What would the state of southern plate and palate be without this staple? What is his great appeal? What is his family tree? How do you hook him? And if so, how do you cook him? But first you have to clean him, so how do you do that? This light-hearted book of catfish facts and folklore gives ample answers to these monumentous questions and to others just as acute. And cooks wishing to greet their catfish on the stove top rather than on the riverbank will delight in this book's variety of award-winning recipes from the National Farm-Raised Catfish Cooking Contest.