Fishermen and passersby got the scare of their lives when this huge fish was hooked. It was an hourlong struggle, but finally, this completely exhausted man managed to get the huge 1.2-meter fish onto dry land. But then came the moment of shock.
Mark Larsson, the 42-year-old man who brought the huge fish to shore, later confirmed to the media that he had never experienced anything so strange in his life. And in this case, he wasn’t even talking about the 1.2-meter-long fish, an achievement many anglers would only dream of. But the catch was dwarfed by the discovery he made in the fish’s mouth.
It all started that morning. Mark was known in the region as an experienced hand fisherman, an unfamiliar title perhaps to many people, but in some parts of the United States, it is a well-known technique. It’s about getting fully into the water and moving your fingers up and down in the hope that a fish will bite your hand.
He waded into the water in his hooded boots and rolled up his sleeves. He plunged his entire forearm into the water. “This is the best technique for fishing for catfish,” he said. “They do not have teeth, so the procedure itself is not very dangerous. However, they can suck hard, and this can cause minor injuries.
That same morning, Mark had already caught some small catfish. He saw a large shadow appear below the surface of the water about 1.5 meters from him. It was moving slowly, but he was sure it was getting closer. It was the biggest fish he had ever seen, and believe me, that was saying a lot, as Mark had been fishing for over 25 years.
Mark wasn’t the only one who saw this fish appear. His experience was known throughout the area, and he, too, had drawn the attention of many passersby. That day, Mark jumped out of the water in a panic. There was no way to solve this with his hands. He pulled out a special type of fishing rod. It was a long pole with a blunt hook at the end. Here, Mark put some raw meat around, and then the Titanic battle between Mark and the lake monster could begin.
The fish pulled with all its might, nearly dragging Mark into the lake several times. Even the local policemen making their rounds around the lake were there to admire the spectacle, but they soon got the scare of their lives. Everyone saw the huge fish from a distance, but they had not yet realized the dimension of the beast. It seemed that only Mark was aware of the seriousness of the matter.
“Bring a trailer!” he yelled at the top of his lungs. This hand-to-hand battle would continue for more than 3 hours. Finally, the exhausted Mark managed to pull the animal out of the water. It had become a grueling fight, but Mark crossed the finish line first.
Along with eight other people, he brought the animal to the trailer. But then the biggest shock was yet to come. In the trailer was a scale that could weigh the gigantic animal. It was an unprecedented catch and would reach all the headlines.
Mark knew it. It turned out that he weighed over 200 kilos, a record that would stand for several years. But then the catfish opened its huge snout. Mark inspected the mouth of the gigantic animal and immediately felt chills all over his body.
The catfish’s mouth seemed to glow; there were reflections. All the passersby and especially the police immediately approached. The huge fish’s mouth shone like never before. It was filled with hundreds of tiny stones that looked like diamonds. The mouth was really full of diamonds. Everyone was shocked, but the officers were looking at each other, nodding.
“We know where these diamonds come from,” one of the officers mentioned. “After all, we are not here by chance. For days, we have been patrolling these waters. In fact, these diamonds are from the national museum. They have a commercial value of about $20 million and are part of a larger theft.
But how had it gotten to these fish? Mark asked. “Thanks to some sources, we learned that these thieves had thrown all the loot into the lake. However, until that moment, we had not found any trace of the loot of the criminals in question. The fish must have accidentally seen the shiny stones and picked them up with its mouth.”
Mark dashed to his car and grabbed a small device. He centered it and placed it on the catfish. “It’s a vibration sensor. It detects vibrations in the water and sends them to my car’s computer.” The sensor was very powerful and detected vibrations all over the lake. When the thieves returned to dump the rest of the loot, the sensor would notice the vibration.
This small device would then report the exact location of the thieves. It was night when that happened. Mark and one of the agents stayed in the car and had their walkie-talkies ready. More than 50 officers moved quietly and quietly lined up around the lake.
At 1:52 a.m., within minutes, at least eight officers were on the scene, and thanks to that, they caught the robbers red-handed. The men were arrested and managed to recover the thrown loot.
Mark was honored as an honorary citizen by the mayor, and he is now world-famous—the simple fisherman who saved more than $54 million from the bottom of a lake, all thanks to the largest freshwater fish in the world.
