Another citation for "catfish amendment" has come up, but it doesn't clarify things.
The phrase appears in a book on the 1994 Republican Revolution. In "Conservative Reformers," author Nicol Rae quotes U.S. Rep. Walter Jones, a former state representative, on the differences between the legislature and Congress:
Parliamentary procedure was different in the state legislature. I came from a system where you could write an amendment at your desk and submit it on the floor — a "catfish" amendment. Here you have to prefile your amendment. It's more formal.
That doesn't match the definition we've been using of an amendment designed to sink a bill by stealth. But it does sound like the way most "catfish amendments" are submitted — on the floor, at the last minute.
We're going to chalk that up to a misunderstanding of the term by Jones.
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