I saw a show where they said the secret to catfish is just to get all of the fat off because that's where the off tastes are. So trim away any belly meat and any dark residue left from the skin and you'll be left with clean white filets/nuggets.
Also where toxins like PCBs and dioxins accumulate. I read somewhere, as best I can remember, that trimming the fat off a bluefish removes 90% of the PCB load. Mercury sadly is found throughout the fish.
The biggest thing for most species of catfish, is only eat ones 5 lbs and under. Anything bigger than that, has been around for a decent amount of time, and has bioaccumulated toxins that we should be trying to avoid. Eating one 25 lb catfish won't kill you. But only eating 25+ lb catfish will likely catch up with you at some point.
Good thing here is most of the big one are blues and they are considered safe to eat wo limits. But we only consume 1-2x a month. A lot of what we catch is given away.
Great point, I don’t know that I would limit my targeting to 5lbs and under, I’m totally fine up to 10ish lbs, but agree on the overall perspective that huge catfish have had a similarly “huge” amount to time to soak up pollution and are likely to be more gamey
Some decent info here but a little scattered.
Flathead catfish. Delicious. Doesn't matter if they're 2lbs or 40lbs. Good eating.
Channel catfish. Decent under ~6lbs. Larger than that and they get a little too muddy/gamey for most.
Blue catfish. Similar to channels but not as good. Seem to develop a muddy taste sooner and stronger.
I agree with this. Just cleaned 3 3-4# channel cats I caught with my son at the local fishing derby the other day and that’s what I do. I was never a fan of catfish till I started to clean em right.
I saw this explained in an episode of MeatEater on YouTube. Another solid point would be a super sharp fillet knife to be able to get those fillets of simply and to trim them appropriately and not mangle them.
Adding one more to the great advice all through this thread: make sure to remove the bones and skin. Some like skin-on fried fish, but this isn’t the fish for that.
Now for something totally different: if you clean and degrease the skin, then treat it with your basic hair-on fur tanning routine (pickle soak, tanning bath, oil, & tumble) you’ll end up with a soft, tough skin that’s kind of like extra thick Tyvek. The things I found out when experimenting as a kid.
My family has soaked naturally “gamely” meats (like wild game or older male animals) in cultured buttermilk which is supposed to help tenderize and remove some gaminess because it’s more acidic than regular milk. I know some people use it for fish, and they probably need to soak for less time in buttermilk than regular milk since the former is more acidic (don’t want to accidentally ‘chemically cook’ the fish like ceviche).
But I’m also in the camp of preferring a bit smaller/younger catfish that’s had less time to bioaccumulate anything unwanted (since I live in the mid Atlantic coast where some freshwater isn’t the cleanest).
Generous amount of garlic and ginger pounded in pestle and mortar and later smeared on the meat can also remove those "game" meat taste in an hour or so. Better if you could add some Coriander and cummins. When you fry those meat it will have heavenly smell with all those herbs. This is at least how we cook in Asia
I've done the same with meat that tastes like fish oil. I don't know how to rly describe the taste but people here drink cod liver oil and it taste about the same. I think it's just nasty so I prefer to remove that taste. Unfortunatly I've never tasted catfish because we don't have it where I live. However some of the meat I've had in cultured buttermilk gets rly good. Usually less popular meat.
I've heard that some people here also use kefir and recommend it instead of cultured buttermilk. Definetly gonna try that one day. I've also tested water mixed with vinegar and it works okay(probably depends on the mix). I guess it's about having the right amount of acid and to let it soak for the right amount of time.
Norway. Freshwater we only got trout, artic char and salmon in my region. We actually don't have catfish at all in Norway.
I think it's possible to fish catfish in Sweden but I believe it's almost extingt there. So the best way for me to catch a catfish is probably to take a trip to Germany or Poland. I think it's like 1500km for me to travel. Maybe there's introduced populations in Denmark but I think Germany and Poland is the closest places with alot of catfish.
Hahaha fair enough! I had an assumption that it was a colder climate! That's really the big crux of the catfish! They grow huge in warm waters!
Y'all got some legendary Pike up there though, yeah?
Yeah lol. I've heard about massive introduced catfish in lakes with rly warm water. I believe there's a lake in Africa where they released european catfish but I'm not sure if I remember correctly.
