‘Catfish farming’ is big business in eastern N.C.

Carolina Classics Original Catfish is a brand of farm-raised catfish. The aquaculture company, which originated in 1985, is based in Aden, N.C. It owns and manages 1,200 acres of fish farm ponds in eastern North Carolina, harvesting some 5 million of pounds of catfish a year. 

Joanie Stiers, an agricultural journalist, reports that Carolina Classics is North Carolina’s largest catfish producer, selling primarily fresh to retailers, restaurants and upscale grocers, including Whole Foods Market. 

Rob Mayo, owner of Carolina Classics, said: “We sell our fish to people who want a higher value, consistently good-tasting fish that has a clear traceability in terms of where it’s come from, what it’s been fed and how it’s been raised.” 

Catfish production and processing contribute more than $12 million per year to North Carolina’s aquaculture industry, representing about one-fourth of the total annual volume for all aquacultural products, according to the N.C. Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services (NCDACS). 

Gary Dillon, the fish farms manager at Carolina Classics, said catfish are a favorite meal of bald eagles that have nested near the fish farm ponds. He said that the catfish were first discovered by ospreys, but the eagles swooped in to steal the fish that the ospreys had snatched with their talons. 

“The ospreys moved on; they just got tired of doing all the work and having the eagles claim the spoils,” Dillon said. 

The eagles now are on their own to fish for their dinner. Dillon said: “A two-pound catfish each day is more than enough for a meal for an eagle, and what he doesn’t consume, the vultures and other birds and animals around here will finish,” Dillon said. 

Eagles and vultures are not the only birds that have been drawn to the “catfish cornucopia.” Blue and gray herons, snowy egrets, kingfishers, wood storks and several species of shore birds and ducks – some quite rare — also stake claims to the waters, Dillon said.

 

 

 Catfish, catfish…get ’em from the music man! 

Ranking the best catfish songs of all-time is a challenge, but readers of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette were up to the task recently. 

There are a whole mess of tunes to pick from, because fishing and rural humor are two of the favorite go-to subjects of bluegrass and country music songwriters. 

The very best catfish song may be one that’s been around since 1928, “Fishin’ Blues,” originally recorded by the late Henry Thomas. Taj Mahal’s version in 2004 seems to have set the standard. (Taj Mahal was born as Henry St. Claire Fredericks Jr. in the Harlem neighborhood in New York City’s borough of Manhattan.) Here’s a bit of how it goes:

 Betcha’ goin’ fishin’ all the time;

Baby goin’ fishin’ too.

Bet your life, your sweet wife

Catch more fish than you.

 

Caught a 9-pound catfish;

Now you know I brought him home for supper time.

Put him in the pot, baby, put him in the pan;

Mama, cook him till he nice an’ brown.

I’m a goin’ fishin’…

Yes, I’m goin’ fishin’

And my baby’s goin’ fishin’ too! 

It’s lilt that is familiar to listeners of The Talk Station – FM 107.1, based in Morehead City. “Fishin’ Blues” is the official theme song of the “Dr. Bogus Fishing Show,” which airs at 7:30 a.m. every Monday as part of the “Coastal Daybreak” program.

Another top vote-getter in the Post-Gazette poll was “Catfish Boogie,” written and performed in 1953 by the late Tennessee Ernie Ford (born as Ernest Jennings Ford) in Bristol, Tenn. 

Woke up this morning about half past four.

Who’d I see tiptoeing cross my floor?

My everlovin’ baby with a rod in her hand

Headin’ for the creek called Catfish Land.

 

She threaded a worm right on that hook,

And dropped it in the water in a shady nook.

The bobber jumped when mister whiskers hit;

My gal flipped and throwed a fit.

 

She pulled and tugged and yelled, what’s wrong?

I said, baby he’s a big’n, and that cat’s real gone.

 

We fished for a while, caught a great big mess…

A long string of blue cat happiness. 

The late Don Williams of Floydada, Texas, released “Catfish Bates” in 1992. Here are a few bars from that song, a classic sing-along: 

They call me Catfish Bates

’Cause I can catch a catfish anytime I want to;

Even when the moon man tells me they won’t bite.

Cause I know where that big ole flathead’s a hidin’ and

I’m a gonna take him home with me tonight.

 

Well I get me a…can o’ big ole redworms;

I go down to where the river’s runnin’ strong.

And I’ll have me a big ole flathead ’fore too long. 

Fishing is an international sport, and when you hear the late Slim Dusty (born David Gordon Kirkpatrick) of Nulla Nulla Creek, New South Wales, Australia, sing “A Bad Day’s Fishing,” you can’t help but smile. 

Well the fish ain’t bitin’ but the skeeters are.

Little buggers gone hidin’ – they don’t wanna get caught.

Too nice a day to dangle on the end of a line,

But a bad day’s fishin’ beats a good day’s work everytime.