Angler's Massive Fish Wows The Internet: 'Like Going Big Game Hunting At The Zoo'

Growing up, I immersed myself in stories of outdoor writers traveling the globe, chasing massive and exotic species to fuel my love of fishing and adventure. It led me to a three-decade-plus career as a fishing guide and outdoor writer. Today, both aspiring anglers and experienced fishermen use social media for the same purpose. One of the most influential in that realm is Josh Jorgensen of BlacktipH Fishing, whose YouTube channel has more subscribers than any other fishing show on the platform. Recently, a video of him landing a massive arapaima went viral on TikTok. While this dude is legit and has some amazing catches and crazy experiences in his career, this wasn't one of them.

So if this wasn't a top-shelf angling experience, why has it racked up more than 60 million views on TikTok? Some people just don't get it. Others do, which is why a number of commenters on TikTok, as well as YouTube and Instagram, are, shall we say, not quite as impressed as you'd expect. The viral view rate is undoubtedly due, at least partly, to the massive size of the fish. Like a lot of things in life, for some people, size is all that matters. But it takes more than size to make an epic angling experience.

In all likelihood, this fish didn't even know where it was. It certainly wasn't in its native waters of the Amazon River Basin. That's because it wasn't caught in Brazil, Peru, or Guyana, where they occur naturally. It was caught in a Florida pond run by Jurassic Living Jewels, stocked with arapaima specifically to be caught. To that end, you could say the fish did its job — it got caught.

What really drew most commenters' ire was the setting. "It's like fishing in a fish tank," wrote one TikTok commenter. Another quipped, "That's cheating, right?" Comments like that make it obvious serious anglers can tell the difference between an adventure and a petting zoo. The American Sportfishing Association says there are around 50 million Americans who fish each year – which explains why this video hooked plenty of people outside the angling world. That can be a problem if this starts to look what fishing is all about — because it isn't.

@blacktiph

I Caught the Largest Freshwater Fish in Florida 😳 #caught #largest #freshwater #fish #florida #fishing

♬ original sound – BlacktipH Fishing

The hunting community has struggled with a similar problem for decades with what they refer to as canned hunts, where animals are bred and raised to become someone's wall trophy. The biggest difference here is the angler still has to fight the fish — and it can be released alive. Sure, a fish like this can kick your butt even if you hook it in an actual swimming pool. But there's no denying that hooking and fighting the fish on the banks of a manicured pond is a far cry from doing so while adventuring in the Amazon.

In a setting like this, all you really have to do is outlast the fish. That's not nearly as hard to do as when you're struggling to maintain balance in a dugout canoe on the Amazon or looking over your shoulder for caiman and other lurking critters. Ditto for handling and releasing the fish, which is infinitely easier from the clean, gently sloping banks and creature-free ponds as opposed to the notoriously wild and dangerous features the arapaima calls home.

Another thing viewers took issue with was the ability to hook up on command. In the TikTok video, it is mere seconds after the cast that the bait gets bit. In the longer YouTube cut, where multiple fish were caught, the first came on the first cast, after the guide had assured him it would. Some fanboys were overjoyed — like @differentTYPEofSPLIFF, who wrote, "That thud at 11:48 is absolutely ridiculous. [I] could only imagine the feeling of hooking and catching something that big." But most commenters were stunned – and not in a good way.

As @Harpersimmons_777 put it, "Bro why did he say first cast if it's a damn stocked pond that has 30 [or] 40 of them so your odds of catching them are 100/100." It's safe to assume that's the goal for anyone willing to shell out the $1,500 to $2,500 daily fee to fish here. After all, arapaima are on many anglers' bucket lists. But does it even count? One viewer admitted that while it would be cool to see a fish like that up close, they wouldn't cross it off their list if they caught it this way. Others drove home the point that catching a fish that magnificent in a controlled environment just felt wrong — or as @dajanicki joked in a nod to "King of the Hill," "This isn't right, is it, Dad? ... No, it isn't, son."

I have traveled the world chasing various bucket list fish myself, using the best baits and even some strange fishing methods at times to up the odds. I'd love to catch an arapaima, just not like that. I've only ever seen one arapaima in my life — in an ornamental pond at a Buddhist temple in Hawaii. It was absolutely stunning to see, but I had zero desire to cast at it in that setting — and actually believe I'd think a little less of myself if I had.