Fishing Blues


"Fishing Blues" is a blues song written in 1911 by Chris Smith, who is best known for "Ballin' the Jack". "Fishing Blues" was first recorded in 1928 by Henry Thomas "Ragtime Texas" on vocals and guitar with the introduction and breaks played on quills, a type of panpipe. Some later versions by other artists call it "Fishin' Blues".
The song ostensibly describes the pleasures of catching, cooking, and eating your own fish, particularly catfish. The refrain runs:
In 1930, the Carter Brothers recorded an unreleased track for Okeh Records titled "Any Fish Will Bite if You Got Good Bait". This may have been the same song; suggesting that it may have been traditional rather than written by Thomas.
Thomas' recording was included on the 1952 compilation album .
In 1964, the song was revived by American folk musician Mike Seeger. Over the next five years, it was recorded by artists including The Holy Modal Rounders, Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band, The Lovin' Spoonful, John Martyn and Taj Mahal. It has since been recorded many times. The recording history as of 2015 suggests that it has attained the status of a folk and blues standard.

Recordings

The following songs have similar titles to the one which is the subject of this article, but are different from it and from each other: