BS: What's A Mudcat?

Subject: RE: BS: What's A Mudcat?
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 Dec 05 - 05:19 PM

Gill netting? Fish poisoning? Fish traps? Dynamiting? Seining? Tickling? Shooting 'em with a rifle? Gigging? Using a fish wheel?

Shucks, I know all the tricks. A trotline's a bit different, though, than tossing a handful of fish poison in the crick.

Actually, if I go fishing I want to either a) catch and eat them or, b) catch and release them. And not necessarily in that order.

Subject: RE: BS: What's A Mudcat?
From: gnu
Date: 22 Dec 05 - 05:05 PM

Ah, we care to catch our fish and get em in the boat, or onshore, where we kill em immediately sos they don't suffer any more than necessary. You do what you want... just don't tell me about that kinda thing. Unless it's to abate hunger.

Now. I seen a hungry fellah throw his fishin line up in the air with colourful flowers on the hook and reel in a seagull... but... he was damn hungry. The squirrels he was catchin just didn't feed the pups. Cruel? Yup. Don't got nothin against, though.

Subject: RE: BS: What's A Mudcat?
From: Peace
Date: 22 Dec 05 - 04:42 PM

Catfish have more names than Bush has apologists.

Subject: RE: BS: What's A Mudcat?
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 Dec 05 - 04:36 PM

All you have to do to catch 'em is to get an empty gallon jug and close the cap up tight. Tie a weight to it, like a concrete block, to anchor it to the bottom (measure the rope, dummy!). Do the same with another jug, or use a tree on shore, and run a line between 'em. Tie lines of varying lengths to the horizontal line, and put weights, hooks, and corks on 'em (you can skip the corks if you want). Bait the hooks with stinkbait (raw liver, flour and cheese all mushed together and left buried for about 3 days works pretty good) or doughballs (bread and cheese mushed together). Check you lines every few hours.

Or toss handlines from the bank, baited as above.

Gad, these Canadians don't even know how to run a decent trotline....

Subject: RE: BS: What's A Mudcat?
From: gnu
Date: 22 Dec 05 - 01:32 PM

Hey, Rap... are they as easy to catch as these?

Subject: RE: BS: What's A Mudcat?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 22 Dec 05 - 12:05 PM

People interested in acoustic and/or trad music...

who cannot be expected to agree on anything or to follow any rules...

and who are infinitely gifted in cooperative approaches to the important things in life (chiefly music and food)...

with whom others may not exactly AGREE, but with whom folks can comfortably anticipate they will DISAGREE about the same topics...

and with whom one can clean a kitchen, move furniture, and share sleeping space with no harm, serious breakage, or fatally trampled toes.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: What's A Mudcat?
From: Amos
Date: 22 Dec 05 - 11:55 AM

I don't think there are any Tartars amongst the Mudcat population, so why would you?


A

Subject: RE: BS: What's A Mudcat?
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 Dec 05 - 11:54 AM

And DON'T use any (shudder!) tartar sauce....

Subject: RE: BS: What's A Mudcat?
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 22 Dec 05 - 11:30 AM

Also known as a bullhead, closely related to catfish, but not what fishermen usually call a catfish.

See this thread and other threads that you can link to from there. There are also links to sites with informative articles and pictures.

Subject: RE: BS: What's A Mudcat?
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 Dec 05 - 09:06 AM

And them bottom-dwelling catfish are good eatin', too. Clean 'em, skin 'em (no scales, which is somehow appropriate), roll 'em in cornmeal, fry 'em up, and eat 'em hot. Make some hush puppies if you must, but cole slaw or cornbreads is good company.

You can catch mudcats all along the Mighty Mississippi, the best river in the world (and I include the Thames, the Liffey, the Seine, the Snake, the Red, the Missouri [second best], the Hudson, the Columbia, the Detroit, the Portneuf, the Cuyahoga, the Ohio, the Monoghehela, the Potomac, the Colorado, the Rappahanock, the Republican, the Rio Bravo, the Sacramento, the Susquehanna, the Allegheny, and all the rest of them).

Subject: RE: BS: What's A Mudcat?
From: MMario
Date: 22 Dec 05 - 08:39 AM

I was prepared to get all esoteric...so maybe I will anyway.

what is a Mudcat?

A mudcat is someone shaking in their boots who sings in public the first time;

A Mudcat is the person who records a sing along and then sends out copies of it to all the attendees;

A mudcat is a man who has warmed the hearts of people enough that when he is ill prayers and good wishes flow to him from around the world - though most of those people have never met him or even spoken with him.

A Mudcat is a dedicated researcher who posts meticulous research on songs or tunes;

A Mudcat is a wise cracking joker who manages to post down home wisdom vieled in humour;

Mudcats are couples who have come together; children born, and Mudcat is final farewells.

