Commercial Fishing for Catfish

Seen here are some photos taken in 1996 by a great friend of mine Brian Schetele. We met while I was in AmeriCorps at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (formerly USL, now ULL), home of the "Ragin Cajuns." I re-united with my Cajun buddy a few weeks ago, and he still had these photos from over 13 years ago!

In the pics are my father, my friend (and best man in my wedding) Louis Turner, and me. We are raising Hoop Nets at our hunting and fishing club in Gueydan, Louisiana. We are catching catfish, which we clean and fry to eat. Most of them, however, we sold commercially.

At that time, I was 20 years old in these pics and was a freshman in college, pursuing my Pre-Med degree (double major in Biology and Biochemistry). My dad was still teaching 12th grade World History (he is now deceased). Louis Turner works for the U.S. Government; and Brian was also a volunteer like me in AmeriCorps, as we both went to college. He plays the Cajun accordion and breeds Golden Retrievers.


Me, Dad, and Louis raising hoop nets in Gueydan, LA



Raising a hoop net


Here I am holding a small Alligator Garfish (released it)


Here is dad holding a large (12 lb) Channel Catfish



Here is dad and Louis cleaning the fish we caught



Here I am about to skin a Garfish