Catfish

The second-most popular fish taken from fresh water across the United States is the catfish, an ugly scavenger that can hit baits like a freight train and outfight America's most popular catch, the black bass.As the summer warms, fishing for cats in fresh and tidal rivers picks up in Maryland as catfish become more active and concentrate in areas with heavy bottom structure.Fishing for cats doesn't require the gear or finesse that fishing for black bass does, but attention to a few basic details can make catching them easier.

Trap, skeet and sporting clays are popular shooting sports throughout Carroll County, and as with many sports you have to exercise caution.Last week I shot a couple of practice rounds of trap at the North Carroll Gun Club. During one round I barely missed getting hit in the eye by a stray pellet that must have bounced off a claybird. As luck would have it, I was looking down and the pellet glanced off the bill of my hat.That was the first time such an incident had ever happened to me while shooting trap.

SAIL FOR SIGHTTomorrow evening, more than 600 sailors from the Baltimore-Annapolis area will race in the 5th annual Sail For Sight Regatta on the Inner Harbor in a fund-raiser for the RP (retinitis pigmentosa) Foundation Fighting Blindness.Racing begins at 4 p.m.SPANISH MACKEREL PLANThe Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and the Mid Atlantic Fisheries Management Council have determined that spanish mackerel are in need of conservation and recommend the establishment of comparable fishing limits among member states.

1993 Catfish Tournament runs through Sept. 12The 1993 Catfish Tournament, sponsored by the Pasadena Sportfishing Group and the Fish-n-Barrell tackle shop, will run through 5 p.m. Sept. 12.Fish caught anywhere are eligible, and six prizes will be awarded.For more information, call 255-3678 or 544-4867.Man, 27, dies while working on boatA 27-year-old man died Wednesday as he worked on a boat at Jack's Marine Service in Greenland Beach, police reported.Brian Joseph Rutkowski, of the 8400 block Miramar Road, slipped under the water as he washed the boat at the marina in the 400 block of Greenland Beach Road about 5:30 p.m., police said.

Seems we have been waiting all summer for bluefish to get close enough to the Baltimore area to make a half-day boat trip worthwhile.Blues from 2 to 3 pounds have been scattered in the area from the Bay Bridge to the Stone Rock off the mouth of the Choptank River for a couple of weeks, but at the end of last week, the blues seemed to school up in larger groups and the fishing has picked up.On Thursday and Friday evenings off the mouth of the Severn River,...

The worms were squishy, the chicken livers were gross and the catfish were biting yesterday at the fifth annual Fishing Rodeo at the Westminster Community Pond.Seven-year-old Corey DeShong of Westminster was named grand champion for skillfully using a chicken liver to snag a 20 1/2 -inch catfish, the best catch of the day. He earned a bright blue trophy with a large, gold-colored bass flipping its fins on top and gift certificates to three pizza restaurants.His winning entry actually was recorded at 21 1/2 inches because organizers gave fishermen an extra inch if they threw their catches back.

The back of the '59 Chevy truck has become a little house, with painted screen walls and metal roof. Inside, sitting onblocks of ice on a sawdust-covered floor, a sculpture of a big, old catfish stares out the back. He has sections of rubber tubing from a car's engine for whiskers and a piece of a tire for a fin. Alison Saar, who thought him up, stands at the back of the truck and sings her version of an Arabber's call:Clear, clear, clear blue water,Bright, bright, bright blue sky,Catfish, catfish dreamin',Catfish dreamin',Won't you come and buy?

THE FISHING REPORT**** EXCELLENT*** GOOD** FAIR* POOR .. .. .. .. .. SALT WATER .. .. .. .. .. .. .. OceanInshore *** 1/2 In Ocean City, the route 50 bridge, the flats behind the Thoroughfare and the Throughfare have been very good for flounder three to five pounds. Live minnows and squid have been best baits. Surf action has been off somewhat with lesser numbers of bluefish from two to five pounds being taken on cut mullet or mackerel at Assateague and North Ocean City.Offshore *** The Southeast Lumps have been producing bluefish up to 10 pounds and the Jackspot has turned up a few bonito.

The other night I was on my best behavior. I was a guest at a gentlemen's dining club, the Cork and Fork Society.I got dressed up. I rehearsed which fork to use to attack which morsel, and which wine glass to use. Then I got to the dinner and ate catfish with my fingers and drank beer.The appetizer was Look Chin Bla with Nam Jim Tang Qua, a Thai dish that translates into catfish patties in cucumber sauce. It was quite good, and unlike some of the Thai dishes that followed, the catfish did not attempt to burn off the top two inches of the skin of my tongue.

IF YOU ARE ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE who gets hysterical when someone is invited to dinner, relax and listen to Lee Bailey.Sure, you say, it's easy for him. He's an interior designer and a wonderful cook, who has produced a slew of cookbooks that are beautiful enough to push Martha Stewart's tomes right off the coffee table.But this oh-so-charming Southern gentlemen who retains his Louisiana charm despite his sophisticated years in the Big Apple asks you to look more closely at those beautiful photographs in his nine books on food and entertaining.

