River lessons

The history of the Mississippi River is a dirty one.

Before dumping was regulated, the largest river in the United States was a liquid junkyard for chemicals and human waste.

"I've heard stories about old barge workers emptying their tanks and dumping gas in the river," said Dave Ostendorf with the Missouri Department of Conservation. "Cities used to dump raw sewage directly into the river. It was basically a cesspool back in the '40s and '50s."

Thanks to regulations on the books since the 1970s, said Ostendorf, the river is cleaner than it has been in decades.

Ostendorf is one of the many conservation agents teaching a class to 15 anglers on catfishing in the Mississippi River. The class seeks to teach safe navigation and good fishing techniques, but more than anything else to encourage the use of the river, partly by dispelling such myths as the dirty river.

"When you're talking about catfish, one of the greatest resources we have in Southeast Missouri is the Mississippi River," said Dave Herzog, a resource scientist with the conservation department. "It can be dangerous, but no more so than any other river system."

The conservation class is an adult catfishing clinic that teaches participants how to set trotlines to use that great catfish resource. At the culmination of the clinic, participants went out on boats Friday evening with conservation workers and staked their lines to wing dikes on the river. This morning, they're hoping to discover large catfish have taken the live bluegill bait they put on the hooks Friday evening.

There are scores of myths that Herzog, Ostendorf and their colleagues say keep people in the Cape Girardeau area from really using the aquatic resource of the river, especially when it comes to catching catfish.

One of those myths is that fish from the river aren't safe to eat. It's a myth that fisheries specialist Mike Reed has heard time and again.

"For catfish in the river, the thresholds of contaminants are well below the level for safe human consumption," said Reed.

There are no consumption advisories on catfish in the river, said Reed, making them safe to eat and delicious -- if cleaned correctly.

As part of the clinic, Reed demonstrated how to clean a catfish for the best taste, making sure to remove everything but the meat itself, including fat and connective tissue.

Reed knows the strong catfish flavor can turn many people off. Many people are careless about cleaning their fish, not keeping the fish on ice before cleaning and not removing excess parts.

"There are lots of people who just refuse to eat catfish because it tastes so strong," said Reed. "But it doesn't taste that way if prepared properly."

Most of the participants in the clinic didn't harbor those reservations about catfish or other river fish. They're experienced anglers, many of whom fish or boat on the Mississippi, but want to learn a little more to enhance their fishing.

But that doesn't mean they don't know people who refuse to eat river fish.

Jeff Mezo of Perryville, Mo., said his family is picky about fish. If the meat isn't as clean as it should be, they won't eat it. Mezo said his father, a commercial fisherman in the 1970s, was often nonchalant about how he cleaned fish, unlike Reed.

"If my dad cleaned the fish, my wife and kids wouldn't eat it," Mezo said.

Mike Hughey of Altenburg, Mo., would rather eat fish out of the river than from a restaurant.

"They're not cleaned right," Hughey said. "It makes the whole fish taste bad."

And many would rather eat river fish than pond fish.

"Most of the fish you catch on the river taste cleaner than most pond fish," said Scott City resident Doug Leimbach.

Leimbach fishes with friends on the river near Commerce, Mo., and Scott City once every week or two. He said he's taking the class so he could learn how to navigate the river farther north.

Leimbach was once intimidated by the turbulence near Cape Rock. A cautious boater, he didn't want to take a chance that might capsize his boat.

But now that he knows about the features of the river near Cape Girardeau, like the rock shelf at Cape Rock and the location of the river's wing dikes, he'll be bringing his boat north more often.

Nor will the myth that the river is dirty stop Leimbach from using the river. He's seen the progress that has been made on cleaning up the water.

"I remember back in the early '80s, sometimes the river would smell funny," Leimbach said. "But it's cleaned up a lot in the past few years."

Herzog points out the murkiness of the water isn't caused by what some may think -- like human waste -- but by sand that makes up 95 percent of the river's solid particles.

This year's class was a success, filling up all 15 spaces and having 15 others who wanted to register, said Dee Dee Dockins, who organized the class. Dockins said if those who take the class this first time like what they experienced, the class will happen again.

The more people know about the river, Dockins said, the more they'll want to use the natural resource here at home.

msanders@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182