"...the first thing we done was to bait one of the big hooks with a skinned rabbit and set it and catch a catfish that was big as a man, being six foot two inches long, and weighed over two hundred pounds. We couldn't handle him, of course,; he would 'a' flung us into Illinois."
____Mark Twain
Oh man, we are gearing up to do this, fish the Mississippi River for one of those elusive grandfather (10 to 25 year old) catfish. Jared, my brother, went to Bass Pro in Gurnee and picked up gigantic hooks, leaders that could twirl a Calder mobile, and 150 lb test line. Geez, we could catch a person!
Yippee! this is going to be the adventure of a lifetime!
Everything you need to know about catfish
The biggest catfish ever caught weighed 123 pounds and came from a resevoir in South Carolina in 1996.
I am not talking about channel cats, I mean the other ones, the (oh man I forgot what they are called)inrafreds??????
To catch one you need a HUGE hook and your bait must be ALIVE and should be big. Mark Twain said a pound but Jared says that’s impossible, even a half pound would be huge.
You can catch them from May to mid-June, then again from July through September.
The big cats spawn in late June. The male goes really deep and builds a nest. Then he finds a female and invites her in. She goes into the nest and he drops milt (sperm) all over her as her eggs erupt from her body. Then he chases her off and tends the fertilized eggs by fanning them for two days. He tends them until they hatch and take off.
My brother knows far more about fish than I ever realized. So I am learning more about him and catfish at the same time. He says that catfish aren’t even very tasty. He will make them into strips and soak them first, in milk I think he said. Then you bread them and fry them up. I am hoping NO BONES! Plus I will eat it even if I don’t like it because it really isn’t about the actual fish, this is bigger than that. It’s like living out Huckleberry Finn, literature. Ha! Wasn’t the slave’s name Jim? Jeff, my nephew, can be Huck. I’ll be Tom Sawyer. I’m good at wandering off and getting peeps to help me paint the fence. Plus I have freckles.
“I bought a Harley and I’m going to Sturgis.”
My brother is all about trying new things this year.
“I don’t know if the river will ever go down. Too much rain this year. So lets just go. How’s Tuesday or Wednesday?”
“Tuesdays good for me. I have a pool party this Saturday, gallery opening on Sunday, then I have to be back for Michael’s family reunion next Saturday, how about leaving early Tuesday, stay Wednesday and Thursday, return Friday morning?”
“Yeah that’ll work. If it rains we can just buy cheap ponchos.”
“Brother we won’t melt. We aren’t made of sugar.”
“Okay. I’ll bring the fryer set-up, we’ll have hush puppies with the fish. I know we’ll catch something and if not there’s a fresh fish market. We'll buy from Jack, he's a commercial fisherman. Do you like hush puppies?”
“Yes I do. When did you get so southern?”
He laughed. “There’s lots of things we can do. Fishing is best on the new moon. Let’s see that would be about the 14th. What’s today?”
“The 8th. Jared we will be there on the new moon!”
“Good. Bring your camo, we’re going deep into the woods too. And I’ll take you to see that catfish-head house. Bring one of the million cameras you own.”
”Of course.”
“I’m not bringing my boat. I should have scouted out the river for snags and fishing spots and I haven’t had time. And if we got a big cat he would drag us into a snag, flip us out of the boat, and I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
“No, no boat. Like I said, the jetty in Ferryville looked good.”
“I’ll call tomorrow with a list of what you need to bring.”
Whee-hoo! Finally fishing day is going to happen. Jared, our nephew Jeff(my older brother’s son), and me.
This is going to be amazing.
The Great Mississippi River Fishing Caper, Road Trip 2004
Linx...
The Mississippi River Ouija Boards
Tarot Art Kardz