Mudcat is a cross section of humanity at its best and sometimes at its worst - it is the mediocre and the sublime, joy and sorrow.

Subject: RE: BS: What's A Mudcat?
From: Azizi
Date: 22 Dec 05 - 06:51 AM

Bev and Jerry, thanks for the words to that song!

The caption at the bottom of that linked page identified "Rag Mop" as a 1950s hit so I guess I was around then..That means I'm not as young as I think {Well, not all the time anyway}.

And as to Severn's description of a Mudcat being "thicker and squatter, a lighter brown color with a yellowish tinge to it and have a flat tail", I started to write that I don't completely resemble that description, but I remembered that Severn was talking about a Mudcat and not a [specific]Mudcatter.

LOL!

;0}}

Subject: RE: BS: What's A Mudcat, Anyway?
From: Severn
Date: 22 Dec 05 - 02:39 AM

If you're fishing in the Potomac, you have two types of catfish to choose from, the Channel Cat and the Mudcat (0r Yellow Cat). The Channel Cats are longer thinner and are a dark brown with a bluish tinge to it, have a forked tail and are considered the more edible of the two. The Mudcats are thicker and squatter, a lighter brown color with a yellowish tinge to it and have a flat tail.

Actually, I guess you don't choose them, so much as they choose you
(or your worm, chicken liver, or whatever).

Subject: RE: BS: What's A Mudcat?
From: Bev and Jerry
Date: 22 Dec 05 - 02:00 AM

OK, youngster. The song is called Rag Mop.

Bev and Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: What's A Mudcat?
From: Azizi
Date: 21 Dec 05 - 09:14 PM

My bad! I meant to say "Mad props to all who posted so far especially to Amos and gnu" [since-no disrespect to anybody else-but I just dug their answers the best=so far anyway].

BTW-
maybe I should have asked "Who's a Mudcat" and people could have gotten all esoteric with their answers.

But literal is cool too.

It's all good {well, most of it anyway}.

Peace out!

Azizi

Subject: RE: BS: What's A Mudcat?
From: Azizi
Date: 21 Dec 05 - 09:04 PM

Thanks and mad props to Amos and gnu for runnin the history of this joint. That was heavy, man! I'd go so far as to say it was out of site!!

But dig this-for some reason after I wrote out that question, this old timey song popped up in my head-at least I think it's a song-I'm singin it in my head but I haven't got a clue where it came from and I'm not even sure if it is even a real song or not since it is before my time-waaay before my time I think..anyway the real song is called "Rag Muff"- {I think that's the name of the song} But the words that came to me got changed up to this:

M-U-DD
C-A-TT
Mudd
Catt
Muddcatt
Mudcatt

{So I hear some of you smarty pants sayin how I added an extra "d" and an extra "t" to the spellin of Mudcat. Yeah-I know. But there's a method to my madness. It works better with the tune that way}

So, yeah I'm trippin. I know that too. As a matter of fact I'm on a round trip...

And sometimes trips are healthy for you.

Subject: RE: BS: What's A Mudcat?
From: gnu
Date: 21 Dec 05 - 08:18 PM

A Mudcat is a cat bathed in the Mud of the Mississippi. This river begins in two Canadian provinces and flows through the most free nation on earth, the United States of America. Along it's way it carries the rich history and folklore and folk music of many varied cultures, who came from the four corners of the world to share with each other, in peace and harmony. It is a muddy river... convoluted... and, as such, is rich in nourishment... for the soul.

Subject: RE: BS: What's A Mudcat?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 21 Dec 05 - 08:13 PM

Bottom-feeding, mud-dwelling catfish.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: What's A Mudcat?
From: Amos
Date: 21 Dec 05 - 08:04 PM

A particular kind of catfish found in the Mississippi Delta waters. Thus, the symbol for the Delta and the blues music that came from the Delta, the reallllll blues.

When the Mudcat site, dedicated to blues, took on the Digital Tradition, it made perfect sense (in a way that only Max makes sense) to have a catfish jumping out of a banjo, as a sort of union between the blues and folk music in general.

So there ya go!


A

Subject: RE: BS: What's A Mudcat?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 21 Dec 05 - 07:51 PM

There have been at least a few threads on this, some with some pretty good info.

Lots of places use the name for some small catfish, but the specific catfish varies from one locale to another in "vernacular" usage. The big guys responsible for proper naming of stuff restrict their usage to one - or a few - specific varieties of catfish; but hardly anyone else pays much attention to them.

For practical use here, I'd say it's that critter jumping out of the banjo at the top of the page.

John

Subject: RE: BS: What's A Mudcat?
From: pdq
Date: 21 Dec 05 - 07:36 PM

...also called a "catfish"...

Subject: BS: What's A Mudcat?
From: Azizi
Date: 21 Dec 05 - 07:32 PM

So what's a mudcat anyway?