Catfish Farm Is Owner's Lifetime Love

Catfish Corner in Mesquite has been harvesting fish since 1968

Catfish Corner, a fish farm in Mesquite, has been harvesting catfish to stock North Texas lakes since 1968.

Finding the catch of the day may be close than you think.

The Catfish Corner is fish farm in rural Mesquite that harvests 48,000 catfish from six ponds since 1968.

"It's luck and determination," owner Billy Benson said. "Many people would have given up, but I guess I'm a sticker."

Each year, the farm distributes thousands of fish to Rockwall, Garland and Fort Worth city lakes.

"It's my life," Ben said. "I enjoy it. I love it. When I first got into this business, there wasn't hardly anybody in it. My parents disowned me because, you know, they wanted me to do other things besides the catfish farmer. But now, if they were still alive, they would be on my side."

The Kentucky native said the secret to his catfish is water -- he only uses spring-fed water in his lakes.

"Warm water is the secret," he said.

As for his regulars, they see the Catfish Corner as more than a way to get hooked.

Robert Robinson comes to the farm frequently, calling it the "perfect spot" as opposed to spending a lot of time and money going to a lake and not catching anything.

The city now considers the hidden spot as a tourist attraction.

"You get to catch your own dinner and then our kids get to feel like they participated in catching the fish ... Last time, everyone caught something while we were here," Jennifer Graves said.

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