Arizona republican., 1895-02-17
THE TEXAS CATFISH.
One of the Greatest Fighters of
 the Inland Waters.
A Fish That Is Always Ready for a Bite and One That Puts the Most Seasoned Sportsman on
 His Mettle.

His Mettle.
 "Oh, go way, go way" sighed an old boat the other night, waving a knot of enthusiastic anglers away with both hands Don't talk to me about sl1it- tering for musllellunge, trolling for black bass, and casting for trout and salmon. and every other Texan that knows good thing when he sees it can tell you of a fish that can out-jump and out-measure and outright any swim ming creature you can trot out"
 He was one of the cluster of men gathered in dark corner just abaft the wheelhouse on the upper deck, and the after-dinner chat had wandered around to fun with rod and line. A young fellow had just been recalling some famous days on the Rangeleys in Maine in times before summer hotels and railways and guides had destroyed the wilderness. The enthusiasm with which he dwelt upon the capture of a seven-pounder, it's cat-like rush and leap for the fly, the strike and the fierce fight for freedom, and the gafing by the Indian at the end had stirred the old-time sporting blood of the grizzled cattle king.
 What fish is that?" asked New York Sun man, who is a salmon crank, with a skeptical knock of his pipe against the camp stool.
 ''The channel catfish is the animal I'm speaking about" began the old man, settling down comfortably and tilting his chair back against the wheel house, land in order that there shall be no misunderstanding I want to say right at the beginning that this Texas chapis no relation of your darned slow, stupid, muddy-eyed old pond catfish here in the north. Schoolboys cannot sit on the bank with thread lines tied to twig poles and fish for our cat with bent pins. If they did they would come home wiser and wetter if the tackle held out, for Texan eat could yank good-sized boy into the branch and half-drown him without trouble. All the streams and creeks that lie to the southwest of the Red river in our state contain this game fighter, and those who have caught both fish regard it as far superior in courage, quickness and strength to the black bass. Certainly it's flesh is far more toothsome.
 We hear very little and read less about this species, and many do not know any of the striking differences between this and the common blue eat fish. The channel cat has fins nearly white, sides pale blue and tail very gracefully forked. In shape it is more slender and delicate than the ordinary fish and it is dotted with black all along the body in several lines. It ut ters loud and startling croak when taken from the water as if in hearty protest against it's capture. The flesh is firm, haky ana or @ beautiful salmon tint. It never weighs over six pounds. One of the prettiest ways to charm a channel cat is on silver spinner. You drift down creek with the current late in the afternnon and cast from side to side with about fifty feet of line, Wherever the water twists over rock or wrir 'es around a sunken stump you send your whirling toy, and reel ing slowly in you will eatice any chan neI fish that may be near. One uses long, slender rod and a light silk line, for the tackle must be delicate and strong. Once cat is struck he be- comes veritalole maniac. He surges along the top, and then in circles of bubbles dives to the very bed Of the stream. Along the bottom he will tear at q brealneck pace that makes the reel scream to follow, and if therc be has it's brush and roots and fallen trees) then let your prayer for help ascend. If the channel cat is danger ous fish in clear, swift water, among rocks and tree stumps he is a very devil. A big one will fight for fifteen or twenty minutes before you can kill him. No one ever knew the channel eat to desert a fisherman. You don't have to carry fifteen kinds of bait with you and then always find he wants the sixteenth. He takes what he can get and swallows it deep into mouth as widespreading and affectionate as that .f an earnest revivalist. In rain or szrshine, from April to November, week days, Sundays and legal holidays, the eat is always doing business at the same old stand. He is an honest, plucky fish, and never goes back on his feed, and that is why we old chaps of the cattle lands stand by the channel