Free catfish for Predators fans going to Stanley Cup Final games

Jason Wolf | The Tennessean

Show Caption Hide Caption Have a Stanley Cup Final ticket? Get a free catfish Little's Fish Market in Germantown is running a special that any Nashville Predators' fan with a ticket to Game 3 or Game 4 in the Stanley Cup Final series can receive a free fish.

It appears the Penguins are about to get “schooled.”

Countering a fish market in Pittsburgh that won't sell catfish to Predators fans, one in Nashville is giving them away. Little’s Fish Company in Germantown is offering free whole catfish to anyone who shows them a ticket to Games 3 or 4 of the Stanley Cup Final, which the Predators trail two games to none in the best-of-7 series. The next two games are Saturday and Monday at Bridgestone Arena.

Chris Little, owner of the business his grandfather founded in the mid-1950s, says he has 40 catfish on hand, and another delivery of 50 to 60 expected later Thursday.

“Someone shows us their ticket, it’s free,” Little said.

Otherwise, they cost $1.95 a pound.

Predators fans have been throwing catfish on the ice since at least 2003 in a tradition co-opted from the Detroit Red Wings’ octopus toss.

Jacob Deveral Waddell – aka “Catfish Jake” – was charged with three misdemeanors this week in Pittsburgh after purchasing a catfish from a market on Nolensville Rd., transporting it across states lines, running it over with his truck, spraying it with deodorant, strapping it to his crotch and whipping the carcass onto the ice during Game 1. The charges have since been dropped.

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“I would just say that we discourage anything being thrown on the ice outside of hats in celebratory fashion after a hat trick,” Kevin Wilson, the Predators’ director of communications, said in a written statement to The Tennessean.

The record for most catfish thrown on the ice in a single game is unknown.

"We do not keep track of how many catfish are thrown on the ice for any one game or cumulatively," Wilson said.

The Titans’ offensive linemen have been shown holding catfish and chugging beer at Predators playoff games, with left tackle Taylor Lewan going so far as to toss one onto the ice during a series-clinching victory against the Anaheim Ducks on May 22, which propelled the Predators into the Stanley Cup Final.

The Titans carried a cooler of catfish into Bridgestone Arena.

“I just walked right in, man,” Lewan said. “Those guys are pretty cool about that stuff. We go through a metal detector. Obviously, you can’t bring in anything that would be dangerous or harmful. But it was pretty easy to get in. They’re all good sports there, man. They’re pretty awesome.”

No word on whether Predators fans can expect to see increased security, but getting into the arena with a catfish for the Stanley Cup Final may not be quite as easy.

More: Predators inspire Titans to toss catfish, chug beers, win Super Bowl

Sales of whole catfish in Nashville are typically pretty slow.

“Once every other month or something like that,” Little said. “It’s not a common thing.”

Pittsburgh fish market won't sell catfish to Predators fans Wholey's fish market in Pittsburgh refuses to sell catfish to out-of-town Predators fans during the Stanley Cup Final.

But lately, local fishmongers have nothing to carp about.

“Lots of phone calls," Little said. "And you can tell they’re Predators fans, and they don’t even have to tell you. I can tell the difference. They’ll call, ‘Do you have catfish with the head on it?’ And the first thing I ask them is ‘You want it for the Predators game?’ And they’re like, ‘Oh, yeah.’ It’s been pretty easy to pick them out here lately.”

Joe Koran is the general manager at Off the Dock, a North Nashville business that distributes seafood to area restaurants.

He’s firmly behind the local tradition.

“I think that in the proper environment, to throw a catfish on the ice, I’m all for it,” said Koran, who sold octopuses by the case in the mid-90s when he worked in Detroit. “I will never say 'no' to that. I was throwing octopus 25 years ago. So I would never say ‘no’ to throwing a catfish on the ice. But I prefer mine on a plate.”

Reach Jason Wolf at jwolf@tennessean.com and follow him on Twitter at @JasonWolf.