Who knew one could catch a monster fish in a river?
Dino Ferrari got lucky last week when he hooked an 8.75-foot-long catfish from the waters of Italy's Po River. What made the catch noteworthy was that it was done using just a rod and a line. Or, more specifically, a spinning wheel, according to CNN.
"This giant catfish, which weighed 20 stone (127kg) was caught by twin brothers Dino and Dario Ferrari in the Po River of northern Italy," The Telegraph reported. "Believed to be one of the largest of its kind ever caught, the creature was pulled from the river on Feb 19 with a rod and line after a battle lasting 40 minutes."
The gigantic catch, said to be a wels catfish, was later released into the river after being weighed and photographed.
"It's a silurus glanis [the Latin name for the species]," Dino Ferrari explained. "The American catfish doesn't grow to such large dimensions - at most it can weigh 50kg."
Ferrari puts the 280-pound creature at about 30 years old, judging by its size. "The species can live for up to 50 years," the publication said.
Although this catch was a record for the kind of tackle used to reel it in, it's not the largest catfish ever caught. CNN noted that that distinction belongs to "a nearly 342-pound lau-lau (or piraiba) type of catfish snared in 2009 in Brazil's Amazon region."
However, the biggest catfish caught in Italy was hooked in the same river, It weighed 298 pounds and was also a wels catfish.
According to Ferrari, this kind of catfish "don't range over very large distances, they tend to live in the same stretch of river, moving just a few kilometres either way."
"To catch them you need a lot of patience but also physical strength," he explained to The Telegraph. "We tired it out and then lifted it out of the water."
"Who knows, maybe we will manage to catch it again in a year's time, and it will be even more gigantic," the fisherman said, commenting about his decision to return the fish to the river.
"The wels catfish is scaleless and lives in fresh and brackish water," MailOnline noted. "It is recognisable by its broad, flat head and wide mouth."
The publication also said that this type of fish can feed on "annelid worms, gastropods, insects, crustaceans and fish including other catfish; the larger ones also eat frogs, mice, rats, and even ducks."
"Recently, wels catfish have been spotted in non-native habitats lunging out of the water to grab pigeons on land," it added.
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