gone fishin'

Noodling. This apparently is a preferred method for catching catfish, at least in some parts. It's also illegal in most parts, at least in the United States. And seems kinda wacky to me. It involves going in to a river, looking for holes or hollowed out logs, and sticking your hand in, hoping to grab a catfish.

We used to fish for catfish off the end of the dock in Idaho, with old bamboo fishing poles and little red and white bobbers. It fell to Grandma Mac to clean those suckers, and catfish are not easy to clean. Unlike most fish, they've got skin instead of scales, and that skin has to be peeled off. With pliers. They also bite. And have whisker-like things that can sometimes cut or sting. They also flop around a lot, even after being skinned, decapitated, and filleted. Sometimes even after being skinned, decapitated, filleted, and soaked in milk in a bowl in the fridge over night in preparation for beer-batter catfish pancakes for breakfast the next morning.

Catfish are pretty amazing creatures. Some of them are pretty small, and popular for their vast bottom-feeding, scum-cleaning routines in aquariums. Some of them are albino. Some of them think they're zebras. Some of them prefer to be upside down. And some of them are really, really big.