We were on a day trip two friends and me. We went down to Port Bruce that is on the north coast of Lake Erie. There is a creek that flows into the lake at that point called catfish creek my dad and I spent many quiet days fishing there. There is one location where the road and creek ran side by side along that part they had many large rocks in the creek bank to support the road. My brother and I would walk along the rocks looking into the water which usually muddy to see movements between the rocks if we did we would put our arms in and look for the fish that was causing the movement usually it was what they call a channel cat we would reach under the fish and through the gills and pull it out. The term for that was bulldogging catfish. The day my two friends and I were there we found a man fishing and asked him how was his luck he said it was bad he had been there for 8 hours and had caught nothing. As we began to walk away about twenty feet away I saw the water moving. I reached into the water and pulled out a catfish probably weighting about 4 LS. I walk back and gave it to the fisherman and then we left. I often wonder what he told his family the truth that I just told you or he caught it.
I reckon it don't much matter how he told his story. Seems obvious he didn't know much about grappling catfish and you did. He probably had a story bigger than that fish. Good story.
"Bulldogging a Catfish"…I learn something new everyday on the internet. Thank you for that fun story . Well written, Martin. Like this?
Here in Iowa, we call that "noodling". There was a guy working for the DOT who did that. Trouble is, he was on the job at a location near a pond or stream when he saw water moving near a bank. He went in and came out with a pretty hefty cat. It made our paper, but he was fired.