Wels Catfish
The wels catfish, Silurus glanis, is a scaleless fresh-water catfish recognizable by its broad, flat head and wide mouth. The mouth contains lines of numerous small teeth, two long barbels on the upper jaw and four shorter barbels on the lower jaw. It has a long anal fin that extends to the caudal fin, and a small sharp dorsal fin positioned relatively far forward. It uses its sharp pectoral fins to capture prey: with these fins, it creates an eddy to disorient its victim, which it then simply engulfs in its enormous throat. It has very slippery green-brown skin. Its belly is pale yellow or white. Wels catfish can live for at least thirty years and have very good hearing.
The wels catfish lives in large, warm lakes and deep, slow-flowing rivers. It prefers to remain in sheltered locations such as holes in the riverbed, sunken trees, etc. It consumes its food in the open water or on the bottom, where it can be recognized by its large mouth.
The River Ebro is renowned for its quantity, quality and size of its Wels Catfish. Many people from around the world travel there for Catfish Fishing Holidays.
For fishing techniques, one of the best baits are the bloodsuckers, turned inside-out on the hooks and one bait that nearly never fails and is guaranteed to attract one catfish is the fresh water eel. Attached carefully to the hook, not to break the spine, it will remain alive for a long period of time while emitting sounds that attract the catfish. Other common baits are different types of dead and living baitfish, clumps of large earthworms and sometimes also innards or pieces of squid. During the winter is fished with a special trawler that sweeps the river bed. Once caught, the fish is very slippery and powerful and difficult to master in the boat. Once there, is a quiet, no dangerous fish. While some specimens clearly reach lengths over 2.50 m, there are no recorded attacks on humans.
For more information see the Wels Catfish entry in the online encylodeia Wikipedia.