Looks like a Wels Catfish, I've fished for them in the Danube with some Hungarian relatives. The Danube was at the highest it had been in years so we didn't have much luck but my cousin showed me a picture of one he had caught a few weeks prior and it was approximately 125lbs. Huge fish! I remember going to a spot that had been flooded over with plenty of dead trees casting massive jointed Rapalas and hearing the biggest splash I had ever heard a fresh water fish make. My cousin was luring fish with this crescent shaped wooden device that he'd smack into the water, it made a super distinctive horn-like sound.
We tried for wells in the ebro in spain ,no joy for us just tons of carp. Got to see a guy pull one in just over 100 lb. Biiig fish its alleged in some french canals no ducks will land suggesting wells in that reach .
Don't know a term for it, but it's a wooden handle with a cup on the end, mostly made of rosewood . Old Danube fisherman would drag bait behind a boat and use this " plunger" to wake up catfish and give them orientation of where the bait is. The cup itself is only about inch wide and 1/4" deep, but the sound it makes resonates for hundreds of meters above surface, so it must be real loud underwater. In my parts of Europe it is called "buc (h) ka".
Too bad you didn't end up catching one, they are brutally strong fish.
Italian Catfish are bigger than I thought
Linear Mode
