Saturday, July 08, 2006

Lake O' The Pines Catfish Eats Dog

A few weeks ago I posted an article about pictures of a giant alligator on Lake Conroe with a deer in his mouth, that turned out to be a hoax. It sure garnered a lot of attention, though. For those of you who enjoyed that story, here's another that is sure to get you going. My dad sent me this article, about a giant catfish that ate a German shepherd on Lake O' The Pines, which is about 20 miles north of Longview, Texas. The original source is unknown.

Jenny Carter was walking her German Shepherd by a lake near her Texas home when she says a monster catfish jumped out of the water and swallowed the dog!

The incident was just the latest in a series of sighting of a notorious giant catfish cruising the dark waters of Lake O' the Pines near Longview.

But it was the first report of any fatalities.

Jenny, 26, says she had let her 85-pound dog, (Yogi weighs about 75 lbs. more or less), Sarge, run freely along the lake as she does every night when she suddenly realized that something was terribly wrong.

"Sarge let out a bark like I never heard before," she sobs. "It really scared me, I ran over as fast as I could and I saw him struggling with this monster in the lake.

"It was so big, I didn't know what it was. I never saw anything like it in my life. I was screaming real loud and running to help Sarge. But there was nothing I could do. I saw the fish swallow his head and I went crazy. I guess I was hysterical and in shock."

Two other witnesses verified Jenny's gruesome tale - and now authorities say they are on the lookout for the catfish, now turned killer Prior to the incident involving her dog, there had been wild speculation about the mysterious fish whom some have likened to the Lock Ness Monster in Scotland.

There had been several sightings of the huge catfish estimated to be 15 feet long and weighing 1,000 pounds. Although officials from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department had officially denied the existence of the monster, sportsmen from as far away as Japan had expressed interest in trying to catch the fearsome fish.

"It's worth a least $1 million to the person who can catch it." says a gaming expert. "But it will take extraordinary equipment to reel it in.

"We have reports that some fishermen had the killer catfish on line, but let it get away.

"This fish is very, very powerful. He even straightened out a 20-0 shark hook - and that's not easy to do.


Here's a picture of a 646 pound Mekong catfish that was caught in northern Thailand.



According to National Geographic, this is supposed to be the largest freshwater fish ever caught. I think that this catfish could easily swallow a large dog. If there is something nearly twice the size of this swimming around Lake O' The Pines, he's got to be eating something!