When it comes to fishing giant fish, many think of the popular saltwater targets that make the news. The sport fishing community certainly feeds into the frenzy surrounding epic marlin, shark, and bluefin tuna trophies weighing in the hundreds of pounds. However, many sport fish exist in fresh waters as well, and the rivers of America can produce some true monsters.
There are four species generally accepted as having produced the largest recorded fish in America, though tales of even larger fish than those on record certainly exist among enthusiasts for each group listed.
- Catfish. According to Joseph Schmitt at chesapeakecatfish.com, river catfish in North America can reach epic proportions. We’ve all heard tales of local river catfish bigger than a house, but river catfish of both the blue head and flathead varieties have only topped a hundred pounds a few times in Missouri, Georgia, and Texas, with the most recent being a 140 pound behemoth in Arkansas in 2011. All other monsters have been found in reservoirs.
- Paddlefish. Though there are multiple varieties of paddlefish roaming the lakes and rivers of America, the monstrous world record holder was caught in Lake Okoboji, Iowa in 1916 and weighed in at 198 pounds. River varieties have been a bit smaller, but those in the 130 pound range have been caught on the Arkansas River as recently as May, 2018.
- Alligator Gar. A visually strange mixture of an alligator and a predator fish, this giant fish truly resembles a monster. Gars regularly reach anecdotal lengths of 6 feet or more, but the largest caught in North American waters was caught in Mississippi in 2001. Weighing in at 327 pounds and measuring nearly 8 and a half feet in length, this alligator gar smashed the previous record by nearly 50 pounds.
- White Sturgeon. Sturgeon are a primitive fish closely related to the paddlefish, and it’s easy to see why they’re often referred to as relics. These dinosaur-sized fish roam the fresh waters of the western third of America, and have produced some veritable beasts. The largest ever caught, on the Fraser River in British Columbia in 2015, was an albino weighing in at an estimated 1,100 pounds and an astounding 11 feet in length.
Some of these fish, notably the white sturgeon and the catfish, have been overfished over the years, and conservation societies exist for both to try and prevent the largest specimens from being removed from American waters. Sturgeons have long been targeted for their caviar, and California banned the sale of their eggs, though sale of farmed caviar is allowed. Catfish are frequently sought for eating and while they are bully fish in some regions, the Ohio River in particular has experienced sharp declines.
Overall, trophy fish are difficult to weigh while out on the water, and world record fish are difficult to document without proper recording. Strategies such as the CPR, or Catch, Photograph, Release method have been promoted throughout the United States in an effort to keep these mature fish reproducing and stocking the rivers with monsters for years to come.