CHAPTER IV -- FAUNA AND FLORAY (Cont'd)
FISH.
Fishing in Shelby county has never been of great consequence nor has it ever been a highly absorbing sport. In the early days the little streams had chubs and suckers and a few "shiners" or "silver-sides." In the ponds were found bullheads, with an occasional channel catfish, which latter has apparently always been in the streams, although it does not appear to have been frequently caught by the early pioneers, who possibly did not understand the proper sort of bait to be used for catching it or were not aware of its presence in the smaller streams of Shelby county. The channel catfish have been caught in large numbers for the last five to ten years and occasionally before that time. Many years ago a catfish weighing about seventy-five pounds was caught after lodging in the Chatburn dam, near Harlan. That was long before there was any general effort to catch this fish. One of the earliest men to discover the channel catfish in the Nishnabotna rivers was S. Harter, who lived southeast of Windy Knoll in Center township. Mr. Ilarter knew where to find these fish and how to catch them, and was catching many large ones long before people generally knew anything about this catfish in these streams. This fish is caught frequently now weighing all the way from a pound to five or six pounds, with an occasional fish larger than that. He is a clean, lordly fellow to come out of a stream so muddy as the Nishnabotna. Fishermen usually set their lines at night and take them up in the morning although sometimes after setting them just at dark nice catfish will be caught within an hour or two, or at least before midnight. Frogs, crayfish, beefsteak, chicken entrails, worms and the last thing coming to a fellow's mind are used as bait.
A good many years ago the United States government stocked the streams of southwestern Iowa, including the Nishnabotna, with carp, and it is the prevailing opinion that this was a bad day's work, since it is almost certain that the carp, now very numerous, by floundering in the mud and in other ways, possibly by eating it, destroy the spawn of the bull-heads, and especially of the channel catfish, a fish infinitely superior. Anyone, however, thinking he would like a mess of carp, is respectfully referred to the following standard recipe for cooking this fish:
(6)
"Clean the fish nicely, let it dry for two days in the sun. Nail the fish to a pine board, cover with salt, and after standing for two days longer put in the oven and bake slowly for six hours. Then draw the nails out, throw the carp away and eat the nails and board, which are said to lie the best part of the fish."
Clams have been found in the streams for many years and are yet found there.
Transcribed by Cheryl Siebrass, October, 2024 from the Past and Present of Shelby County, Iowa, by Edward S. White, P.A., LL. B.,Volume 1, Indianapolis: B. F. Bowen & Co., 1915, pp. 81-82.
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