Roadside Oddities

Warning: Some might find the images of fish that have been filleted and nailed to utility poles to be disturbing.  There's no blood or guts or anything, but if you are squeamish, you might not want to scroll down to the pictures. 

So my dad wanted to take a ride the other day and visit some of the old fishing holes that his dad used to take him to and asked if my mom and I would join him.  Since I was excited to check these spots out and since a son can't so no that that anyway, we found ourselves driving down gravel roads before you knew it.  One place in particular was a tributary to the Missouri River.  As we got closer to the river, my dad noticed something out of the corner of his eye and said "Did you see those big catfish?'  I looked out the window to see a small oxbow lake and crops in a field.  I was starting to think the old man was loosing his mind when he said it again.  This time I saw two large, filleted catfish nailed to a utility pole.

My mom thought this was extremely odd until my dad and I informed her that this was actually a pretty good method of cleaning catfish.  I have never done it but the way I have heard it described is that you put a nail through the catfish's head which keeps it in place and allows gravity to help you fillet it.  That always seemed a little gross to me but the method makes sense.  I have a problem actually putting a nail through something's head though.  Call me squeamish.

After checking out the tributary we drove back by and I snapped some pictures.  In all, there were seven catfish affixed to these utility poles and their carcasses were left to rot and dry in the summer sun.   Now I don't necessarily have a problem with this, but others might and I get that perspective.  My biggest question to the person or people that did this is why?  The method works but doesn't it give fishermen a bad look when we leave these strung up like trophies?  On the other hand, this place was pretty much in the middle of nowhere so maybe that wasn't the intent.  Maybe the person or people have plans to do something with the catfish after they dehydrate.  Are they fertilizer?  Is this a strange catfish jerky recipe?  Did Native Americans practice this method?  Is someone baiting in raccoons and opossums?  Maybe it is a science experiment?  I'm not here to cast stones or judge, just curious and want to make sense of what I saw.  If you have any ideas or answers, feel free to comment below.

The things you see driving down a gravel road in Missouri!