Grouper closure, time to do some sea catfishing!

i'd like to see some pics!

 

Excellent Pic's on cleaning.You don't need to skin them using the electric fillet knife. It makes such a nice fillet doing it that way!!!

 

IMO, it's much, much easier to remove the skin with an electric knife than with a pair of skinning pliers.

 

Man, those are some nice looking fillets! I have a good mind to do a blind taste test with gafftop v.s. freshwater cats just to see if i can really taste the difference.

I'll do a blind triangular taste test type setup the same way that you do when you are trying to judge a percived quality (usually a flaw) in a beer. You have 2 glasses of one beer and then only one of the other. In theory if there is a real difference you should be able to correctly pick the odd man out every time. If not then you know it's all in your head! :wink:

 

Very nice fillets!

 

I agree...Think it is the best thing since sliced bread...

 

Question here for ya?
do you need to remove the red from the meat on these fish to get some of that muddy taste from them or have you tried...Do they have a mud vein like a regular catfish?

I have never seen a photo of one before... Do you have a photo of one that is not cut...?

 

I believe the area the fish are taken in determines taste. Saltwater cats in our area specifically East of the Mississippi River and Delta(Louisiana) get sediments from Canada- Upper Mississippi system- the Missouri River system - Ohio river system .By the time everything gets to the Delta it makes a delightful grey/black goo mud which the cats-being bottom feeders primarily eat from.

"Hardheads" are more common in the canals and slow moving bayous where there is typically more mud-hence(at least in this area) they have a muddier taste and are fouler than their cousin the "Gafftop" . Gafftops do have a redder fleshy part on the meat. With careful filleting with an electric knife not to cut into the skin part ,that reddish can be eliminated leaving a beautiful white fleshy fillet. Gafftops(at least my experience here) tend to be in greater numbers in open bays and lakes going toward the Gulf. There is much greater water movement from tides and wind driven causes. Because of that -the water is cleaner and doesn't carry tannins common to bayous that largely tend to be driven by water volume currents.

Anyhow , I'll bring home an icechest full of gafftops and chunk the hardheads(as I did this weekend) unless there is absolutely nothing else being caught.

 

The fillets in the first pic look pretty good, the second one, to much red meat for me. On Channelcats, I remove ALL red meat.
By the "mud vein" are you refering to the lateral line down the center of the fillet" I also remove this "sensory organ" from my Channels and Blues also.

 

Brings new meaning to "You are what you eat" huh? Some people will argue but I believe our corn fed deer here in Indiana taste much better than the upper Michigan deer that browse in pine forests. What exactly do you use the chain for? To retrieve lines broken by snags etc? Looks pretty handy.

A couple of years ago I saw a guy working a river that feeds southern lake Michigan with a bare box springs with weights on the back. He would drag the bottom and had 5 gal buckets of lures and even a couple of complete reel/rods for sale at the boat ramp. Amazing what people come up with.

 

Thanks for this information as I said I grew up in Florida and never heard of a saltwater catfish...

I would love to see photo's of both the Gafftops and the Hardheads...I think this would be neat to see...

 

WOW now that is using your head...or I guess your box springs depends on how you look at it,

 

pretty intresting looking hugh??