Page From the Past

Page from the Past: Churning for Catfish From “Plantation Life Before Emancipation” by R.Q. Mallard In his 1892 memoir “Plantation Life Before Emancipation,” Robert Quarterman Mallard painted a vivid picture...

Page from the Past: Catfish Campfire Chronicles From Scribner’s Monthly, May 1878 In the May 1878 issue of Scribner’s Monthly, a magazine popular from 1870 through 1881, a lively tale...

Page from the Past: The Last of the Big Ones By T.P. Coffin and Henig Cohen   In their 1973 book “Folklore from the Working Folk of America,” T.P. Coffin...

Page From the Past: The Fisherman’s Patience By Izaak Walton The patience required of anglers has been celebrated—and lamented—in countless tales. One such story comes from The Complete Angler by...

Page From the Past: South America’s Piraiba By Theodore Roosevelt In his book Through the Brazilian Wilderness, published in 1914, former president Theodore Roosevelt described the massive piraiba catfish of...

Page From the Past: Mississippi River Fishing As told by Bluegrass Storyteller Chuck Larkin In the 1980s, Chuck Larkin hosted the WPBA-TV variety show “Tonight at Ferlinghetti’s,” a PBS music...

Page From the Past: The Sorrows of the Fisherman By Charles Heber Clark   Charles Heber Clark, though almost forgotten today, was a very successful humorist of the last half...

Page From the Past: A Protest In Volume 89 of the British periodical Punch, dated August 1, 1885, we find published this poetic objection to the proposed introduction of catfish...

  Page From the Past: excerpt from “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” By Mark Twain One of the most-read pieces of catfishing literature would certainly have to be the following...

Page From the Past: Catfish Catching Squirrels By Daniel Mallory   It was in 1842 that Daniel Mallory wrote “Short stories and reminiscences of the last fifty years,” a two-volume...