Patterson Irrigator

When trucks, tractors and tires were pulled from the Delta-Mendota Canal on Friday in a massive cleanup effort, there was an unexpected catch — catfish, and lots of them. Patterson resident Gene Werne (inset), on a fishing trip himself, helped toss back the hundreds of fish pulled up inside all the nooks and crannies.  After removing the bed liner from a pickup pulled out of the Delta-Mendota Canal on Friday and discovering hundreds of fish, Greg Werne fills his net full of catfish to carry them back to the water. Photo by Elias Funez