ive only caught two in my life..first one was a 3 footer..second was bout a foot..had o snag them to catch em..what do they eat? never caught one with bait

 

They usually eat other fish but I've caught a ton of them off a trotline with crawdads.

 

They caught a 600 lb catfish in the Mississippi up here not too long ago. It was in the newspaper. Heres a picture:

http://www.jjc.edu/Clubs/Anglers/BIGCatfishgallery.jpg

646 Pound Catfish World Record
The 646 pound catfish pushes a freshwater world record. The fisherman netted the massive catfish setting the world record for the largest freshwater fish every found or caught.

“It’s amazing to think that giants like this still swim in some of the world’s rivers,” project leader Zeb Hogan project leader said in a statement. “We’ve now confirmed now that this catfish is the current record holder, an astonishing find.”

“I’m thrilled that we’ve set a new record, but we need to put this discovery in context: these giant fish are uniformly poorly studied and some are critically endangered," added Hogan, a fellow with the World Wildlife Fund, which is partnering with the National Geographic Society. "Some, like the Mekong giant catfish, face extinction.” This cat fish will go down in history as researches study and practice conservation on freshwater fish. This fish was not wasted, as it was eaten in a nearby village in Thailand.

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8404622/

That is the correct story but that is the wrong picture. The real fish wasn't even caught in the US. The fish in that picture doesn't weight that much and those guys aren't holding up 650 pounds of deadweight like that.

 

The world record Alligator Gar was caught in 1910 according to wiki. It was 10ft long. I seen a 2.5 ftr dead in the rocks out of the corner of my eye one day with its mouth open and it scared the **** outta me. don't let one get a hold of yea cuz they got some real sharp teeth.

 

Looks like someone has even seen one Eat a 5ft alligator. i'd like to see that myself.

 

Those things are a pain in the **** while catfishing. About the only way to catch em is snag em or use steel line. They just cut the regular line with those sharp *** teeth. They do like to fool with the bait though to get you all exited about catching a big fish and then, damn just another gar...

 

Same thing I was thinking.

 

thats not photshoped and there has never been a documented alligator gar attack. they are pretty intimidating looking though and will leave a nasty cut if you get too close to the mouth or even scales. i shoot alligator gar with my bow all the time but ive never caught onto one of the monsters. usually 2-3 footers and ive only had a shot at one big-un...i dont want to talk about it haha.

ive seen some of the 5+ footers porpusing like dolphins but never close enough for a shot. texas, lousiana and mexico are the 3 states known for having the biggest alligator gar.