Fish Tales

Nigel Duara on the water: Alan Corbin reaches into his bait bucket, grabs a wriggling sunfish, slices off the paper-thin tail and lets the blood run over his fingers.



Somewhere in the river below is the monster.



Corbin's dying bait is for the giant fish that broke his line in May. That fish lurks somewhere in the murky green waters. Corbin is sure of it.



The lost prize was a flathead catfish, the king of the Des Moines River. It's snapped lines, bent rods and denied dozens of suitors sprinkled nightly on the downtown bridges that span the river. Some are like Corbin, lifelong anglers.



Others are recent immigrants who brought a fishing tradition with them from Vietnam or Korea.…