Those who inhabit football message boards on the Internet are an interesting breed. The regulars seem to spend hours a day on the boards. They're Don Rickles impersonators, trying out their best one-liners on each other at all hours.
Following a column I wrote last month about University of Arkansas football games in Little Rock, I was advised that a poster on a message board said I should "stick to writing about catfish." So let's do just that. Let's talk catfish.
Arkansas' Keith "Catfish" Sutton has a new book, Hardcore Catfishing. Yes, Sutton has the nickname "Catfish" due to his knowledge of catfishing and the millions of words he has written about the sport. Sutton has pursued catfish from Arkansas to Mexico to the Amazon. He's a former editor of Arkansas Wildlife and his stories have appeared in national magazines ranging from Outdoor Life to Field & Stream.
Prior to the 1960s' largemouth bass fishing boom, Americans "always looked upon catfish as highly desirable sport and food fish," Sutton writes. "That changed when bass tournaments became the rage and anglers began focusing more attention on trout, walleye and other fish. Catfish anglers became nonentities. Most tackle manufacturers ignored them. The outdoor media snubbed them. Some even tried to shame them. All the while, however, Americans continued catfishing.
"Throughout the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, catfish maintained their position as the country's third most popular fish. Only black bass and panfish were more in demand. Such is still the case today. In recent years, anglers, manufacturers and media realized they no longer could ignore these whiskered pole-benders' many positive attributes. Catfish are widespread, abundant, grow large (130 pounds and heavier), eagerly take a variety of baits, fight hard and are delicious. What's not to like?"
When I was this newspaper's political editor in the early 1990s, we had great fun covering a battle between legislators over a proposal to name the largemouth bass the official state fish. Those supporting catfish, bream and crappie objected. The late James O. Powell, the longtime editorial page editor of the Arkansas Gazette, enjoyed fishing for bream on Lake Conway and would refer to the largemouth bass in print as the "loudmouth bass."
During the 2009 legislative session, state Rep. Gregg Reep of Warren introduced legislation to designate the blue catfish as the state's official fish. The bill fell one vote shy of passage in the House State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee, leading The Associated Press to write that it "failed by a whisker." Reep said his son, a 20-year-old college history major at the time, had suggested that he sponsor the bill. The defeat came on a Friday when fried catfish was the special at the cafeteria in the basement of the state Capitol. Arkansas remains without an official state fish.
I fall in the catfish camp. Not only is it popular with anglers, Arkansas is a leading state for catfish farming. Ninety-four percent of all catfish raised in the country comes from Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas and Louisiana. An organization known as Catfish Farmers of Arkansas was established in 1975. In 1999, the Legislature established the Arkansas Catfish Promotion Board to promote the growth of the catfish industry. And then there's the fact that catfish restaurants are a staple in every part of Arkansas.
Though the industry has been in decline in recent years, Arkansas can claim that it was the birthplace of commercial catfish farming. At least two farms were selling catfish in the late 1950s. By 1966, Arkansas had 4,500 acres devoted to catfish ponds and three processing plants as farm-raised catfish began to replace fish caught in the state's rivers by commercial fishermen. Though Mississippi raises far more catfish than Arkansas, Arkansas leads the nation in per-capita consumption of catfish, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture.
Catfish production has dropped from a high of more than 25,000 acres to about 6,000 acres. Catfish farmers are hopeful they will be helped by a labeling law approved by the Legislature earlier this year. It requires retailers and restaurants to label catfish and similar fish produced in other countries as "imported."
Though we don't raise as many as we used to, the number of people who fish for catfish and the number of people who eat catfish in Arkansas remain large. Sutton estimates there are 235,000 catfish anglers in the state.
"Most catfish anglers reside in the South or Midwest where catfish are most plentiful," he writes. "The fewest live in the Northeast and West, which are regions at the periphery of catfish range with fewer fish available. ... Catfishing is extremely varied. Participants fish night and day, year-round, for big fish and small, from boats and shore, using natural and artificial baits."
I've fished for catfish with a rod and reel, on trotlines and on jugs. And I've eaten more than my share. No fish says "Arkansas" like the catfish.
Everyone from "Catfish" Sutton to the folks on the football message boards should be able to agree on that.
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Freelance columnist Rex Nelson is the director of corporate communications for Simmons First National Corp. He's also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.
Editorial on 10/07/2015