Catfish

“ When the sunfish goes, then the catfish will follow—"a reckless, bullying set of rangers, with ever a lance at rest." The catfish belongs to an ancient type not yet fully made into a fish, and hence those whose paired fins are all properly fastened to the head, as his are not, hold him in well-merited scorn. ”

“ Farm-raised catfish have come a long way from their bottom-feeding ancestors. The catfish that are available today, fresh or frozen in markets nationwide, are products of state-of-the-art methods of aquaculture. They thrive in clean freshwater ponds on many American farms, where they are surface-fed soybean meal, corn, fish meal, vitamins, and minerals. Farm-raised catfish not only furnish American consumers with a tasty delicacy but also provide a nutritious, low-calorie source of protein that is also low in cholesterol. ”

“ The catfish is most conveniently taken after night, and the smouldering fire and small boy on the bank of a stream is a frequent picture of American country life. There are more than 100 genera of the catfish family and about 1000 species. Only about one-third of the species inhabit salt water. The North American fresh-water species are confined particularly to the Atlantic coast, the Mississippi valley, and the Gulf states. There are no native species of the catfish in the fresh waters of the Pacific coast. ”

“ We baited our hooks, and dropped the lines into the lake. Miss Margie was the first to hook a fish. After a hard pull she got him to the top of the water. It was a catfish weighing twelve pounds. The Colonel and Owen were disgusted. A catfish is an exaggerated hornpout, or "bullhead." None but negroes eat them at the South.
CHAPTER XXIII.
TROLLING FOR BLACK BASS.
"The idea of fishing for catfish is absurd!" exclaimed Colonel Shepard. "It isn't a proper use to put a white man to."
"Don't fish so deep, then," suggested Cornwood. "The catfish live on the bottom." ”

“ Jule put in.
“Sure it will!” continued Case. “And catfish are never found at the bottom of the river. They call them catfish because they climb up on things.”
“You’re the wise little fisher boy,” laughed Alex. “A catfish couldn’t climb to the surface of the river if they had an electric elevator. They live in the mud and eat in the mud. After they get a square meal, they stretch out on a bed of silt like a cat on a sitting room floor. Now get these lines over and I’ll show you what a real catfish looks like.”
The boys took the lines into their hands and leaned over the stern. ”

“ In the small streams the catfish is correspondingly small and weighs from less than one pound to two or three pounds only. The small catfish, especially in the small streams tributary to the Ohio and Mississippi, has edible properties which are far superior to the large catfish growing in the rivers themselves. ”

“ A contraption of feathers, gay colors and steel wire will lure a trout from his pool, often to his sorrow, but the deception in the hands of competent deceivers proceeds from year to year. Any skillful angler will verify the statement that it is the trifling things which are of importance in the pursuit of fish. The catfish is more prosaic and demands more of the reality in the form of worms, not being satisfied with the mere semblance of food. ”

“ Animal substance, whether living or dead, satisfies him. When in search of food he makes good use of his barbels, especially those at the corners of his mouth, which he uses as feelers. The catfish will live longer out of water than most of our other food fishes. They will live and thrive in water which is far too impure for "pumpkin seeds" or bass. They spawn late in the spring. The mother fish cares for her young much as a hen cares for her chickens. When they are old enough to take care of themselves, she weans them. ”

“ Adults probably have the same pattern of daily movement as yearlings, except that at night the adults move to deeper riffles. Bailey and Harrison (1948:135-136) demonstrated that channel catfish feed most actively from sundown to midnight. [Pg 388]
Channel catfish (especially two-year-olds and adults) were abundant on a rubble-riffle during the day in some collections at the lower Neosho station in 1959. ”

“ No fisherman would take any pains to preserve such worthless things. When the fisherman drops the hideous catfish into the well, it is his way of telling the shiny creatures that are already there of the high esteem in which he holds them. ”

