In order to participate in the GunBroker Member forums, you must be logged in with your GunBroker.com account. Click the sign-in button at the top right of the forums page to get connected.
Love me catfish,,
montanajoe
Forums Admins, Member, Moderator Posts: 59,978 ******
Beings Good Friday wife said she'll fry up catfish for dinner. Went to local store and come home with all they had, just 4 fillets. She said that would be plenty for dinner, I told her no way. So she called a store in town and they said they had lots of catfish but it was frozen. We drove in to get it. They had 9 fillets ( their alot and my alot are way different) so we got them all. Wife fried them up, wooo boyyy were they good. She ate 2 and I had 7. There are 4pcs left for lunch sandwiches tomorrow. Out of the fridge cold, onto white bread, salt/pepper, ketchup, and a slice of American cheese.
Comments
Just seen some fellow caught a state record 131. Pounds I am on my phone now but see it on the desk top about a hour ago .bad reporting on me for sure if I find it I post later had to change the post I found it on the internet only 131 pounds but still 😁
As for me never ate any as a kid my dad hated to clean them so thru them back or gave to a old fellow who would eat any fish we gave him suckers cat fish blue gill did not matter .. as for me even when got older always just catch release or give to some one else
But glad you had a great dinner
A 150 pound catfish would be kind of tough and maybe stinky to eat.
But! There are a lot of ways to skin a catfish! I really like to eat them but learned a long time ago that WHERE you catch them is very important.
sorry My mess up 😲 and bad memory 🤔 it "only " weighed 131 pounds
I enjoy eating fish very much. Catfish is right up there as table fare - but it does indeed depend on what the catfish has been eating. One of our local reservoirs is well known for producing delicious channel cats, and it is likely due to that lake's population of shad and crawdads as well as other good-eating prey such as yellow perch, crappie, and walleye. The catfish there eat mostly tasty things, and can't help being tasty themselves.
I live on the water and catfish are plentiful. What is the recipe you use? I have tried many and they never taste like the catfish in a restaurant. I seem to like them best soaked in milk overnite. Smoked they are great. Id take just about any other fish first preferring bluegills. They look great, nice white firm meat, but for me thats about as far as it goes. Maybe Im spoiled on walleyes etc.
Catfish have much denser flesh than fish such as walleye. Catfish has to be cooked longer as a result. Restaurant catfish is 100% farm-raised, and they ate feed pellets. They will necessarily taste a bit different than wild fish. It's up to you which one "tastes better" but I guarantee that wild catfish caught from cool water where they have plenty of forage fish to feed on will be outstanding. Catfish caught from muddy, stagnant ponds not so much.
ALL fish tastes better if it is immediately bled out and kept on ice. Fish dragged around in hot surface water for hours on stringers or even kept in a live well (where they get stressed and produce toxins) will not be good table fare.
Wife just flour them and into hot canola oil. The canola oil can get hotter without smoking or burning.
I mix two parts yellow corn meal, one part flour, and a healthy dose of Old Bay. Dip fillets in egg wash, then in the dry mix. Let set for a few minutes to allow the coating to set up, then fry. Allow the coating to brown nicely and the catfish will be done.
Drain fillets on a wire grate, NOT on paper towels.
The company I worked for sent some people to China when they were building a plant there. They came back and told of the catfish farms. I WILL NEVER eat fish if there's the slightest chance it came from one of those farms.
They told of the chicken and hog pens built on stilts above the catfish ponds. They feed the chicken and hogs and the chickens and hogs feed the fish.
I have seen videos "one of the big off the grid shows one of there "stars " even had the the hog pen up hill from his chickens and well &&%^% rolls down hill to feed his chickens said it was a way to feed the chickens and recycle the waste noting wrong what so ever as the chickens would eat it any way
There are many such practices within our food chain. And processing plant stories, oh my
Go catch your own, I have friends that go every year on a “catfish pilgrimage “ . They fish the Tongue, Powder, and Yellowstone rivers along with Fort Peck
Mule
Wild caught ONLY for me and the Mrs. We prefer to catch our own, but we have no access to some(salmon, red snapper, etc). White perch fillets shallow fried in cast iron is some of the best fish you will ever eat. Mullet is even good, caught, cleaned, and fried right there on the river(not so good on ice for days and def NOT frozen)
2 to 5 lb catfish fillets fried golden brown with hushpuppies ,French fries and ice tea. Meal fit for a king . Wild caught from a spring fed large 100 acre gravel pit lake . Clear blue-green water. I use House Autry brand breader and hushpuppy mix .
Of course fresh is the best. Like when we get our bison and beef steaks, fresh.
My brother, when we were kids caught one maybe 18-20" or more and visited all the neighbors showing it off. That thing was still breathing hours later and very impressionable
Fresh for me is about 40 yards from the dock to the house and it still doesnt help LOL.
Around here, the lakes have mostly Bullheads that bite mostly at night. I used to set a line baited with a chicken gizzard at the dock on my late uncle's cottage on Long Lake in Grand Traverse County, MI, before retiring for the night. In the morning, I'd almost always pull in a nice Bullhead. They don't get nearly as big as Catfish and average around 3-4 pounds for a nice one but sure are good eating!
Bullheads are great! Firm , sweet, and no bones. They smoke well too.
If the fish survive the feed, then it will be well-processed and the fish will be harmless for human consumption.
I worked on a hog farm as a teen and we sprayed "honey" all over fields of corn an soy.
I would be more concerned if they fed those fish feces from species such as dog cat, or human
The VFW a town over has catfish fry on Fridays and Saturdays. They do wings and pork ribs and smothered chops that change but I go for the fish fry with double greens. I don't have to do the work and the clean up after. Only complaint is that they don't open early enough, so I have to make a second trip out. I hit the Mexican supermarket on my way home and the VFW will have the signs up but they're not doing business at 0900. So I have to refrain from my beers so I can get my fish fry on.