Summary
Hunting and fishing are a substantial part ofRed Dead Redemption 2. With the game, Rockstar offers payers the definitive Wild West simulation. Seemingly mundane tasks like hunting for meat or gathering supplies combine to create one of gaming’s most immersive experiences. While the game does make head nods toward the occult, legendary versions of animals serve as a grounded nod toward folkloric traditions. One ofRed Dead Redemption 2’s legendary beasts, the Legendary Channel Catfish, is actually just that: a tall tale. While not all legends are grounded in truth, the fraudulent nature of the catfish could stand for more.
Red Dead Redemption 2players can find Jeremy Gill and begin the stranger mission “A Fisher of Fish.” Upon beginning the quest, Gill will escort players to his home and inform them of his taxidermy business. He then gives players a map of legendary fish locations and requests that they catch the fish and send them to him. Completing the map unlocks a second part of the mission, where the player looks for the catfish with Gill. This mission concludes with Gill being unceremoniously pulled into the water, never to be seen again. Try as hard as they may, the player can never find or catch this fish.
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The Legendary Channel Catfish has Multiple Meanings
While theLegendary Channel Catfishcan be found insideRed Dead Redemption 2’s files when datamined, the fish never appears in the game. Gill being pulled into the river indicates that the almost 200lb fish could be real, but the tale of seeing a man pulled into the river by it, if not directly witnessed, would read as legend or as a tale passed around by fishermen. On top of paying tribute to the tradition of folktales and local legends that permeated the American West and its culture, the fraud of the Legendary Channel Catfish could be a clever way to point out how players are being catfished in this scenario or rather made to believe this mythical fish exists when it does not.
Hosted by Nev Schulman,Catfish, based on a movie of the same name, has been running for eight seasons over the course of more than a decade. In the reality show, Schulman and his assortment of co-hosts investigate the phenomenon of catfishing in which someone lies about their identity and forms a romantic relationship with another person as this assumed persona.Catfish’s hosts often attempt to understand the perpetrator’s actions and view both parties charitably, but more often than not, the act of deception is unforgivable to the victim. Over the course of 200+ episodes,Catfishhas made the term synonymous with hucksterism and fraud.
The Legendary Channel Catfish is a Fraud
Like the personas assumed by the perpetrators onCatfish,Red Dead Redemption 2’s Legendary Channel Catfish is too good to be true. While the otherlegendary animalsare huntable, they are all sized within the realm of possibility or possess an unusual color palette that could still occur in nature. An impossibly large fish would hold allure over a fisherman, just as an impossibly perfect person would over a potential partner.
The parallels between the fraudulent nature of the Legendary Channel Catfish and the wrongdoers of MTV’sCatfishpoint out how easily some people may be fooled depending on what their desires are. The origin of the legend of the catfish is unknown, but given its unrealistic proportions, it is likely born from Gill wanting to deceive players. While the Legendary Catfish is unattainable,Red Dead Redemption 2is one of thebest cowboy gamesand has a huge open world, so it has plenty of other things for players to find and do.
Red Dead Redemption 2is available now on PC, PS4, and Xbox Series X/S.
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