Harold Dodd was born and raised in the rolling back country hills of the Volunteer State, Tennessee.   As a youngster he hunted and fished with his uncle.  Harold’s experiences as a boy helped him develop a profound respect and admiration for nature.  As he developed into a young man, Harold hired on as a deckhand on his first riverboat at the age of eighteen.  He quickly worked his way to the position of Pilot.  From 1970 to 1972, he briefly left the river to serve his country for two years in the armed service during the Vietnam War Campaign.  Harold returned to the riverboat industry, and for the next nineteen years he thoroughly explored each and every mile of all the major rivers in the continental United States, that is, at least those rivers that were big enough for some of the largest river-going  vessels to navigate.  For the past thirteen years, Harold has proudly served his company as the Vice-President of Operations, an executive level position that few boat captains ever succeed.

Harold has always had a spirited nature and has proven to be a competitive adversary in a number of outdoor sports, such as competition black powder shooting, archery, and coon hunting.  Since a young age, Harold’s life has revolved, almost in a literal sense, around the great waterways that built the backbone of our nation.  Even after years of living and working around the river, his love for America’s waterways has not wavered and as a youngster in his mid 50’s, he still gets wound up in the anticipation of getting out there on the river and hunting his favorite quarry, the big Mississippi Blue Cat.

With the encouragement of friends, Harold started competitively catfishing in the spring of 2000.  He placed third in his first local catfishing tournament in Thebes, Illinois.  Since he began Tournament catfishing, Harold has placed in over twenty amateur and professional catfishing tournaments, four of which include two USCATS championship tournaments and two Cabela’s King Kat national championships.  Harold attributes his success to the influence of his friends, who generously gave of their knowledge in the sport of catfishing.  Deserving of honorable mention and in no specific order, the list reads like a who’s who among the catfishing community:  Rob Overbey, Joe Hall, Lindsay Sample, James (Big Cat) Patterson, Jim Moyer and Phil King, as well as many others, are among the group Harold calls his friends.  Coupled with his intimate knowledge of big river dynamics, and an uncanny ability to learn quickly and effectively apply learned techniques, Harold has met with astounding success in the world of competitive catfishing.  In the April 2004 issue of In-Fisherman magazine, Harold was billed as one of the top three tournament catfisherman in the country.  To add to his growing number of successes, Harold has a video that will soon be released called “Winter Catfishing on the Mississippi with Captain Harold Dodd”.

Harold observes with a watchful eye and listens with a tentative ear to comments and suggestions offered by anglers of any age or experience level.  He remains open to new ideas, and he believes everyone has something useful to offer to the sport.  Why, just the other day, Harold’s wife, Brenda, made an ingenious observation that led Harold to find fish in a place he would not ordinarily have looked, and guess what, the fish were there.  Harold claims, some of the greatest ideas come from some of the most unlikely of sources.  Harold does not refuse his knowledge to others.  In sharp contrast to the majority, Harold is always more than willing to share his extensive knowledge and experience.  As a matter of fact, Harold has been criticized by some of his peers for being too forthcoming with the secrets to his success.  Recently, Harold was reproved in a conversation with a fellow catfisherman, proclaiming he reveals too many secrets and techniques for catching catfish.  Harold responded, “Look, I am 55 years old and one day I’m gonna be an old man.  I would like to spend my time giving back to others what has so generously been given to me, and just maybe they might have something good to say about me when I’m gone.”  Harold explained, “The sense of accomplishment I have gained from winning  these tournaments is great, but the greatest accomplishment I have experienced is to teach others about how to safely enjoy and respect these precious natural resources, our majestic rivers and the incredible wildlife that inhabits their muddy depths.”

Autobiography by:

Cary Winchester