| In
1897, the ichthyologist of the United States Fish Commission,
Dr. Barton Evermann, made a trip to Louisiana. One of his
goals was to report on the significant catfish industry
in the Atchafalaya River. At that time, fishermen kept their
fish alive in “live-boxes” and sold them to
fish companies from Morgan City or Melville. The fish companies
used tugboats with large live-fish wells or “live-cars”
that ran the river every week or two to buy fish from fishermen.
While this aspect of the fishery is different from modern
conditions, many of his observations could still be made
today. Some major differences are that in 1897, all catfish
in the market were wild catfish and few people ate crawfish!
Most
fishing was done between September and May, using trot lines
and brush lines. A few catfish were also taken with hoop
nets that had been set primarily for buffalo. One fisherman
in Grand Lake (which was still grand in 1897) was said to
fish one trot line that was 12 miles long.
Hooks
were baited with live bait or cut bait. Live bait included
shad, perch (sunfish) or crawfish; with shad being the best
(100 shad would catch as many catfish as 200-300 crawfish).
Cut bait could be almost any fish, but cut eel was thought
to be the best.
Evermann
wrote: “The Atchafalaya River is, in some respects,
a peculiar stream. It has its sources in Avoyelle and Pointe
Coupee parishes, near where the Red River joins the Mississippi,
and is at all seasons more or less connected with both of
those rivers by a number of anastomosing channels and bayous.
The Atchafalaya River is, in fact as well as historically,
one of the mouths of the Mississippi River, and during the
floods which come periodically to that region a vast amount
of the surplus water of the Mississippi and Red rivers is
carried to the Gulf by the Atchafalaya. The distance from
the sources of the Atchafalaya River in a straight line
to its mouth (about 90 miles southwest of New Orleans) is
about 125 miles. The river is, however, very sinuous in
its course, and its actual length is therefore many miles
greater. The general course is a few degrees east of south,
and forms a narrow angle with that of the Mississippi. The
country through which the river flows is very low and level,
often lower than the river itself, and made up for the most
part of cypress swamps. The highest land is in many places
the immediate banks of the river. These swamps are reticulated
and intersected by a very complex and intricate network
of bayous and lakes, all comparatively shallow except during
the time of floods, when they become passable for the pirogue
of the fisherman and the swamper and the tugboats of the
fish companies at Morgan City and Melville. During excessive
floods, such as that of April and May, 1891, practically
the entire country north of Morgan City is inundated. To
provide against such conditions many of the natives live
in house-boats. All of the residences built upon the ground
are two stories high, and the people hold themselves in
readiness to vacate the ground floor and betake themselves
and remove their household goods to the second story whenever
the flood comes. Every family possesses one or more boats,
which are an absolute essential in that country. Bee-culture
is of some importance in this part of Louisiana, and it
was noticed that the beehives in all the apiaries seen were
placed upon scaffolding or posts which raised them several
feet above the surface of the ground. Such live-stock as
chickens, pigs, and goats are also protected from the flood
by placing them upon similar platforms. Ducks and geese
are the only possessions which do not cause some trouble
or anxiety during the times of flood.
“The
majority of the people of this region are either swampers
or fishermen, or both. The cutting of the cypress timber
for commercial purposes and getting the logs out into the
river, so that they may be gotten to the mills, is called
‘swamping,’ and those who engage in it are termed
‘swampers.’ The cypress trees are cut into logs,
which are dragged over the ground or pulled through the
water to the nearest float road, by means of which it is
easy to float them to the river, in which they may be rafted
or otherwise taken to the sawmills. A ‘float road’
is made by cutting away all the trees and bushes in various
places through the swamps where roads are desired, and when
the flood comes these become open waterways, through which
the pirogue finds easy passage. These float roads also have
an important relation to the fishing industry, as will appear
later on in this report.
“There
are four species of commercial catfishes handled by the
firms at Morgan City and Melville, viz: the blue cat or
poisson bleu (Ictalurus furcatus), the yellow cat or goujon
(Leptops olivaris), the eel cat (lctalurus anguilla), and
the spotted cat (lctalurus punctatus). The blue cat and
the goujon are by far the most important species, and probably
constitute 98 per cent of the entire catch.” (Note:
The yellow cat or goujon or flathead cat is now classified
as Pylodictus olivaris; and in the 1940s taxonomists demonstrated
that Evermann’s eel cat and spotted cat were in fact
the same fish: the channel cat, Ictalurus punctatus.)
Evermann
continued: “The goujon is most easily and usually
taken with live bait. It is by no means a handsome fish,
but its great size, the excellence of its flesh, and its
superior keeping qualities render it a very important food-fish.
It rarely reaches a weight of 100 pounds; but examples of
50 to 60 pounds weight are said to be not at all unusual.
The goujon is more voracious than the blue cat, and large
individuals are apt to feed on smaller examples of the latter
when confined in the same live-box. To prevent this, it
is said that the fishermen sometimes sew up with wire the
mouth of the very large goujon.
“The
blue cat has the same general habits as the goujon, but
the best fishing for this species is said to be during the
high water in the spring. Then the fish leave the river,
lakes, and bayous and take to the woods. Good ‘woods’
or ‘swamp’ fishing is sometimes had as early
as March. The impression among the fishermen is that the
fish run out over the flooded districts on account of the
more abundant food supply to be found there. This consists
chiefly of crawfish inhabiting the shallow pools and ponds
made accessible to the catfish through the agency of the
floods.
“All
river fishing during the fall and winter is done on the
bottom, while all lake fishing is at the surface. During
the spring, when the country is flooded, the fish betake
themselves to the woods, and the fishing is then carried
on chiefly along the edges of the float roads. The old tackle,
which had been previously used in the river and lakes, is
now cut up into short lengths and tied, as single lines
called brush lines, to the limbs of trees in such a way
as to allow the single hook to hang about 6 inches under
the water. Each fisherman ties his lines to trees along
the edges of the float roads if he can find such territory
not already preempted by some one else. The fishing is thought
to be better in such places; besides, it is easier to visit
the lines when so located. Any fisherman who is unable to
find unoccupied space along the float roads selects the
best places he can find at various points around through
the woods. In order that he may readily find his lines when
he wishes to visit them, the limbs to which they are tied
are marked with a white rag or the tree is blazed.”
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