Catfish are super popular among fisherman and diners. I don’t know anyone where I live in the American South who doesn’t like fried catfish.
Catfish however are subject of some myths and misconceptions.
#Anglers noodle giant flatheads (ops)—If you have an e-mail address, you have probably seen the photos of anglers in the water with huge yellow-skinned catfish with a subject line like, “Angler’s Noodle World Record Flathead” or something like that. Well for starters, “noodling” is the practice of feeling around with your hands and grabbing catfish by the mouth and wrestling them to shore.
The photos passed around the Internet of anglers with super-sized flatheads are not really flatheads at all. They are Wels catfish from Europe. They look almost exactly like flatheads except for the fins, which grow like a tadpole. And then there is the size. Wels grow up to 10 feet in length and catches of fish over six feet are common. The world record flathead was just over five feet in length.
Source: Kingdom Zoo