Little Girl Goes Fishing

[Jenn]

Comment: a video of a little girl catching a giant fish with her bare hands. AOL posted it today (8/13/09) to their news page, which is how I found it. Already there is quite a bit of debate as to whether it is legitimate or not.

[Ryda Wong, EBfCo.]

Big fish against a rock barrier = easy to pick up (for a fish).

[PallasAthena]

How's she keep from getting finned? Also, I would think a fish that size would probably weigh not too much less than her. I would think its movement would toss her around a bit more. Instead, it just seemed to wag its tail a big. Perhaps it was exhausted from being pinned against the rock wall by the flow of water though.

[snopes]

I go with my old standby: If someone's going to go to the trouble of faking a video, the subject likely isn't going to be one so mundane as a girl picking up a fish.

Now, if the video showed a little girl fighting off a shark with her bare hands, maybe so ...

[Tom o' Bedlam]

I don't know if this is the same thing (can't see the video from work) but from the description it sounds like something I saw many years ago on America's Funniest Home Videos. As I recall, it was one of the finalists on that episode (though I don't think it actually won). There was some speculation among those I was watching it with that it might have been staged.

[PallasAthena]

Yeah, I'm not thinking that they faked the video, but staged? Maybe. That's a big, powerful fish. I would expect a lot more movement out of it.

ETA: On taking a second look, I'm wondering now if the fish is already dead. It's tail isn't really flopping like a frightened fish would. It looks more like it's moving with the movement of the child. A live, frightenend fish would be moving its entire body to break away, and full-body movements from a fish that size would be a challenge for an adult to handle. There's no way a small child could hang on to something like that.

[Darth Credence]

When I was about 8, my family went on a road trip through Oregon and Washington. We had stopped and were swimming in a river that had formed a wide pool. There was a salmon (I think it was a salmon, but I don't know fish) that had been trapped, and was clearly exhausted. We were able to easily pick it up, and my family has pictures. I am not sure what ultimately happened to the fish, but I believe it was dying when we found it and didn't last long.
My parents have pictures of my Dad holding the fish up, and his arms are stretched out to grab both ends. My sister and I are in the picture as well.
So I guess I am saying it surely is possible, without being staged. I have no idea if it is the case here.

[LizzyBean]

If she did "catch" the fish it was either very stunned or dying. Usually when fish get pulled out of the water they smack around all over the place. A fish that big at full strength? She never would have been able to pick it up, let alone carry it around in the water.

[snapdragonfly]

That was a big old catfish and one that big would weigh a lot. Also they fight and they have spikes on their fins? I think it's their fins.

I'll ask Mr. SDF how much he thinks one like that would weigh. Not light, for sure.

I would say possibly staged with a fish that wasn't up to snuff.

[TripleAAA]

Perhaps her family does noodling and she's picked up a few things from them?

ETA: No pun intended.

[franjava]

Originally Posted by Tom o' Bedlam

I don't know if this is the same thing (can't see the video from work) but from the description it sounds like something I saw many years ago on America's Funniest Home Videos. As I recall, it was one of the finalists on that episode (though I don't think it actually won). There was some speculation among those I was watching it with that it might have been staged.

That's what I thought of too.