“ Young perch are beautiful too,—and tench, and dace, and roach,—and all are hardy. Feeding them is very simple. The shop from which you buy the fish will keep you supplied with the proper food. The American catfish, with its curious antennæ or whiskers, and its gleaming eyes, set as by a jeweler, is more wonderful, and not a whit more difficult to keep. But to be amused by such unfamiliar neighbors as a tankful of fish there is no real need either to stray abroad or to spend any money. ”

“ All sorts of creatures--the catfish with his whiskers to remind the new creature man of his pre-human state and the eel and lamprey with their sharp eyes to disclose to the world the inherent baseness of their rebellious nature. ”

“ Their exquisite fish, oysters, crabs, and foreign fruits upon the whole bring them upon a value with us.
Their fish differ from ours, even some species. Their catfish is the only sort in which we excel; they have none that answer to our blue cat, either in size or flavor, and nothing like our mud-cat. ”

“ Even the despised pike or pickerel species (Esocidoe) and some of the catfishes will rise to a large and gaudy fly. In Florida I have taken catfish with the artificial fly until my arms ached and I was fain to cry quits. I have also taken many marine species with the fly, as red-fish, blue-fish, sea-trout, snappers, groupers, crevalle, bone-fish, snooks, etc., etc., and once, as a matter of experiment, a five-foot alligator. The ‘gator was taken with a “fly” tied on a shark-hook, the hackled body being a squirrel’s tail, with wings of a small seagull. ”

“ My only record of this species was obtained in the Neosho River in April, 1958.
The third group is composed of channel catfish, flathead, and freshwater drum. This group represents that element of the population that responded most quickly to the resumption of continuous flow. The fact that adult channel catfish and flatheads live in pools and do not require flowing water to spawn gives these species a survival advantage as well as a reproductive advantage over obligatory riffle fishes (such as most darters) in the highly variable conditions found in Kansas streams. ”

“ Sharks, rays, and devil-fish, tarpon and jewfish, redfish, snappers and groupers, Spanish mackerel and kingfish, sea-trout, bonito and cavallies, and lady-fish sergeant-fish, sheepshead and drum, a host of smaller fry—spots, grunts, and porgies, and the ever-present and ubiquitous catfish—can here be jerked, and yanked and snaked, and pulled and hauled, until the unfortunate angler will lament that he was ever born—under the last but not least of the zodiacal signs. ”

“ We Americans were astounded at the idea of a catfish making prey of a monkey; but our Brazilian friends told us that in the lower Madeira and the part of the Amazon near its mouth there is a still more gigantic catfish which in similar fashion occasionally makes prey of man. This is a grayish-white fish over nine feet long, with the usual disproportionately large head and gaping mouth, with a circle of small teeth; for the engulfing mouth itself is the danger, not the teeth. ”

“ More and more Americans are discovering a uniquely American food delicacy-farm-raised catfish. In 1986, catfish comprised the third highest volume of tinned fish consumed in the United States. Ninety-nine percent of all these catfish were farm-raised. Between 1975 and 1985, production of farm-raised catfish increased by 1200 percent. Most observers expect that production will continue to increase in 1987. ”

“ The little creatures are very pretty, well-formed catfish, with bright, intelligent eyes, and a body armed all over, like the armadillo's, with a continuous coat of hard and horny mail. This coat is not formed of scales, as in most fish, but of toughened skin, as in crocodiles and alligators, arranged in two overlapping rows of imbricated shields, exactly like the round tiles so common on the roofs of Italian cottages. ”

“ It is in this place where you may stand with coral reefs and ring-tailed shells on either side and watch strange fish with spikes on their backs open their mouths and gape until each one looks like the letter O. The sea turtles stand on their heads and wave yellow flippers at the wide-eyed crowd, and a devil crab makes all the women shiver and pull the children away from the glass. In one aquarium there are so many catfish that they make the water cloudy. ”

