Ian Welch, a British biologist doing research in Thailand, hauled in a world record fresh water stingray with a rod and reel! The massive stingray weighed in at an estimated 771 pounds with a fin span of seven feet and an overall length of ten feet including the barbed tail. The weight is a best guess estimate due to the fact that the stingray was pregnant and they didn’t want to chance harming the stingray while weighing it.
The fresh water stingray was caught while the biologist was on tagging expedition on the Mae Klong in Samut Songkram province of Thailand. Research is being done by several teams of biologists on the fresh water stingrays found in Thailand.
It took over 90 minutes to bring the stingray up from the bottom and 13 men just to bring it aboard the boat and then to haul it ashore to study it. After the researchers completed their study of the stingray the mammoth was released unharmed back into the Mae Klong.
Ian Welch said of the capture:
It dragged me across the boat and would have pulled me in had my colleague not grabbed my trousers – it was like the whole earth had just moved. I knew it was going to a big one. It buried itself on the bottom and the main fight was trying to get it off the floor.
Ian Welch had a little more than luck on his side as it turns out he is not just a researcher but a professional angler who is a regular columnist for a fishing magazine.
While they have great pictures and stories to tell for a lifetime they also caught it all on film. National Geographic has been following the research team around on their stingray studies and of course were on hand to film the entire event. A special on the researchers work in Thailand including the giant stingray is set to air later this summer on the National Geographic channel with the title “Monster Fish”.
While this is believed to be the largest fresh water fish caught with rod and reel the Chinese still hold the record for hauling in the largest recorded stingray when a fisherman’s net caught a 3,300 pound stingray that took four hours to bring in.
Photo courtesy of Fishsiam
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Talen, I saw this in the papers, quite a fish. I didn’t know such monsters lurked in the Mekong!
Some “fisherman’s tale,” not sure you use that idiom in the States but it refers to a tall/unbelievable story in the UK.
I can imagine he might work for a magazine called the Angling Times. I look forward to the Nat Geo film.
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That really is scary when you think about it. My girls brother is in the Mekong all the time netting fish…I can’t imagine that thing would be friendly if you stepped on it.
Yep we have fisherman’s tales too …but the the best I’ve ever come up with is ” you should see the one that got away”.
Mekong? Samut Songkhram? One of the two must be wrong. Most probably it is due a small mistake in translation, as the river in Samut Songkhram is the Mae Klong (???????), and the Mekong in Thai is Mae Khong (??????). Given that the Mae Kong is much smaller than the Mekong this huge fish is even more impressive…
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You are right…Mekong is wrong. I was being dyslexic while writing and had Mekong on the mind…thanks for the catch on that one.
WOW!
What a huge catch indeed!
From the look of its eye in the top photo, it sure seems puzzled what its doing in a makeshift pool.
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Mekong,Mae Khong or Mae Klong, King bloody Kong is the word that springs to my mind. That is one big fish and I wouldn’t want to get the hook out of it’s mouth. The Chinese record of 3300 pound makes their catch approx four times heavier and I assume about three times bigger. Frightening. I just upgraded the stingray to number three in my list of things to avoid, just behind King Cobras and ladyboys.
Well, lets hope you never find yourself being chased in the water by a giant stingray with your only exits blocked by cobra’s and a ladyboy with a lifeline waiting to save your life.
If I did I would take the lady boy route, hurts me to say so but snakes…aghhhhhh
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Yikes….that is actually scary.
I see stingrays all of the time in the river out back and they sure do not look like that. I wonder if someone was feeding him McDonalds
Thanks for sharing that…
Have a great day!
DorothyL
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