A Georgia lobbyist named "Mr. Catfish" had his own theory.
Jim Kulstad, a public interest lobbyist in Atlanta, was given the nickname after he successfully thwarted a bill by the Georgia Department of Transportation with a "catfish amendment" in the late 1980s.
Although he'd heard the catfish joke, he said he did not make the connection with the phrase "catfishing," which in Georgia is the practice of soliciting amendments that would either gut a bill or change it enough that it has to go back to the other chamber for concurrence.
"I always liked to think the nickname came from Jim 'Catfish' Hunter for throwing curves, but clearly bottom fishing for Republican votes is more accurate," he wrote Dome. "My nickname came from bottom fishing, no ifs, ands or buts about it."
Still, he said he'd heard the "hold still, little catfish" joke a number of times over the years.
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