Regarding reports of large aggressive catfish on the Monongahela river

Several of my recent customers and some potential customers have asked me about stories circulating concerning large catfish and whether these 100-plus pound monsters really are aggressive and have been known to rise and attack.

From my experience on the Monongahela, having paddled in this area at least for 12 years, I have never witnessed a catfish attack.  Now, I cannot say that those big fish don't exist.  They have been seen.  Apparently, a recent newspaper article about a historical incident that may or may not have happened seems to be the cause of interest in Monongahela river fish. 

The story is basically as follows: Apparently in the late 1880s there was an attack near Morgantown.  A coal miner and his wife - with her baby daughter - were fishing near the old bridge across to Westover (all that is left now is the west side cut-stone pier) and a train went by (the coal train from the Fairmont Field upriver headed for Pittsburgh). The pair turned to wave at the engineer, when they heard a piercing squeal.  They turned back toward the river, the story continues, to see their baby, who had been wading in the river, go down screaming, pulled away into the river by some force beneath the surface.  The father acted quickly and fearlessly and jumped into the river and grabbed the child by the tips of her little fingers just as she was about to disappear into the depths. He, or so story goes, saved the child and reported that he had seen a fish on the other end of his gurgling daughter and identified it as a great catfish because the "whiskers" around its massive jaws were visible.

	Two large catfish recently caught on the Monongahela River.  These fish, probably in the 60-90 pound range, did not and, obviously, will never will attack humans!

Now, the facts are these: Catfish do grow to 100 plus pounds, but these big guys generally stay in the deep holes and are rarely caught or seen.  One of 157 pounds was caught in 1936 near Uffington, upriver from Morgantown,  the year of the famous St. Patrick's Day flood.  It is true, I am told by fishermen on the river, that the big cats are often seen coming to the surface, agitated, it seems,  by vibrations from passing trains (which shake the banks frequently today as in decades past). This vibration goes into the water: I have experienced this vibration through the bottom of my kayak often. I have not, personally, seen catfish rise as a result.

However, and I say this emphatically to reassure those who might hesitate on booking a kayak tour because of this silly story, there is no historical record of this attack on a child in the 1880s.  I have personally searched the archives at the West Virginia and Regional History Collection at West Virginia University, and there is nothing in the local newspaper about the attack.  Nor have any of the other stories about "monster catfish" attacks been documented as anything but local folklore and "fish stories."  I assure you that there is nothing to be afraid of.