Daily Kennebec journal., 1895-09-05
AGILE SHOVEL CATS.
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 q Humorous Incident.

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 fish they had never heard of, never
seen, never read of and yet one that would
give man more fun in an hour than he
could get in u whole seasons fishing for
other trash.
"The grand old critter with which
shall make you acquainted, gentlemen"
said the colonel lighting his cid CLAY pine
and comfortably elevating his feet, sis the
shovel cat of Arkansas Now. 1 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 are in
. Louisiana, in Texas and in Missouri plcn-
ty of the species. but these arc all weak,
poor limitations of the real thing. The
flower, the pride, the cream of the shovel
cat family settled in Arkansas years and
years ago, and their descendants never go
back on the brand.
"They are queer fish-big, ungainly,
homely, awkward chaps-and they live in
the Mississippi, and every branch and bay
on tributary to that river where the wa
ter is muddy enough and the bottom suf-
tlciently we'll coated with filthy sediment
to come up to the shoyelers' standard of
excellence.
Looking 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
fiat snout shows only its edge, and appears
1i1-n c1on1nr hoo1y NJ l., 4
of slanting cut, and his graceful swallow
tail gives him very trim, jaunty air. Not
infrequently these shovclers reach the enor-
nous length of seven feet and weigh up
to 20 and 80 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 darky boy who sits
quietly angling for groupers in some still
bayou is often frightened by 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
cat, and he was simply feeding. The great
fish jump from the water, curling their
bodies SO as to como down with their broad
bill aimed directly downward. The force
of the plunge drives the shovel into the
mud at the bayou bottom. Out of the sedi-
ment thus stirred up he selects and cats
all the crawling and squirming animalculi
in sight. Then when he has noscd all of
this lot over he jumps for another diving
dig, and SO on for whole forenoon.
"The flesh of these mud plowers is very
coarse, and mono of our folk will eat it,
but under various names vast quantity
of it is sold in the markets of St. Louis,
Littlo Rock and other cities. The negroes
have way of baking the shovelcr 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 shovclcr
is caught on hook and line in an attempt
cd bait steal, but they arc too smart to be
caught often, so that method is seldom
tried.
"Tho real way to knock days fun out
of the shovel cats is to go spoaring. Just
borrow u dugout and u negro to paddle
her and set out for somc shoal spot where
the cats can feed. The spear used is har-
poon head set in wooden shaft so that
when the iron is driven home the shaft
can be withdrawn. A big cord is lashcd to
one end of this spcarhcad, and the other
end to n log float, so if he yanks out all
the slack limo he can't get clean away
On, I've seen some rare days spearing in
my time.
"You drift along the bayou in about
three feet of water. oying the bottom far
ahead. So nearly does the shovelcr's color
match tho mud that it takes keen ego to
spy him out. Once within striking dis
tance, you aim and let drive. The big
creature wallows up out of the mud in
agony 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 craft as
ever was built, and it's ten to one you'll
be spilled in the chase, but that's part of
the fun Many's the time I've been upset,
dragged down creek and pulled into q
mud bank before 1 could check runaway
shovclcr
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 shovelcrs we get you can
reckon we have u roaring good time.
Tho last and funniest spcaring chase
ever l saw was in cid South Branch, near
my home. l was homo for a few days and
had gone out to try for few trout (black
bass you call them here). All at once I
heard shrill screaming and great
splashing. Then, coming around a bond
in the bayou was balf submerged and
loosely built raft being towed by big,
mad shoveler. On the raft were two fig
urcs, and it wasn't till they got quite
close that I saw they were women. They
had taken off what garments they thought
might become wet. l recognized chem as
two Of the primmest old maids in the
whole settlement. One was so shocked at
being seen in such predicamcnt that she
fell off the raft and waded ashore but the
other was all intent on the chase She
beckoned to me with her only free arm,
and nearly lost her balance doing so, for
the line was tied around her waist, and
the cat made fresh squirt and she yelled"
here the colonel laughed till he cried at
the recollection of the scene-''sho yelled:
Get round here, you man, an help hol
this shovel nose, std er lookin at mo.
Once lemme git this fish safe an yer may
look at me all ther afternoon an tcrmor-
rerr New York Times