[chris]

Holy shit, 770 lbs

A British angler – with a dozen helpers – has landed what could be the biggest freshwater fish ever caught with a rod and line, it emerged today.

The giant freshwater stingray, weighing as much as 350kg (772lbs, or about 55 stone), was the size of a garden shed and so cumbersome that Ian Welch had to enlist the aid of 12 other people to get it out of the water.

Welch, a professional fisherman, biologist and columnist for the magazine Angler's Mail, was visiting Thailand to help with a stingray tagging programme when he landed the monster in the Maeklong river. The 45-year-old said he was nearly pulled over the side of the boat when the specimen took his bait.

He said: "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. I tried with every ounce of power but it just would not budge. After half an hour my arms began shaking and after an hour my legs went. Another 30 minutes went by and then I put a glove on and physically pulled the line with gritted teeth and somehow I found the reserves to shift the fish."

Once the stingray was off the bottom, Welch, who weighs a relatively modest 73kg, managed to lift it to the surface relatively easily.

"As soon as we saw it there was just silence because everyone was just in awe of this thing," he said. "That line from the film Jaws came to mind about needing a bigger boat because we had to get it to the shore to tag it."

The group managed to put a large net under the fish and towed it to the bank. Welch, from Aldershot, Hampshire, said: "It took 13 people to lift it into a large paddling pool we had set up in order to tag it and take DNA samples.

"I was absolutely exhausted afterwards and did very little for the rest of the day and just had a cold beer. As a life-long angler and a biologist it is great that my two passions have come together and culminated in something I could only have dreamed of."

The female stingray was about 2 metres (7ft) long and the same width, and its tail measured about 3 metres (10ft). From its measurements it was calculated that it weighed at least 265kg, and possibly up to 350kg.

Its venomous barb had to be wrapped in cloth while it was out of the water. Once it was tagged the fish was released back into the river. Welch said he swam out with the fish and kissed it goodbye.

Angler's Mail has billed Welch's specimen as probably the largest freshwater fish fully authenticated as caught by rod and line.

Source : British angler lands monster stingray in Thailand | World news | guardian.co.uk

[chris]

watch the stinger

[güttsfükk]

I wonder if this stingray is round instead of the traditional diamond shape due it being a fresh water stingray

here is another article I found dating March 2008

April 29, 2008Recreational fishers and biologist Zeb Hogan (wearing cap) hold a live, 14-foot-long (4.3-meter-long) giant freshwater stingray the fishers caught in the Bang Pakong River in Chachoengsao, Thailand, on March 31, 2008.

After weeks of combing remote Southeast Asian rivers for giant freshwater stingrayspossibly the largest freshwater fish in the worldHogan finally found the creature near a Thai city. To his surprise, she gave birth soon after capture. (Read full story.)

There are accounts of freshwater stingrays growing as large as 1,000 pounds (450 kilograms), which could make them the largest freshwater fish in the world, Hogan said.

Hogan runs the National Geographic Society's Megafishes Project, an effort to document 20 or so freshwater giants. (National Geographic News is part of the National Geographic Society.)

The giant river rays are extremely difficult to catch, as they bury themselves in mud when hooked. They routinely break fishers' lines and bend finger-size hooks straight to escape capture.

The ray's deadly barb, located at the base of its whiplike tailand wrapped in a cloth in this picturecan easily puncture skin and bone

[güttsfükk]

March 2008 - New Information on Giant Freshwater Stingrays.
February 2008. One of our readers has sent in this photo of an enormous & rare Giant freshwater stingray caught in December 2007. The monster ray was caught in the Ban Pakong River 80 kms east of Bangkok. The fish was captured by Tom Parker from Coventry whilst fishing on a fishsiam.com guided freshwater angling expedition. The immense size of the fish made it impossible to weigh. With a wingspan of 2.4m the giant ray was estimated to weigh in the region of 170-200kgs.


