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bottom-dwelling.” According to Wikipedia, “The
most commonly eaten catfish species in the U.S.
are the channel catfish and the blue catfish (both
are common in the wild and are also farmed).
Farm-raised catfish became such a staple of the
U.S. diet that on June 25, 1987, President Ronald
Reagan established National Catfish Day to
recognize “the value of farm-raised catfish.” Pa
sometimes ate fried catfish for breakfast. He’d
carry canned sardines in his lunchbox to eat
with Saltines.
Dad and Uncle Fred (Dad’s younger and only
sibling) said Pa was tough while they grew up.
They had to work five days a week and at least
a half a day on Saturday before Pa granted them
free time. Pa softened after I arrived. Before age
five, I began fishing with Pa. At first, I’d mess
around on the bank and watch him fish. Paylakes
charged 50 cents per person to fish all day. Some
later charged a dollar, often with no limit on
number of fish caught. One morning at Rollins’
Lake (I was five years old), Pa asked, “You want
to fish?” “Yes!” I said, with heart pounding. Pa
rigged a cane pole and a line with a broken stick
tied on as a “bobber” or cork. “When that stick
goes under the water, you give that pole a jerk,”
Pa said. I caught five eating-size catfish that
day. One was pretty big. When we arrived at my
house, my parents photographed me holding a
stringer of five catfish, plus those Pa caught.
“You caught one for every year you are old,”
Mother said. Her statement seemed to have
a “coming of age” sound to it. Perhaps I had
crossed some kind of bridge on the road to
manhood—and Pa had been there to see me
cross.
Sometimes, just for fun, Pa and I fished for
carp. At age 7, I caught a 3-pound carp with a
cane pole and thought it was going to pull me
into the lake. Carp fight like crazy. Paylakes often
stocked carp in among catfish, but some lakes
maintained separate ponds for them. We used
cotton-and-dough as bait for carp. Ma prepared
softball-size balls of cotton-and-dough in a
shelter one lake side, but Pa has his favorite
spot. I bring back two Pepsis and take a swig.
We brought water from home, but I was waiting
for Pa to buy me a cold carbonated “dope” (Pa’s
name for a soft drink).
On that long-ago summer Saturday, Pa and
I fished at Groces Fishing Lake in Travelers
Rest, SC. Pa worked as a carpenter and parttime
farmer. My family lived near him and
Ma in upper Greenville County, SC. Pa and I
fished at paylakes on many Saturdays during
my childhood summers. A paylake is typically
a pond stocked with farm-raised catfish and
usually some bream, perch, and carp. Patrons
pay for a set amount of fishing time at the lake’s
bait house, where they sell bait, fishing gear,
snacks, and drinks. Paylakes provided fishing for
people such as Pa and me who were less-thanwealthy
Southerners.
My parents worked in textile mills. Dad, a
WWII veteran (U.S. 84th Infantry), married
Mom before fighting in Germany and returning
to buy 13 acres in Taylors, SC. I became their
first baby-boom child in 1947. Three years later,
Shirley, my only sibling, arrived. Dad worked at
Southern Bleachery in Taylors and planned to
farm “on the side” but soon gave up on that. Dad
had little patience for fishing. The war changed
him, Mother said. So, Pa and I became fishing
buddies.
Pa loved eating-size catfish. A catfish is
“a freshwater or marine fish with barbels
resembling whiskers around the mouth, typically
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Pa and Lillian Crain, 1956.
L. Steve Crain with his stringer of five catfish.
pan. She mixed water, flour, cotton, and vanilla
flavoring, as I recall. The cotton held together
the mixture. At the lake, we’d pinch off nickelsize
wads of cotton-and-dough to cover a hook
and throw that bait out as far as an open-face
reel allowed.
We fished for carp with bait resting on the
lake’s bottom (carp are bottom feeders). Carp,
members of the minnow family, grow rapidly
and in captivity may live more than 40 years.
Carp probably came to the U.S. in the mid-
1800s, when fish were imported from Germany
or France. By 1877, the U.S. Fish Commission
stocked carp in lakes and rivers. The common
carp or European carp is a widespread freshwater
carp. Carp are oily, freshwater fish from the
family “Cyprinidae,” a large group of fish native
to Europe and Asia. Goldfish and Koi are carp.
In 1653, Izaak Walton wrote in The Compleat
Angler, "The Carp is the queen of rivers; a
stately, a good, and a very subtle fish; that was
not at first bred, nor hath been long in England,
but is now naturalised.” Some carp species are
listed as invasive in the U.S. I’ve often watched
Pa scrape scales from carp as he cleaned them.
He preferred to catch catfish.
Pa and I spent many Saturdays baiting with
earthworms or shrimp and trying to catch
catfish. Henry David Thoreau said, “Many men
go fishing all of their lives without knowing that
it is not fish they are after.” When, as an adult,
I read that Thoreau statement, I thought of Pa
who died in 1968. He was a quiet Christian who
exuded peace. Someone said “fellowship” is
defined as “two fellows in the same ship going
in the same direction.” Those two fellows can be
the same age, or one can be a child and the other
an “old guy.” I miss fellowshipping with Pa.
Sadly, the term “catfishing” developed to
describe internet predators who fabricate
online identities and entire social circles to trick
people into emotional/romantic relationships,
according to internet sources. Wikipedia explains
where the adapted term “catfishing” came from:
“Catfish” is a 2010 American documentary film
that involves a young man, Nev, being filmed by
his brother and friends, as he builds a romantic
relationship with a young woman on the social
networking website Facebook. (The film led
to an MTV reality TV series, “Catfish: The TV
Show.”) The film is credited with coining the
term “catfishing”: a type of deceptive activity
involving a person creating a fake social
networking presence for bad purposes. In the
film, “Catfish,” the husband of the “catfish,”
Vince, relays a story of how when live cod
were shipped to Asia from North America, the
fish’s inactivity in their tanks resulted in only
mushy flesh reaching the destination. However,
fishermen found that putting catfish in the tanks
with the cod kept them active, and thus ensured
the quality of the fish. Vince implies that his
wife Angela acts as a catfish, keeping the lives of
those around her interesting. The title of the film
is based on this dialogue, and is where the term
“to catfish” is derived.
I am saddened that the word “catfish” now
means, for many people, something derogatory.
But that word brings back wonderful memories
to me—memories of fishing with Pa. ☐
p.26 The Pinehurst Gazette, Inc. No. 135
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