My dad wasn’t a fisherman.  I’ve never caught a fish--and wouldn’t know how to bait a hook anyway.  But we did go to the Spavinaw dam when they closed the gates and pick fish up--along with hundreds of other people.  Huge fish.

Every now and then they closed the gates on the dam--which left the river bed below (which was rocky) to dry up.  Fish by the hundreds would be caught in little pools of water.  

It was war time, and the crowds were large, waiting for opportunity to get free meat.  We picked up catfish larger than our big dog.

The shore was a mess as fish were cleaned for transport to be dried, smoked and otherwise preserved.  

If you eat catfish now, it is probably farm raised and sweet.  River bottom catfish is not sweet.  They live in mud.  But when you are hungry, you will eat river bottom fish.

Catfish have whiskers.  Long spikes of needles at their nose and mouth.  That’s where they get their name.  The longer they live, the sharper the needles.  My recommendation is to eat farm raised catfish.