The capture was made in the lower tidal reaches near Chachoengsao and took almost an hour to land. The fish was released after capture.

12 Specimens of the IUCN Listed Ray were Caught
Amazingly, 12 different specimens of this species have been caught in the last 3-4 months from 2 different rivers, the Ban Pakong and Maeklong Rivers. One of these captures may well have been a newborn of just 12cms in size caught from the Maeklong River. This is a good sign for this river which has been affected by pollution in previous years and also a good sign for this elusive and nomadic species.

More Information Required
With very little written or documented about this species Rick Humphreys (fishsiam.com) is very interested in any information concerning this mighty species. If you know more about this species, or would like to contact Rick about the conservation of this mighty fish, please email us by clicking here and we will forward it onto Rick.

(2nd pic) This 130 kilogram Giant freshwater stingray was caught in February 2008 on a fishsiam.com expedition to the Ban Pakong River.

Further Information Received About the Giant Freshwater Stingray

Dr Terry Bertozi, of the Evolutionary Biology Unit of the South Australian Museum in Adelaide, Australia, contacted Wildlife Extra concerning these amazing stingrays, and is now working with FishSiam on a small research project to determine whether these are the same species of stingray found in the rivers of Northern Australia.

Dr Bertozi writes:-

I believe that the scientific name currently attributed to that stingray is Himantura chaophraya. We apparently have that species in northern Australia but there is some disagreement on whether it is the same or a related species. I am working on a genetic study of the relationships between major stingray groups from around the world and was wondering if it would be possible to get a genetic sample from one of these rays (when another is caught)to add to my study. I already have samples from three rivers in northern Australia so it should be an easy matter to finally determine whether they are the same species.

(about the 3rd pic) This fish was captured from the same stretch of the Maeklong River in 2005 and was safely released after capture. It weighed an extraordinary 230 kilograms, and it is believed that this is the largest specimen ever landed on rod and line!

[GODREKR]

Fucking assholes! A one of a kind animal like that should be living free. I hate people who just have to have something at any cost. They could have taken pictures and left it alone.

[angelinme777]

That's Bull crap! The news is wrong! There was actually a 980 pound ray caught and brought to the resort 'Atlantis' in the Bahamas named 'Zeus'. When I saw him last year he was getting too big for the tank, even though they have the largest tank in the world. He's one bad ass, and awesome if you were fortunate enough to see him in person. He has now been released back into the ocean with a monitoring device. They had to use a helicopter to move him back to the ocean!!!

Here is a link of the story: Zeus the 980lbs Giant Manta Ray

[Netch]

hmm... thats pretty big

[firedog25]

Originally Posted by angelinme777 ↗

[SIZE="4"]That's Bull crap! The news is wrong!

There's a big difference between a STING RAY and a MANTA RAY.

Supposedly there's a Sting Ray in Grand Cayman that's about 16 feet across and near pure black, they call him Darth Vader. There's a sand bar off the coast there called Sting Ray City, it's actually a tourist attraction. They have very distinctive rays there that have nick names, Darth Vader is one, and there's Stubby (tail got bit off by a shark) and Freckles too. They just hang out on the sand bar because it used to be the fishing boats would drop their fish cleaning parts there, but now it's because the tourist flock there and feed them. They're pretty tame too, let you pick them up and everything.

[Mutilatedmind]

They are both alive. =.=
If you guys read the news crap it says both parties let the sting ray and the manta go.
Im happy. =)

[güttsfükk]

another

Biologist Zeb Hogan examines a giant freshwater stingray that fisher Sok Long (left) caught on April 1, 2008, in Kratie, Cambodia.

Subsistence fishers use bait sometimes weighing several pounds to catch the giant rays on ropes lined with hooks.

"A fisherman in Cambodia can make months of salary from catching one big fish," Hogan said.

Populations of giant freshwater stingrays in the Mekong River, where this fish was caught, appear to have declined due to overfishing.

After examining and photographing the stingray, Hogan and the fishers released it back into the river.