Fishing

Where I grew up, fishing mostly meant fishing for mudpout. Mudpout is the local name for a fish that abounds in Southern Ontario, and is also known as bullhead, catfish, barbotte and mud cat.

And the rule of thumb was, "They only bite when the mosquitoes do!"

The equipment was simple, a pole a line, a hook and a can of worms. Of course, a drive to the river was essential, and it had to be at dusk.

Catfish, or mudpout as we called them, live in slow moving, warm water, the kind you find in the small rivers of Southern Ontario. We used to go to branch of the Nation River and toss in the worm. In between slapping the mosquitoes, we would pull in the lines and fill a bucket with fish. People boasted of the number they caught the night before, and under a hundred was a pointless boast.

Mudpout are easy to clean, which includes skinning them. We used to clean them all and fry up a batch in butter. The fillet comes off the bone easily in one piece, and the next boast was about how many you could eat at one sitting.

Fresh mudpout is hard to beat. They are delicious!