Okay, here's the skinny. On my last trip to AR as you may have read, I fell in love w/ this primo catfish bait. After refusing my AR buddy's offer of some freebies, I came home and started looking for local sources. Thanks to Gretchen and some other friends, next year might land me some fresh ones. At this time of year we're talking frozen ones and since that is what I used in AR, I know they work quite well. I was in sticker shock when I started pricing them from the very few online resources which quoted me an average of $6.00 a dozen or 20 dozen for $100 + shipping. I can't swing that so I kept looking. I did find a guy in Shreveport, LA who quoted me $3 a dozen but he had no way to ship them. I couldn't find a local shipper that would send over a cooler w/ dry ice so...I'm thinking ROADTRIP here. If I can find enough other people interested in some of these bad boy's, I might just run down there and bring some back myself. Anybody in the least bit interested in any? Looks like a 9 hr roadtrip but what the heck....I smell fried tamales, fresh cat, and some mudbugs enroute:cool: :cool: ...Yeah babee!!! :D

Since I am surrounded by Catalpas..I think I'll just wait patiently until next year...LOL

That sounds like a fun road trip DDave. I haven't been to Shreveport since '83. That was home for a couple years ('76-'78) while stationed across the Red River. There are some good bass and crappie lakes there too if you don't mind watching for nastygators.

I saw 1 too many nastygators on the AR trip...he was cruisin' the river backwaters I was fishing and I did not want his company. He ws only about a 7'er but that was plenty enough to make my hair stand up on end.

Too bad the best restaurant I knew in the area isn't there anymore. That would be the Hayride Kitchen at the old Louisiana Hayride. You'd get a big platter of smoked meats, a tureen of senate bean soup, and 2 pans of cornbread--one regular and one with jalapeños. All this would be refilled till you gave up.

Now see what ya started...this will be a roadfood trip too if I make it..LOL

Aren't they always roadfood trips? Neither one of us is skinny guys DDave, so obviously we both enjoy food, right?

Absoluuuutely. By the way Bam, I think I'll stop by EEE @ LOE on the way home from Color & Camo tomorrow and introduce Gramps to smoked chops...Mmmmmmmmmm

I had some in Ava when Scott and I were last there... love a somked chop...

Here is where I refuse to go SILO... gimme a chop over a pork steak any day!!! dogs pigs ears are more tender that a pork steak... Too much good swine on a hog to eat that...(Unless of course you raise em... that's on you... Bro was a hog kid, I was dairy farmin)

I was raised on a hog farm and Bob..I still vote chop over steak anyday. I refuse to BBq them, grill them, or fry them....they are good though cooked long and slow in the crock pot..then they becomes a different animal..they fall apart, and in the right sauce (think pulled pork) THEN they are good eating. But other than that ...it's chops for me!

If you're gonna use the butt (the equivalent of a chuck on a bovine) then leave it whole and slow cook it.

I put some rub on a whole shoulder roast once and slow roasted it for several hours. That was some good pulled pork. Not as good as smoked, but I didn't have to go checking my smoker (charcoal) every hour or so to make sure it had enough coals and wood.

Now how did we get here from talking about catalpa worms. Oh yeah, DDave was gonna do a food run.

Nooo he's doing a catalpa worm run remember....LOL the food is incidental ROFL

Yeah right. That's how they all start. The food run is supposed to be secondary, but they never end that way.

Well, the plans have changed. No more Shreveport. I found a guy in Indianapolis that will sell them to me for $3 a dozen so I am using Effingham as my base camp and headed there tomorrow w/ orders for 85 dozen so far...LOL Today I went down to Boaz, KY just south of Paducah to Color & Camo. Very nice guys and they do excellent work w/ the hydrographics. Meandered our way back ( my Gramp turned 90 last Fri and he roadtripped w/ me) thru Pope and Saline counties and came into Marion via Harrisburg. Stopped at EEE BBQ on DeYoung and OMG was I overloaded when I got done. 2 of the thick smoked chops w/(and I kid you not!) a 1.25" smoke ring!, double corn fritters, bacon/cheese loaded fries and sweet tea. Aye carumba those chops were tender and sweet and down right smoky:) Gramps was impressed and he wolfed down 1 chop + extras. They had raisin custard pie but...I ....just...couldn't....do it :o :o

But you could have taken a piece of pie to go..just in case you got stranded on the way home, we wouldn't have wanted you to perish....:p

I think I near perished waddling to the car..LOL Perhaps tomorrow's trip will find me some new culinary experiences:)

Indy's a heck of a lot closer than Shreveport. (Master of the obvious here. Heh, heh, heh.) I've got kin folk over that a way.