CAYTON'S WEEKLY — NOVEMBER 30, 1918
(Written Friday, after Thanksgiving)
There are some pretty large cat fish in the Mississipi river and its tributaries and I am inclined to think that persons who have fished for Mississippi mud cats, have not always stuck to the truth in describing their catch, and it is perfectly natural for one big fish story to call for a bigger one and with willing listeners its not long coming.
“One day as I was rowing up the creek in my canoe (a small tributary of the Mississippi) on my way home after having a poor day's catch) ”said an old-time river fisherman, “all of a sudden the water began to bubble and foam and I slowed down to see what was the trouble, and almost before I could say Jack Robinson a monstrous catfish shot out of the water at a terriffic force and fell in my boat. It's flopping up and down almost wrecked my rather frail craft and observing my danger I began beating the fish over the head with my oar and continued doing so until it was sufficiently stunned to warrant no further trouble and then began to pull for home, but as I did so a vicious aligator shot his head out of the water and with its big red eyes looked daggers at me. That cat tipped the beam [weighed in] at 250 pounds, which gave me one of the finest catches I had enjoyed for a long, long time.” My friend told the above story just as earnestly as if he had not had a full gallon of John Barleycorn in the boat with him that morning when he left for his fishing field.
