Catfish cleaning Methods ?

[RobJ]

Thanks, I didn't invent it, just learned it from some masters. The old disk make a perfect cooker and uses just over a half gallon of oil and can cook twice as much because of the surface area.

I really botched my first catfish fry, it was bad, so I studied up a bit. Fishing in the Trinity I usually toss back anything under 3-4# if it's just us fishing. Once you've cleaned a 10-15# cat you'll know why. It takes me just as long as a small one and I get 4 times the meat.

Rob

We've pulled a few nice ones..

 

[TOMLESCOEQUIP]

I usually toss back anything under 3-4# if it's just us fishing. Once you've cleaned a 10-15# cat you'll know why.

QUOTE]

Nice fish, Rob !!

Did you catch them "noodleing", or regular rod fishing ??

Tom

 

[RobJ]

Thanks, but all on a "throw line" or "trot line". Tied on a tree on the bank, then the hooks and a weight in the river. I'm sort of lazy. But we only run the lines in the morning and evening. Most of the activity is at night. I usually put out about 5-6 lines, about 40 hooks. Some of my local friends put out over 100 hooks. I use carp (goldfish) or perch, etc for bait. I have an old boat so I only fish a mile or 2 UP river. Some go up or down 5-10 miles. If I only catch one fish like in the picture, then I've had a fun weekend. I just like getting out on my little jon boat.

But I went down to the river this weekend and it's still way up, been there for some time. They are catching fish through the day in the willows covered by water. They say the fish hang out under them waiting for bugs to fall in.

First pic you see the river in current state, compare to my "fishonline.jpg" above. Second pic is what can happen overnight after some heavy rains. The boat almost filled up with water. You can where the rope is tied off, that was dry the evening before. It rose about 6' over night. The current state is about 12-15' above that.

 

[billbill1]

I cut from the head to the tail, leaving about 1/4" before cutting through, then flip the fillet with the skin still on -back over the tail and use the electric knife to fillet the skin off of the meat. I do the same on all fish, scales or not. I takes about 2 minutes per fish at the most, very quick and easy once you get the hang of it. You will learn to turn the knife 90 degrees when you barely touch the back bone (at the head) and cut straight through to within 1/4" of the tail, flip the meat and cut the fillet off. Once the fillet is cut from the skin, cut out the rib cage and anything you don't want left on the finished fillet. The rib cage is tougher to cut through on the larger fish (naturally)

 

[pappy19]

Another trick in frying catfish for me anyway, is when you have a large filet, don't cut it with a knife into pieces, but pull it apart with your fingers. The pieces will be in various portions and will fry up real crispy with the skinny pieces and nice and moist with the thicker pieces. They seems to hold the corn meal better too. I do this method with all larger filets, including bass, crappie and trout.