Capt. Richard Simms (the author) with his first-ever 30-pound blue catfish
caught August 28, 2004, under the tutelage of his friend, Doug Williams.
Why We Catfish
By Capt. Richard Simms
When I was a kid, my father’s employer owned lake property reserved exclusively for the use of employees. During the summer, we spent nearly every weekend on Chickamauga Lake near Chattanooga, Tennessee, so sure, I grew up fishing.
In my teens and during college, I always had canoes or small johnboats, but it wasn’t until I was out of college in the late 1970s, with a real job (as a game warden), that I could afford to buy an honest-to-goodness fishing boat. Of course, capitalizing on the craze at the time, it was a low-profile bass boat and it served me well.
For nearly 20 years, I was one of those hardcore bass guys. If it wasn’t green with a big mouth, I barely considered it a fish. I lived and fished all over Tennessee, but in 1985, life led me back home to Chattanooga and Chickamauga Lake. With the invasion and proliferation of Eurasian milfoil, Chickamauga Lake had become an excellent bass lake. They weren’t big, but they were plentiful.
But around 1990, something strange happened. In the span of one or two years there was a massive die-off of the Eurasian milfoil. Some blamed the spraying of aquatic herbicides, while others (like me) blamed huge winter floods that literally ripped the milfoil off the bottom by its roots. Whatever the cause, with the aquatic vegetation gone, the bass population crashed.
I did not evolve well. Without weed beds to fish, many anglers learned to find bass on the offshore bite, but not me. I grew frustrated when I couldn’t find aquatics to throw at.
I have always been very honest with myself, sarcastically telling people that “I actually do not like to fish. I do, however, very much like to catch fish.” When the bass fishing began to fail me, I was quick to jump off the bandwagon, telling myself, “Self, you’ve got to find some kind of fish you can catch.”
Enter My Love for Catfish
At that time catfish were still the redheaded stepchildren. Most anglers considered them trash fish, usually cursing if they accidentally hooked one.
Trash or not, I knew catfish were somewhat plentiful, grow big, pull hard and taste good. I set about learning how to target them. It took some time, but slowly I learned how to find and catch cats with regularity. Usually using chicken livers for bait, I routinely kept my freezer full, and my kids grew up eating a lot of catfish fillets.
But over time, as I read and learned more, I realized there was a class of catfish out there I had yet to master. We’re talking trophy catfish.
The definition of “trophy” varies widely, but I consider any catfish over 20 pounds a trophy. And at that time in my life, I had never caught one that size.
Until, through a mutual friend, I met a true trophy catfisherman. For months Doug Williams and I did the regular “dance” that people do before sharing their hunting and fishing secrets. Then on August 28, 2004, he invited me to join him for a day on the water.
It was a revelation. Until that day I only thought I knew how to catfish. Doug taught me that chicken livers are NOT the bait of choice for big catfish, and that, generally, big catfish want big baits.
The first time something ate my eight-inch butterflied bluegill, then my rod tip bowed to the water, and I could barely move the beast from the bottom. I knew I had entered a new and incredible outdoor world.
Doug continued sharing his trophy catfishing lessons with me until he passed away in 2009. But thanks to Doug, and since that first 30-pound blue was captured, catfishing has been my passion.
I still dabble with all the other fish, but for me, the catfish is king.
I took my passion to the next level in 2006, opening Scenic City Fishing Charters. Initially, I advertised that I would take people fishing for anything that swam in the Tennessee River. But partly due to my interests, and largely due to the photographs I posted in my marketing efforts, my business slowly evolved into 80 percent catfishing, 15 percent crappie and 5 percent “other.”
One thing I am most proud of in my life: I am one of many people who have helped move catfish from the world of “trash fish,” into a highly sought-after species that now ranks as the second-most highly sought-after gamefish in numerous states.
More importantly, I have introduced thousands of people to the joys of catfishing. I live for those days when someone hooks their first trophy blue. Every time, without fail, they let out an audible gasp when they catch their first glimpse of the beast. Then they usually groan as the huge fish bores back toward the bottom, peeling drag all the way.
One client—a very rich man who lives in my hometown—has traveled the world in search of exotic trophy fish. Then one day he decided to try catfishing with me. It was a good day, a great day as a matter of fact, and he boated several trophy catfish.
Toward, the end of the day, he turned and said to me with great sincerity, “You know, I have traveled literally around the world and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in search of big fish. And all the while I had absolutely no idea that there were fish like this right here in my own backyard.”
And that, my friends, is why I catfish.
(Capt. Richard Simms is the Editor of our sister publication, CrappieNOW, as well as owner of Scenic City Fishing Charters. Formerly he was a game warden for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency before becoming a photographer and PR guy for TWRA. That lead to a 30-year career as a broadcast journalist and freelance outdoor writer. Follow Capt. Simms other writings on his “Richard’s Ramblings” Facebook page.)
