Tall Tales: A Monstrous Catfish, The Tallest Man in the World, and A Missing Boot

The tale of the monster catfish lurking in the mighty Mississippi River has been passed down for generations, whispered from one river town to the next, from the natives who first saw it, to the fishermen who’ve spent their lives trying to catch it. Its size, its power, and the eerie tales surrounding it make this creature more legend than fact. Its eyes are said to resemble those of a squid, its mouth wide enough to swallow a man whole, and its whiskers lash like a whip.

Alton, Illinois

But for Red Mudger of Meadowbrook, the catfish wasn’t a myth. It was real. And he was the one who discovered it—way back in 1902.

The Mudger family had long been known along the Mississippi River as expert fishermen, their legacy rooted in generations of secret baits, unique fishing techniques, and handcrafted tools passed down like sacred heirlooms. One fateful evening in March, Red was working on a log boat near Grafton when, after a long day, he cast his line into the water. It wasn’t long before his pole jerked hard, the line tightening with an intensity he’d never felt before. His heart raced. The pole was wrenched from his hands, dragged over the side of the boat, and into the cold, deep waters.

Frantic but determined, Red dove after it, knowing that his catch was his family’s only chance at dinner. As he swam, he found himself face to face with a massive catfish—so large, it could easily swallow him whole. The fish’s enormous, glistening eyes stared him down from the murky depths, and its whiskers swished like deadly whips in the water. Red, a skilled swimmer, managed to escape the maw of the monster, scrambling back to the shore with only a few close calls. But he had seen something no one else had—a fish of unimaginable size.

When he got back to town, Red rushed to warn the residents, telling them of the monstrous catfish he’d encountered. For their safety, the people of Grafton decided they needed to catch it before it became a real threat. The search began in earnest. Days turned to weeks, then months, but the giant catfish was never found.

Over time, doubts crept in. Was Red just drunk on whiskey, his story fueled by too many hours on the river? People questioned his account, and the search was called off. Life along the Mississippi returned to normal, but the legend of the giant catfish never faded.

Years passed, and the story was kept alive by Red’s descendants. One of them, Kato “Mudcat” Mudger of Alton, followed in his great-grandfather's footsteps. Every March, Kato would rise early, year after year, searching for the elusive fish that his great-grandfather had encountered. He spent countless hours on the river, hoping to prove that the tale was true, that his grandfather wasn’t just a man with a vivid imagination.

On the final day of the season, as the sun was just beginning to rise, Kato made his way down to the riverside. He set up his spot near “Small Pox Island,” just past the Our Lady of the River Shrine in Portage de Sioux. He sipped his coffee, staring out over the calm, glassy water, feeling something in the air that morning—a kind of energy, a quiet pull.

“There’s something about this morning,” Kato said, the nostalgia of his ancestors’ fishing trips coming over him. “I can’t explain it, but it just felt right.”

As the hours passed and the sun rose higher in the sky, Kato cast his line one last time before calling it quits for the season. He let the reel slowly turn, gently pulling in the line. That’s when it happened—the first tug, followed by a sharp pull. Kato was yanked from his spot on the bank and plunged straight into the river.

“Right then and there, I knew,” said Kato. “This was it—the moment I had been waiting for. The monster my grandpa saw. I wasn’t going to let it slip away.”

The struggle began in earnest. Kato fought with everything he had, the line burning his hands as the fish pulled him deeper into the river. But the harness Kato wore kept him anchored to the shore. The tug-of-war raged on for an hour, the current pulling him closer and closer to the lock and dam in Alton.

At that moment, the Coast Guard spotted Kato. Their patrol boat raced to his side, and soon enough, fourteen men had arrived to help him battle the massive creature.

“I could barely believe it was happening,” Kato said, his voice filled with awe. “This was my moment of glory, my family’s moment, and I was determined to make sure we went down in history.”

The fight stretched into the night, the men exhausted but not willing to give up. As the fish began to tire, so did the men. After hours of struggle, the catfish finally gave in to its age and exhaustion. Using a crane, they hauled the enormous creature onto the shore.

“We just stood there, stunned,” said Captain Joseph Bellringer of the USS Yeah Buoy. “I’ve never seen anything like it. It was just unbelievable.”

But despite their efforts to keep it alive, the giant catfish eventually died. Kato, eager to see what secrets the fish might hold, ordered it to be cut open. Inside, they discovered something astonishing—a boot. A single boot, size 37.

“There’s only one person I know who wears a size 37 boot,” Kato said, the realization hitting him hard. “Robert Wadlow. The Giant of Alton" - The Tallest Man in the World, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. 

Statue of Robert Wadlow at 2810 College Ave.

The catfish, experts later determined, was a Mekong giant catfish—the first of its kind ever seen in the Mississippi River. The fish weighed in at 736 pounds, and at an estimated 170 years old, it broke two records: the heaviest fish ever caught, and the oldest fish to ever be discovered. 

But for Kato, this wasn’t just about breaking records. It was about proving that his great-grandfather’s story was true, about honoring the Mudger legacy and securing his place in the history books.

The giant catfish may have died, but the legend of the Mudger family and their search for the river’s greatest monster would live on forever.

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