Where would we be without wacky, the fuel that runs the news business? Never a "d'oh" moment? Perish the thought. Isn't that right, Plaxico Burress, Rod Blagojevich and Roger Clemens? As we steel ourselves for the plunge into 2009, when we'll celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles "Survival of the Fittest" Darwin, here is a look back at some of the wacky outdoors acts of 2008, ripped from the pages of notebooks, cocktail napkins and newspapers around the country. * The year began with a story from Chaparral, N.M.: Two men trying to trace the outline of a loaded .357-caliber Magnum on their bodies as a pattern for a tattoo accidentally shot themselves, the Otero County Sheriff's Department reported.

A Miracle of Catfish Larry Brown Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill / 455 pages / $24.95 For 16 years, Larry Brown's highly praised novels, short stories and nonfiction illuminated the brutally hard, funny and sometimes magical realities of his native Mississippi. In his sixth novel, A Miracle of Catfish, the book nearing completion when Brown died in 2004, he gives us old men and fathers as fiercely competent as they are murderous, and a factory maintenance man who can't do one blessed thing right, especially when it comes to fathering his wonderful little boy. There are considerably fewer Mississippi wives and daughters in the novel than there are male points of view about the women's attributes and responsibilities (a light touch when cooking biscuits matters, in other words)

Into the Vietnamese Kitchen By Andrea Nguyen Curry Cuisine Fragrant Dishes From India, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia By Corinne Trang DK Publishing / 2006 / $25 I gew up in a household of Indian immigrants, so I'm a born and bred curry aficionado. So the red chili peppers and the bold pink "Curry Cuisine" lettering on this cookbook were an immediate draw. The book includes 180 recipes from more than a dozen regions of the world, including India, Thailand, Myanmar and Laos. If you're not a fan of the traditional soupy, fiery curries of South Asia, don't worry.

INDIANOLA, Miss. -- In 1983, when Sarah Claree White joined the kill line at the Delta Pride Catfish processing plant, the workers' lives were so dominated by stopwatches that even their restroom visits were timed. White male supervisors often followed the workers - nearly all of them black women - into the bathrooms with timers to make sure they didn't stay too long. White was one of the catfish workers who began the fight for change in the growing industry, demanding medical benefits, job security and a work environment free of sexual harassment.

Boy made threats, prosecutors say An 8-year-old boy charged with shooting a 7-year-old day care classmate in the arm had previously made threats involving guns, including shooting police and killing another person, prosecutors said yesterday. The boy also was influenced by a violent video game given to him by his father, who prosecutors allege introduced the boy to guns. The father, John L. Hall Sr., is accused of showing his son how to use the .38-caliber handgun used in the shooting the night before the incident.

"I just think of big ugly fish with whiskers," one colleague responded when this menu was announced. But she gave it a thumbs up for delicate flavor after a sample. If an advertising campaign can succeed in upgrading the lowly prune into dried plums, I say it's time to gather a marketing team to come up with a catchy new name for catfish. In the meantime, if you plan to feed doubters, you could refer to this refreshing dish as fish fillets with tomatoes and pecans. Tips: Pecan toasting isn't mandatory.

Yesterday Triple-A International League Hagerstown 3, Columbus 2: The host Suns (14-21) scored two runs in the sixth to down the Catfish (19-15). Today Triple-A International League Richmond at Ottawa, 6:05 p.m. Double-A Eastern League Bowie at Trenton, 1:35 p.m. Single-A Carolina League Frederick at Kinston, 7:05 p.m. Single-A South Atlantic League Savannah at Delmarva, 3:05 p.m. Columbus at Hagerstown, 7:05 p.m.

PHILADELPHIA - Science has only just discovered the Chiapas catfish, but the people of remote southern Mexico have known it for years - as dinner. Scientists at Philadelphia's Academy of Natural Sciences recently declared the Mexican catfish not only a new species but the lone representative of an entirely new family of fish - one of only half a dozen new fish families identified over the last century. `Striking discovery' "It's a very striking discovery," said Richard Vari, a zoologist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.

WARSAW, Va. - Charles Lewis is the Warsaw fish whistler, but to the catfish in his creek, he needs no introduction. They are jumping out of the water by the dozens, striking their best "Flipper" poses and swimming about in a splashy display of rubbery lips and whiskers. Lewis blows another long blast on his orange dog whistle, and the surface of the tidal creek erupts again as he steps out on his dock and casts a handful of fish food pellets into the fray. The catfish gulp and guzzle the floating pellets, vacuuming them off the surface while the ghostly forms of other catfish flash in and out of sight in the depths.

The locations Piney Run: For the regular park entrance fee plus $3, you can fish until midnight tonight at the park. Channel cats in the 3- to 7-pound range are taking chicken livers and live baits, says Loren Lustig at the park office. A 36-inch tiger musky was caught and released from the boat docks. And those "tanker" bluegills (we're talking 10 inches) are continuing to delight kids and their folks. Prettyboy Reservoir: The bass are in 20 to 25 feet of water, says guide Duke Nohe.