Where I live catfish are generally considered to be poor faire. Close to tidal estuaries and open ocean. most of our fish are marine species. In fresh water, bass, both large and small mouth, along with striped bass (rockfish to you Chesapeake folk), perch, white and yellow, are probably what most anglers go for. There are trout but most are put and take hatchery fish. Of course carp are legion, and there are huge ones in the Delaware. I, however, picked up an interest in what we call the blue channel catfish which is not native to east of the Appalachian chain but are pretty common here now. The Delaware River has become a reservoir of these fish, along with recently introduced (accidentally) flathead catfish. The tidal portion of the Delaware and its tidal feeder streams are great places for these fish and they are among the best fighting fish there are. Most anglers in this area do not target these fish but they are real game fish. They will strike lures and actively seek out baitfish. What really brings them in, by the boatload, is chicken livers. Once they scent that bait in the water they will commit suicide to get that bait. I have never acquired much of a taste for them but for just fun it's hard to beat a blue channel catfish.
By the way, speaking of carp above, I once read a Civil War based historical novel where the author had Confederate soldiers fishing for and catching carp in the Tennessee River. Could not have happened. As common as carp are today in American waters, they are not native to the New World and were not released into our rivers, lakes and streams until the 1870's. I wrote to the author about this and he confessed that he was nor really well versed in ichthyology and assumed that carp in that river today meant carp in that river from the third day of creation.
Where fish may have played a role in two instances of American military history, there is the spring of 1778, where, after a bad winter at Valley Forge, the Continentals were overjoyed in April to see the Schuylkill fill with spawning shad which provided needed protein. And in our Civil war there was the happening of the shad bake in early April, 1865, at a place called Five Forks which turned out, for the Confederacy, to be a bad time and place for a fish festival. So, there you have it. Fish and the creation and preservation of the Union.
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Who doesn't love them and they're lot more plentiful! Wouldn't look as cool on documents though..... .
Bringing the