We've all heard some Big Fish stories. Some of us have even lived a Big Fish story or two. This crazy story has been circulating around the internet for years, apparently, and luckily was sent to GettingOutside by our good friend Kris Taylor.

I checked on Snopes - a great site for tracking urban legends - and they say it's real. Here's how it was related in the email from Kris.

guy who lives at Lake Conroe (50 miles north of Houston ) saw a ball bouncing around kind of strange in the lake and went to investigate. It turned out to be a flathead catfish who had obviously tried to swallow a basketball which became stuck in its mouth!!

The fish was totally exhausted from trying to dive, but unable to because the ball would always bring him back up to the surface. The guy tried numerous times to get the ball out, but was unsuccessful. He finally had his wife cut the ball in order to deflate it and release the hungry catfish.

You probably wouldn't have believed this, if you hadn't seen the following pictures... (below - click on images for larger versions)

According to Snopes the story orignated with the The Sunday Wichita Eagle Newspaper. Here's what Snopes had to say:

"This was a pretty interesting story from The Sunday Wichita Eagle Newspaper a couple of weeks ago. Was in a housing development around 119th st. South and Maple. Anyhow a resident in the area saw a ball bouncing around kind of strange like in the developments pond and when he went to investigate, it was a flathead catfish who had obviously tried to swallow a child's basketball which became stuck in its mouth. The fish was totally exhausted from trying to dive but unable to because the ball would always bring him back up to the surface. The resident tried numerous times to get the ball out but was unsuccessful. He finally had his wife cut the ball in order to deflate the ball and release the catfish.

Now he's wondering if he'd have done even better with a different kind of bait. "I never considered using a kid's basketball," Driver said. "Maybe I should have."

Friday afternoon, Driver was standing on the deck of his house near 119th Street West and Central when he saw an eight-inch ball floating in Sandalwood Lake. Noticing the ball wasn't floating normally, Driver wandered to his dock for a closer look. A catfish had its mouth stuck around the ball.

Driver hollered for his wife, Pam, to get a camera while he unrigged the sail from his nine-foot boat, wading into the lake and corralling the fish toward shore with the sail as a seine.

Several times, the flathead tried to dive, only to have the ball buoy it back to the surface. The fish appeared to be exhausted and offered little resistance once in the shallows. Things may have gone easier [sic] had the fish the strength to struggle.

'I just couldn't pull that ball out of its mouth," Driver said. "I was lifting up out of the water as best I could by the ball. I finally sent my wife to the house to get a knife.'"

Is it really true?

Who knows? But it makes a great story and some really good pictures. Personally, I would've dragged that dumb beast ashore and fileted him, and I don't know many fishermen who wouldn't.