Catfish tries to eat Basketball

avelanchefan

This was a pretty interesting story from The Sunday Wichita Eagle Newspaper a couple of weeks ago.

A resident in the area saw a ball bouncing around strangely in a nearby pond and went to investigate.



It turned out to be a flathead catfish who had obviously tried to swallow a child's basketball which became stuck in its mouth!!

The fish was totally exhausted from trying to dive, but unable to because the ball would always bring him back up to the surface.

The resident tried numerous timesto get the ball out, but was unsuccessful.

He finally had his wife cut the ball in order to deflate it and release the hungry catfish.

You wouldn't believe it if you didn't see the attached photos...

avelanchefan

Pic 2

avelanchefan

Pic 3

avelanchefan

Pic 4

avelanchefan

Last Pic

dorokusai

I would have jumped on the back of that thing and rode it.

PolkThug

I remember those pics from last year. pretty cool!

Pass the tartar sauce!

PolkThug

Origins: Yes, these photographs are real, taken at Sandalwood Lake in Kansas on 28 May 2004. An account of the circumstances under which the pictures were taken appeared in the Wichita Eagle on 30 May 2004:
From Panama to the Great Lakes, Bill Driver's done pretty well fishing over the past 50 years.

Now he's wondering if he'd have done even better with a different kind of bait. "I never considered using a kid's basketball," Driver said. "Maybe I should have."

Friday afternoon, Driver was standing on the deck of his house near 119th Street West and Central when he saw an eight-inch ball floating in Sandalwood Lake.

Noticing the ball wasn't floating normally, Driver wandered to his dock for a closer look. A catfish had its mouth stuck around the ball.

Driver hollered for his wife, Pam, to get a camera while he unrigged the sail from his nine-foot boat, wading into the lake and corralling the fish toward shore with the sail as a seine.

Several times, the flathead tried to dive, only to have the ball buoy it back to the surface.

The fish appeared to be exhausted and offered little resistance once in the shallows.

Things may have gone easier had the fish the strength to struggle.

"I just couldn't pull that ball out of its mouth," Driver said. "I was lifting up out of the water as best I could by the ball. I finally sent my wife to the house to get a knife."

Driver carefully deflated the ball. Estimated at 50 pounds, the fish swam toward the deepest part of the lake.

Driver has no plans of targeting the fish in the near future.

Instead, he'll probably continue to fish for the bass and panfish that swim within the one-acre lake.

"I guess I might try fishing with a golf ball," Driver said. "Smaller fish, smaller bait."

brettw22

The movie "Big Fish" comes to mind.....

RuSsMaN

Bring out the gimp.

danger boy

beer battered catfishy anyone? knock that thing over the head and fry em up.

VR3

That is just funny...

Toxis

Originally posted by danger boy
beer battered catfishy anyone? knock that thing over the head and fry em up.

god no. Flathead Catfish (or Mudcat as some call it) is some of the nastiest fish you could ever eat. Catfish in general is kinda nasty IMO but when you have a fish that has been sitting and wallowing in the bottom of a river/lake for 10+ years, eating and breathing mud... the meat tends to get rather nasty. I'll pass.

unc2701

My parents have catfish that size- someone was draining a lake near them, they saw the fish flopping around in the mud, got a trashcan full of water & moved them to their pond...

I **** you not- they feed 'em daily & the catfish will come to the bank when they bang on the can of fish food- apparently catfish will keep on growing as long as there's food available and these are about as big around as your leg.

Toxis

that's awesome!

Polkapops

Must be we get the farm raised cats up here - Like DB said, batter 'em and fry 'em up - pretty good eatin' up in this neck-o-the-woods.......

Spawndn72

I remember seeing something on TV when I was little about volkswagon size catfish that lived at the base of damns. They would eat everything that came along. It was on "That's incredible" or some show like that.

Toxis

yeah when there's damns that are 100's of feet deep, you'll find STRANGE things down there. A buddy had a picture of a fish that was unnamed that he caught like that. I swear it looked like it was 1000 years old.

dorokusai

I think I touched myself to Cathy Lee Crosby at some point in my life....oh hell that was probably last week.

audiobliss

Wow, that's amazing. I didn't know Catfish got that big. I do like 'em salt & peppered.

Tour2ma

Originally posted by Polk-a-pops
Must be we get the farm raised cats up here - Like DB said, batter 'em and fry 'em up - pretty good eatin' up in this neck-o-the-woods.......

...with a side of possum-slaw...