I've done this since I was little and I swear it acually works (or atelast it's worked for me).  My dad told me when I was a little boy that if you had a crazy ctafish that just didn't want to settle down so that you could take the hook out you could tickle it on its under belly and make it calm down.  I've caught catfish yo yoing, on bass rods, and actually fishing for them and everytime I catch one that's what I do. I swear it has worked for me. I was wondering if anyone else had ever heard of this?

I saw in In-Fisherman episode where they were catfishing and stroked the catfish's belly to calm them down prior to release.