Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1895-09-27
AGILE SHOVEL CATS.
A STRANGE FISH FOUND IN THE
STREAMS OF ARKANSAS.

A STRANGE FISH FOUND IN THE
STREAMS OF ARKANSAS.
Head on, He Seems to Be All Mouth, but
He Has Wonderful Activity-The Colonel
Tells How These Fish Are Caught and
Relates a Humorous Incident.
A party of congenial and enthusiastic
anglers clustered around the doorway of
an uptown hotel the other evening, and
the talk was of fish and fishing. The one
legged Confederate colonel from Arkansas
had the floor, and offered to tell the crowd
Of a fish they had never heard of, never
seen, never read Of and yet one that would
give a man more fun in an hour than he
could get in a whole seasons fishing for
other trash.
"The grand old critter with which 1
shall make you acquainted, gentlemen
said the colonel, lighting his old clay Pipe
and comfortably elevating his feet, sis the
shovel cat of Arkansas. Now, I don't
mean for a moment to imply that there
are not shovel cats in other states Of the
southwest, for l know that there arc in
Louisiana, in Texas Inc in Missouri plen-
ty of the species, but these are all weak,
poor limitations of the real thing. The
flower, the pride, the cream of the shovel
cat family settled in Arkansas years anf
years ago, and their descendants never &c
back on the brand.
"They are queer fsh-big, u%ngainly,
homely, awkward chaps-and they live in
the Mississippi, and every branch and bay.
GU tributary to that river, where the wa
ter is muddy enough and the bottom sui
fciently well coated with filthy sediment
to come up to the shovelers' standard of
excellence.
Choking at the fish head on he appears
to be all mouth and fin. From q side view
he is not at all bad looking, for his broad,
fat snout shows only it's edge, and appears
like a slender beak. His fins are large and
of slanting cut, and his graceful swallow
tail gives him a very trim, jaunty air. Not
~infrequently these shovelers reach the enor-
nous length Of seven feet and weigh up
to 20 and so pounds.
"No one who glances at the dead fish
will ever credit so clumsy a shape with SO
much agility. He is in decidedly i'll favor
with all tho local fishermen, except those
who hunt his tribe only, for he is an invet-
crate thief and q past master in the art of
stealing bait.
"He does not depend upon robbery for a
living, however. The darby boy who sits
quietly angling for groupcrs in some still
bayou is often frightened by a resounding
splash hard by. He turns to see the widen
ing circle and drifting bubbles where some
big fish has leaped. That was the shovel
fish jump from the water, curling their
hn1ioc en- nc tn noroo dow, with thnir hroo1
bill aimed directly downward. The force
of the plunge drives the shovel into the
mud at the bayou bottom. Out of the scdi-
ment thus stirred up he selects and eats
all the crawling and squirming animalculi
in sight. hen when he has nosed all Of
this lot over he jumps for another diving
dig, and so on for q whole forenoon.
"The flesh of these mud blowers is very
coarse, and none of our folk will eat it,
but under various am q vast quantity
Of it is sold in the markets of St. Louis,
Little Rock and other cities. The negroes
have a way of baking the shoveler in the
mud, and say that, done their way, the
meat is fine, but / don't want to sample
it, all the same. Now and then q shovelcr
is caught Oh hook and line in an attempt
ed bait steal, but they are too smart to be
caught often, SO that method is seldom
tried.
"The real way to knock a days fun out
of the shovel cats is to go spearing. Just
borrow a dugout and a negro to paddle
her and set out for some shoal spot where
the cats can feed. The spear used is a har-
pooh head set in a wooden shaft, SO that
when the iron is, driven home the shaft
can be withdrawn. A big cord Is dashed to
n end of this spaarhead, and the other
end to a log float, so if he yanks out all
the slack line he can't get clean away.
Oh, we seen some rare days spearing in
my time.
three feet Of water. eying the bottom far
ahead. So nearly does the shoveler's color
match the mud that it takes a keen eye tc
spy him out. Once within striking dis
lance, you aim and let drive. The big
creature wallows up out of tho mud in
ngony and leaps above the surface. In an
instant he darts away and with the wings
of the wind. Hold fast and let him tow
the dugout. They're as skittish a craft as
ever was built, mi it's ten to one you'll
be spilled in the chase, but that's part Of
the fun. Many's tho time I've been upset,
dragged down creek and pulled into a
mud bank before l could check q naw
shoveler.
"When there is nothing else pressing in
our region, we all go shovel eating, wom-
en-, children and men, and no matter how
many or how big shovelers we get you can
reckon we have a roaring good time.
"The last and funniest spearing chase
ever I saw was in old South Branch, near
my home. I was home for a few days and
had gone out to try for a few trout (black
bass you call them here). All at once 1
heard q shrill screaming and a great
splashing. Then, coming around a bend
in the bayou was a BALI submerged and
loosely built raft being towed by a big,
mad shoveler. On the raft were two fig
ures, and it wasn't till they got quite
close that I saw they were wolnen They
had taken off what garments they thought
might become wet. I recognized them as
two of the prilnmest old maids in the
whole settlement. One wa SO shocked at
being seen in such a predicament that she
fell of the raft and waded ashore, but the
other was all intent on the chase. She
beokoned to me with her only free arm,
49, r--A 49, g