Catfish have to be the toughest creatures..

[Unclebuck257]

Sendero,

Thank you for that huge laugh!! I'm still laughing as I start to write this! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I stocked a two acre tank on my place in 98 with a whole mess of 6-8 inch channel cats. Those bugger bears are really big now, and don't let people fool you, they will reproduce too.

 

[billbill1]

I fillet them with an electric knife just like I do crappie, peels the skin right off and there are no bones.

 

[SnoFalls]

For salmon, we whack em good enuf to stun them, cut a slit through the gills with a 4" knife, run a stringer through the mouth and gills, tie string to the bank and let the fish bleed off into the river.

When properly bled off, the fillets come off with much less mess!

We only shoot halibut (and before you put them in the boat!) ... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[JimR]

You just made me laugh my arse off. I never heard of anyone blowing away a fish with a .22 Magnum. Here is what I do with catfish. Forget about waiting for him to die. It could be 3-4 hours. Take a sharp knife and cut his spine just behind the those nice side spears he has and down to the table. Slice down the center of his back just enough to cut the skin. Use a pair of pliers and pull the skin down almost to the bottom. Stick you thumb in his mouth and wrap your two first fingers over and around the top of the spikes, insert your other thumb into the cut spine area and into the midsection of the fish. You can now peel the meat off the head, guts and skin.

 

[osprey]

Peta would love this story ...LOL

 

[Jimbrown]

If you think that thing was hard to clean you ought to try one of these suckers. hard head

 

[Bird]

Jim, the article in your link is a bit confusing to me. My parents lived on the Texas coast for over 20 years and the last comment in the article "Seldom eaten, but it is very good table fare, better than the gafftopsail catfish." really doesn't sound right. The gafftopsail catfish is very good eating and considered a game fish; I've eaten a lot of them. The hard head is considered a trash fish by everyone I ever talked to; never knew anyone to eat them. However, being sort of hard headed myself, I had to find out for myself, so I once filleted 3 hard heads and my wife fried them. I only took one bite before throwing all of it in the trash.

 

[frank29]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Peta would love this story ...LOL)</font>

I made a trip to Chicago several months ago. While there, I went to Chinatown.....went into a small store that wasn't even 30' wide....I saw a brutal way of handling fish. They had a tank with life fish about 18" long. The fish were removed and no attempt was made to stun, kill or whatever. The first step (within seconds of being removed from the tank) was scraping off the scales with a metal device. The second step was fileting the still flopping fish with a knife. This is done in the front of the store with full visibility from both the sidewalk and the main isle of the store.

Now, I think PETA folks are a bunch of nuts; however, that being said, I think the method I witnessed is not reasonable.

 

[Jimbrown]

Bird to the best of my knowledge I never ate one either. I have eaten a lot of gaftop. I keep a pair of long nose pliars on my belt so I can un hook hard heads with out touching them. I think trying to skin one would be very painful.

 

[EddieWalker]

Sendero,

Seems to me you took too many steps in the whole process. I think you should get rid of the fishing poles and just shoot them in the head with your .22 mag while they are in the water!!! Instant dead fish!!!! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Eddie