The funniest part of the ongoing “catfish toss” situation — Predators fan Jake Waddell was ejected and charged with three misdemeanors for the stunt — might be the sheer amount of preparation that it had to take.

It was clear from the start: Waddell had to put a lot of thought into it. On Tuesday, speaking to Midday 180 on Nashville’s 104.5 The Zone, he went into full detail. We knew the broad strokes, thanks to the police report, but there’s plenty more.

Waddell — who, in the undersell of the playoffs, called himself a “dumb redneck with a bad idea” — hatched the idea ahead of a Memorial Day trip to his in-laws’ home in Boardman, Ohio. He’s a Predators fan, and Game 1 was being played 45 minutes away. It wouldn’t take much.

“I thought ‘Man, wouldn’t it be awesome to get to go to that game?’ ” he said. “And then, like an ignorant redneck, I thought ‘Wouldn’t it be awesome to throw a catfish on the ice at this game?’ “

That’s what he did. Here is a step-by-step guide to his process.

1) Acquire supplies. Waddell bought a pair of $350 upper-bowl tickets and an “entirely too big” catfish from a market in Tennessee. He said he had no idea that Wholey’s had restricted catfish sales — he just “wanted to take a Nashville catfish, because it’s more original to throw one of our catfish.”

2) Garner support. Waddell told the radio station about his plans and floated the idea on Twitter. That’s why he was wearing the Midday 180 T-shirt. The original idea, though, was his. Also relevant: His wife was “tentatively OK with it.”

3) Secure transportation. Need to move a gigantic, rotting fish 1/7 of the way across the country? Spray it down with Old Spice cologne and throw it in a cooler. That’s what Waddell did.

4) Consolidate. This was where he really started to shine. On game night, he took the fish to his cousin’s house, filleted it, cut out half the spine and ran it over with his truck. That made it easier to vacuum-pack and conceal … but not that easy.

“The head was too damn big,” Waddell said. “No matter how much I ran it over with my truck, the head was too big.”

5) Choose your placement. Originally, Waddell planned to stash the fish in his boots. The head made that impossible. So, he created a catfish-underwear sandwich. Regular drawers went on first. Then, the catfish. Then, a pair of compression shorts. Then, a pair of baggy pants. Waddell said he was lucky that he’s “a bigger guy.”

“Skinny jeans would’ve showed it off, that’s for sure,” he said.

6) Test your system. Waddell strapped up, then spent a while talking to his in-laws. “I talked to them for 20 minutes, and they had no idea I had the fish on,” he said.

7) Stake out the area. Waddell said this is where his cousin, a former Army staff sergeant, helped the most. Once they were in the arena, they knew that they wanted to make their move from the upper level during the second period. After a close call in one section, they settled on the aisle between 121 and 122. There, they ran into two other Predators fans who offered to screenshot their e-tickets for that section, then hang out in the concourse while Waddell made his move.

It wasn’t necessary. Waddell — with the fish now out of his underwear and wrapped in a giveaway t-shirt — briskly walked down the stairs during a stoppage in play, got close to the glass, and boom.

8) Stay calm. Waddell, wisely, didn’t protest much or try to run. Security took him to the top of the section for a few minutes, and that’s where a crowd started to gather.

“You can hear the crowd getting restless: ‘Hillbilly, redneck,’ all this other stuff they’re yelling at me. They’re calling me stuff I should be called,” he said. “If it wasn’t 1 vs. 10,000, I wouldn’t have been uncomfortable, but I was kind of hoping the security guards would get us on out of there.”

9) Not too calm, though. Once Waddell was in the detainment room, the parade of suits began. He said he got in a nice, measured shot. “They’re all staring at me, trying to make it real serious. I know nothing is gonna happen here. So the guy’s like, ‘I hope you’re satisfied.’ And I said ‘Yeah, I do too.’ So that really ticked them off.”

10) Lawyer up. By Tuesday morning, Waddell had been charged with disorderly conduct, disrupting a meeting and, best of all, “possessing an instrument of crime.” As in, the fish. That, he said, was not the original plan.

“The cop told me, to my face, ‘You are being charged with disorderly conduct. You will get a ticket, a citation in the mail.’ … That’s what I was told. Now they come out with a couple other trumped-up charges, which are BS. I mean, a catfish isn’t an instrument of whatever-the-hell-they’re-saying-it-was, and I didn’t disrupt a meeting. It was an athletic event.”

The radio station is going to cover any fines he incurs, and he’s got plenty of Nashville-area lawyers willing to help.

“If they want to go down that road, we can go down that road,” Waddell said. “I’m pretty sure we’ll win that battle. I’m just stubborn enough, as you can probably tell by strapping a catfish to my crotch, to go up there and fight it.”