Hooking the wily river catfish on a summer evening

Here's my snap of Terry Sanders about a week ago as he waited for a catfish to take his bait.

Terry and others can be found most summer evenings near the Stone Arch Bridge along the Mississippi exercising their angling acumen.

My Minnesota Sounds and Voices, "sonic moment," with Terry will be on All Things Considered this evening.

Terry and his wife have a plan. They want to open a mobile bait business.

Need bait? Call their business, which they hope to open next year, and they'll wheel out to your location with your order.

Yes, I agree; seems like adding food and beverages to the menu for hungry and thirsty anglers could be part of the deal.

Thanks to the Minnesota Historical Society folks for this 1904 photo of a Red Wing clammer which illustrates what we all know; the river has been a source of sustenance for a long time.

Here's another one, courtesy of the MHS, from around the Lake Pepin area in 1950.

Not long after that the Mississippi River, at least through the Twin Cities, became an open sewer. Unfit for almost any kind of recreational activity.

Thank the people who lobbied for federal and state laws to regulate what was put into the river for the turnaround.

There are consumption advisories in effect for eating fish caught in the river.

But the overall health of the Father and Mother of Waters is greatly improved.

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