Lake monster or monstrous fish
An article caught my eye about a very large fish caught in
Missouri.
Extract:
Indeed, the biggest
Missouri game fish of any species came out of Table Rock Lake in 2015,
when Andy Belobraydic snagged a 140-pound, 9-ounce monster that took him half an hour to reel in.Belobraydic
said the record paddlefish was nearly 6 feet long and measured almost
4 feet around its belly.
Despite its size,
there are quite possibly are even bigger fish cruising Missouri
waters, according to Andrew Branson, Fisheries Program specialist with Missouri
Department of Conservation.
He said
there are only five species of native Missouri fish that can grow to
weigh 100 pounds or more. It's possible any of these species could
eclipse Belobraydic's huge paddlefish to become the biggest fish ever
caught in Missouri.
·
Paddlefish: The largest official
record nationwide is a 144-pound fish from Kansas. (There's an anecdotal report
of a 198-pound fish in Iowa.)
·
Alligator gar: The world record is 279
pounds. (Anecdotal reports suggest they can grow up to 10 feet in
length and weigh as much as 350 pounds.)
·
Lake sturgeon: The largest official
record is a 240-pound fish from Wisconsin.
·
Flathead catfish: The world record is
123 pounds. (There are reports of another fish weighing 139 pounds, 14 ounces.)
·
Blue catfish: The world record is 143
pounds. (There are anecdotal reports of fish up to 150 pounds or more.)
"It’s quite possible that fish larger than state and world
records have been caught but just not officially recorded," Branson said.
Read full
story here :
There is
a legend of a river monster in the Missouri
River.
The Dakota nation have a legend about a Missouri
River monster of terrifying appearance called Miniwashitu . Melvin Randolph
Gilmore wrote about Miniwashitu in 1921.
“It is said that in the long ago there was a mysterious being
within the stream of the Missouri River. It was seldom seen by human beings,
and was most dreadful to see. It is said that sometimes it was seen within the
water in the middle of the stream, causing a redness shining like the redness
of fire as it passed up the stream against the current with a terrific roaring
sound. And they say that if this dreadful being was seen by anyone in the
daytime anyone who thus saw it soon after became crazy and continued restless
and writhing as though in pain until he was relieved by death. And it is said
that one time not a very great many years ago this frightful being was seen by
a man, and he told how it appeared. He said that it was of strange form and
covered all over with hair like a buffalo, but red in color; that it had only
one eye in the middle of its forehead, and above that a single horn. Its
backbone stood out notched and jagged like an enormous saw. As soon as the man
beheld the awful sight everything became dark to him, he said. He was just able
to reach home, but he lost his reason and soon after that he died.”
The
story goes that it is still in the river. Could this monster be in fact one of
the large species of fish ?It could be an Alligator Gar or a Sturgeon
both rather prehistoric looking and enough to scare
anyone not familiar with their appearance .When shocked it is easy to miss
attribute aspects to an animal or fish that don’t exist such as a horn .Also
eye witness testimony being unreliable it could just be the story got
embellished in the telling. There are certainly monsters in the river
,monstrous fish .
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