The Mekong giant catfish is an endangered species but in Thailand they thrive and grow to ridiculous sizes in fishing parks where catch and release in enforced. At this park (Bungsamran), you can rent weight scales that go up to 50kg (110lb). Any Mekong giant that hits the 50kg mark is automatically referred to as a "Willy", a reference to the https://snaptube.cam/ killer whale from the movie Free Willy. They rarely show up as getting one to bite and actually landing one was quite a feat. Turn the clock back to 2010. My step-dad of 20 years just passed away in a tragic accident involving a car falling out of the fourth story parking lot in our building. My family was going through a hard time of mourning and I had to go and find my therapy in fishing a few days after he died. I had to distance myself from it all at least for a day, everyone in the house was in constant tears, myself included and I was pretty much losing it. It was then that I caught my first Willy. The fight on my 30lb line took 25 minutes and it took two gigantic landing nets to bring to big guy in. I was happy for a while and it lifted my spirits up enough to go home and face reality again.