“ We may be sure that inertia in all its monotonous streets does not like such treatment. It likes it no more than the plethoric cod likes the catfish close behind its tail. And it is no consolation either to inertia or cod to say that this disturbing element serves an ultimate good, rendering it alert, firm, and wholesome of flesh. However salutary, the catfish is far from popular among the placid residents of the tank, and it is fortunate that neither in tanks nor streets can the advisability of catfish or change be submitted to the referendum of the inert. ”

“ In years such as 1957, large numbers of young channel catfish could be collected and used to stock new ponds and lakes. So doing would not affect the numbers of adults produced in the stream, and, if enough young could be removed, those remaining in the streams might grow faster. ”

“ The abundance of channel catfish was greatly reduced as a result of the drought of 1952-1956. With the resumption of normal stream-flow in 1957, the small numbers of adult channel catfish present in the stream produced unusually large numbers of young. These young of the 1957 year-class, which reached an average size of about nine inches by September 1959, will provide an abundant adult population for several years. ”

“ The Catfish.—This fish is distinguished for its many deformities, and is a great favorite with all persons who have a fancy for muddy waters. In the Mississippi they are frequently taken weighing upwards of one hundred pounds; and while they are taken in all the tributaries of that river, it has been ascertained that they decrease in size as you ascend towards the north. They are also found in the tributaries of Lake Erie. They are taken with any kind of bait; and as they are very strong the best of tackle is invariably necessary. ”

“ Now for the bait!
It was the month of May. Nature had brought abroad myriads of living beings; they covered the earth, glided through the water, and swarmed in the air. The catfish is a voracious creature, not at all nice in feeding, but one who, like the Vulture, contents himself with carrion when nothing better can be had. A few experiments proved to us that, of the dainties with which we tried to allure them to our hooks, they gave a decided preference, at that season, to live toads. These animals were very abundant about Henderson. ”

“ Take two large or four small white catfish that have been caught in deep water, cut off the heads, and skin and clean the bodies; cut each in three parts, put them in a pot, with a pound of lean bacon, a large onion cut up, a handful of parsley chopped small, some pepper and salt, pour in a sufficient quantity of water, and stew them till the fish are quite tender but not broken; beat the yelks of four fresh eggs, add to them a large spoonful of butter, two of flour, and half a pint of rich milk ”

“ The sheep-head, red and black groper, sea-trout and other well-known fish receive the diver with fearless curiosity. In their large, round eyes he reads evidence of intelligence and curious wonder, which at times is startling from its entirely human expression. No faithful dog, or pet animal could express a franker interest in its eyes.
Their curiosity is expressed, not only in their eyes, but in their movements. They share with mankind the desire to touch what is novel to them. A diver was approached by a large catfish, who came up and touched him with its cold nose. ”

“ The mouth and throat of a fish cannot be very sensitive when it is considered that it swallows, whole, such prey as [115] sunfish and catfish fry, bristling with sharp fins and spines, and those of the catfish are always erect, even if swallowed head first. Marine fishes also swallow crabs, lobsters, prawns, besides mollusks, sea-urchins, and other creatures that would be exceedingly irritating and painful to a sensitive throat. ”

“ Take the white channel catfish, cut off their heads, skin and clean them, cut them in pieces four inches long, put as many as will be sufficient for a dish into a stew pan with a quart of water, two onions, and chopped parsley; let them stew gently till the water is reduced to half a pint, take the fish out and lay them on a dish, cover them to keep them hot, rub a spoonful of butter into one of flour, add a large tea-spoonful of curry powder, thicken the gravy with it, shake it over the fire a few minutes, and pour it over the fish ”

“ For the most part, the species have the same order of abundance in both methods of analysis. Those that are apparently out of order are channel catfish (yearlings and older) and long-eared sunfish. The first species is mobile (excepting young-of-the-year) and commonly fluctuates widely in numbers in the same area; the second species was treated differently in that only adults were considered in the population-estimation whereas both young and adults were considered in calculating percentage-composition. ”