by Mark McDonald
There are times when a story is not told until the statute of limitations expires, or the participants are happily in Heaven. This is one of those stories.
The different species of catfish that exist in Texas’ waters are channel catfish, blue catfish, flathead catfish, brown bullhead catfish, and black bullhead catfish. Flathead, blue cat and channel catfish are classified as game fish. There are size and possession limits on these species when caught in public waters. There is absolutely no size or possession limit on brown bullhead, or black bullhead catfish, often called mudcats. The black bullhead taste muddy, has a real white belly and red meat and almost never weighs over ¾ of a pound. The brown bullhead weighs up to 4 pounds and, if dressed properly, can be excellent eating. Most people that catch them in a lake or clear pond think they are big mudcats and won’t eat them. In a lake, they are blackish or dark brown but in a sandy creek or sandy river they are a rich yellow color. So, your average fisherman thinks it’s a different species of catfish that’s yellow, and the same fish is called a yellow cat. Outdoorsmen brag about how good they taste and fight but what they don’t recognize is, it is the same brown bullhead catfish they threw away off the trotline in the lake and didn’t cook.
Many years ago, a church between Emory, Texas and Sulfur Springs had an annual outdoor catfish fry fundraising dinner. It was a tradition for over 50 years and one rancher, “Jack”, would seine channel catfish out of his pond every April and donate 50 pounds of prime catfish fillets. I had helped him seine the channel cat every year from age 16 to 25 and we always had enough channel catfish for the church social fundraiser. We always seined three days before the church event to be sure our catch was fresh.
One particular year we came up short … we only harvested 20 pounds of channel catfish. Jack said, “Mark, I know you can catch catfish but the possession limit on public lake is only 10 fish, and we need over 100 fish. What can we do?” I answered, “Jack, I can go to the river or creek and catch 10 channel cat and over 100 yellow catfish. You know they taste good and once we fillet them, no one will know the difference.” Jack said, “Do you think you can catch that many?” I answered, “The rivers and creeks are rising, and it’s supposed to storm. I can catch that many yellow cats or more. Trust me. Don’t go spend lots of money on store-bought fish, I’ll catch them after work tomorrow and won’t quit until we have enough fish.”
At the time, I worked for a surveyor in Canton. All day I tried to guess where the best place would be to catch yellow catfish. The Sabine River I had fished with medium luck and Neches River with medium luck, but I knew with water rising I would do better on a good sized sandy bottom creek. As we were driving the backroads between survey jobs, we crossed a bridge over Kickapoo Creek just North of a town called Brownsboro, Texas, named after the Kickapoo Indians that once inhabited the area. It looked like a honey hole from the FM Highway and had a bridge to keep me out of the rain since a storm was brewing.
After work, I brought three rod and reels, a dead rabbit, chicken hearts, shrimp, and worms and set up under the bridge. The fish were biting so fast I could only fish with one rod and reel because I couldn’t keep up with all three of them. Over the next three hours, I caught 135 yellow catfish that averaged 1 ½ pounds up to 3 ½ pounds and I also caught 25 channel catfish and released 15 to have my legal possession limit. They weighed from two pounds to seven pounds. It stormed and rained so hard that the creek came up 4 ft while I was fishing. I just threw each fish in the bed of the truck since it was parked in the rain. I was afraid it would get too wet to drive out, so I quit fishing and headed to Jack’s place North of Emory to get some help cleaning fish. We cleaned and fillet 25 pounds of catfish fillets, along with the yellow cats. We were both ecstatic and happy at the bountiful fishing trip the Lord gave me.
That Saturday, at the church social and fish fry, everyone enjoyed the yellow catfish, and some liked it better than the channel catfish. We cooked them separate and were honest about it. I got a lot of compliments from the farmers and ranchers who knew I “saved the day.” Monday, the sun was shining, and I was surveying, and I bragged to my boss about finding the world’s greatest fishing spot and all the fish I caught. My boss said, “Mark, which bridge was that across Kickapoo Creek you fished under in the storm?” I told him which FM bridge it was. He started laughing, and laughing, and laughing, and had to pull the truck over. His laughter got way out o’ hand. He said, “Mark, did you see that six-foot chain-link fence on top of a dam just North of the creek on a hill?” I said, “Yeah – was that a channel catfish farm or what? The water was sure flooding out o’ the emergency spill pipe.” He said, “No Mark! That’s the sewage treatment plant for the town. You were fishing 100 yards below it. Those fish were coming upstream to eat sewage treatment overflow! Did you eat those fish yet?” I said “Yes! Most of the population of Emory, Texas and all of one church ate those fish!”
Well, 42 years later most of those people are in Heaven. Jack lived to be 96 and his wife 98 and no-one got sick from it. I just now got the courage to tell everyone my big blunder and it just goes to show the Bible is right. You can eat anything if you bless it with thanksgiving. So, you folks start or keep a tradition and thank God for your food and bless it properly before each meal. It may save your life as well as your soul.
By the way, I’ve always wondered, is that creek really named after an Indian tribe or something else? That’s all I can say about yellow cats at Kick a’ Poo Creek.
