Storytellers claimed that Svitiaz held catfish “without end or measure” — fish so large that ordinary measures could neither describe nor weigh them.
Once a man was fishing with a small pike as bait. A gigantic catfish rose from the depths, but instead of taking the bait it seized the fisherman by the leg. The man could not break free and ended up in the water together with the fish.
At that moment the waves surged strongly towards the shore. They swept up the strange pair and cast both fisherman and catfish onto dry land. The man was saved, and the impossible fish lay beside him on the bank.
This story belongs to the tradition of fishermen’s tall tales, in which the size of a catch is deliberately exaggerated beyond possibility. It conveys an old fascination with the depth and mystery of Svitiaz, but it is not evidence of an actual measurement or the capture of a giant catfish.