu/ck6/bstud/hugegar.html) Holy crap! I’ve never even heard of alligator gar but that thing is _impressive_. ---
**Author:** ![ltfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@ltfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ltfire)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2004, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-big-fish-and-little-strings/234224/9 "2004-03-15T01:07:26Z")
Quote from THE IMMORTAL MONGO And whilst we are on that subject what’s the deal with the Alligators underneath New York, or the bear under Moscow, or the Boar under London? Where does our fascination of monsters under our cities come from? The bear and the boar are bullshit. …now, the alligator story SOUNDS feasible, but it too is bullshit. Something about returning visitors from Florida, who purchased baby alligators at a road side stand…got nervous when the 'gator started to get too big…and was flushed down the toilet…where it grew to astronomical proportions, feeding on the rat population in the sewers beneath New York City. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Immortal\_Mango](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/da6949/32.png) [@The\_Immortal\_Mango](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Immortal_Mango)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2004, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-big-fish-and-little-strings/234224/10 "2004-03-15T21:51:43Z")
Hmm, wow, so the idea of gigantic animals living under major cities is complete shite eh? Well I never…