The big gulp

The e-mail arrives in your inbox with a big splash: digitized animalia gone wild. In one, a killer whale capsizes a kayaker. Another depicts a “shark” lurking next to a surfer in Malibu. Trouble is, they’re clever fakes or accompanied by erroneous captions that prey on our fears.

So when four photos of a huge flathead catfish with a mini-basketball stuck in its mouth began circulating the Internet, professional debunkers at urban legend websites and catfish anglers alike weighed in.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if someone force-fed this fish and thought it was funny,” was Dark30’s post to a FishingMinnesota.com web forum. By then, rapid-fire e-mailing had glossed over the details of the story, locating the tale alternately in Louisiana, Missouri or Alabama.

In fact, the catfish depicted in the photos has long since retired to the deeper waters of a pond located in the backyard of a suburban home in Wichita, Kan. Almost a year after Bill and Pam Driver deflated and removed a junior-sized basketball from its jaws, they continue to field calls regarding their claim to fame.

“E-mail is like gossip,” says Pam, an accountant who began snapping pictures when the ailing fish surfaced. “It just keeps going and going.”

Pam and Bill, who is the owner-operator of a trucking firm, often fished for crappie and bass in the man-made pond. Last May, Bill was on the telephone when he looked out the window, gaped and called for his wife to bring out her new digital camera. They rushed outside.

“Billy kept trying to pull the ball out of its mouth, but every time it would suck it in further. Like it was trying to swallow it,” Pam says. “He even tried to push its lips back, but it was too tight. Then he said, ‘Get the paring knife.’ One small slit [in the ball] was enough.”

A neighbor has accused Pam of “wallpapering” her basement with news articles surrounding the story, but she and her husband a year and a half later are still eager to document the rest of the story.

Since the pictures went worldwide, the Drivers have been busy. There are hoax accusations to rebut, and they had to fight off a marketer who overlaid a logo on the basketball. Catfish callers have dialed her up from as far away as England. One local caller, however, may have provided a clue to how the fish got into the pond. He says he caught the catfish years ago in a river near the Drivers and illegally dumped it. He had a photo of his catch that made his story plausible.

Although the Drivers have accepted the publicity with good humor, they’re not as charitable about the catfish.

“If we had known then what we know now, we would have taken that catfish,” Pam says. “That fish is a menace to the rest of the fish in the pond, and in the spring it comes up to eat baby ducklings.” Apparently, they’re easier to swallow.

-- Emmett Berg