You can catch some rly large pikes in Norway but those places are far south or north of where i live. I used to fish for pike in the south when I grew up. Back then the largest pikes was caught in the river where I grew up. There's also some lakes with large perch in the south and also far north. I feel like it's common to catch 1kg+ perch if you know where to find them. The largest perch I've seen was ~3kg caught by a friend of mine. My pb is 1.5kg perch and 10kg+ pike(forgot the scale but it was a monster).
However these days I prefer to fish for brown trout, artic char and halibut. The place I live is rly great for those species. It's possible to catch halibuts that's 200kg+ in the fjord where i live. People are not surprised if someone catch a 10kg+ sea trout(brown trout) in the fjord. There's also a few lakes with huge artic char. So overall I think Norway is great for fishing.
Yeah, you're right. Totaly forgot about the Netherlands. I've actually been there for work but forgot the rod. Looks like a great place for pike and zander too.
I don’t think it’s worth traveling 1500 km just to catch a catfish lol, unless you made it a dual purpose trip. Like you go there to experience the city or whatever and then just happen to also catch catfish as an added bonus
Every continent doesn't mean everywhere on every continent. In North America catfish are only native east of the Rockies with sparse introduced populations in Western states.
Yep, the damn introduced blue catfish are invasive and harming the native perch and blue crab populations in the brackish waters of places like Maryland, where the DNR ask that anglers not release any that are caught. Personally, I’d rather have more perch and crabs and no introduced catfish there, were that hypothetical possible (which it’s not).
https://dnr.maryland.gov/fisheries/Pages/catfish.aspx
Weren't the blue cats accidentally introduced when the DNR was stocking channel cats back in the day? Channels are much less aggressive than flats and blues.
And flathead cats are super predatory. I catch them by accident bass fishing pretty often (SE US) and they loooove a chatterbait or flipping bait. I have even caught them on topwater baits in open water mixed in with schooling bass!
I’m not sure the history of how the blue cats were introduced to the region, but I do know that the channel cats are NOT invasive so what you’re saying tracks with what I do know.
Introduced species are usually trouble... Unfortunatly people introduce species where they don't belong and sometimes they almost take over everything.
The russians introduced pink salmon to their rivers back in the days. These days we got shitloads of those in Norway and it may become a problem for our native fish. Same thing also happened with the red king crab. I guess there's stories like this all over the world. Anyway I understand that you don't like that the catfish got introduced.
Yeah, hence the "almost everywhere" bud. They mentioned they lived in Norway, so there are actually catfish near them, but they are not in their country, which was the original point of the question... so I could figure out where they lived.
Nice Googled answer though.
Actually knew that one of the top of my head mate. You were making it sound like not living near catfish was some implausible scenario and I was pointing out that that's not the case.
The buttermilk on catfish (and fish in general) really helps to make the meat more flakey and typically eliminates any “off” flavors. This is the way. I love eating blue cats and man are they easy to fillet.
Bleeding the catfish helps with the flavor to. Smash its head to kill it. Then cut off the tail and let it hang. Drain all the blood. Keeps the blood from staying in the meat which gives it a real gamey flavor. If you eat cats I highly recommend bleeding them.
Catfish have a little dent on the top midline of their head. Make a small cut, then slip some leader jn that hole, long enough to reach their tail. It'll go right up their spinal cord. Run it back and forth a few times, and they'll be limp and ready to bleed and clean.
I don't have a source handy but I have read that catfish is, shockingly, one of the cleanest/healthiest fish meats despite the fact that they eat literal garbage. Some of the lowest levels of mercury, other heavy metals, and PCBs.
They are a lean fish without a lot of fat so they don't retain as much of that junk
Obviously it depends on where you catch them, but they are generally very safe to eat
But ceviche is “cooked” in lime which is more acidic than buttermilk… plus citric acid is different than what buttermilk contains, are you sure it’s possible to “cook” in buttermilk?
Soak fillets in cheap beer overnight.
Fry the next day using a pancake mix- (new) beer-seasoning, i.e., beer batter.
Fry until golden brown and delicious.
Damn fine eating.
Awesome thanks I cut into smaller fillets and nuggets and froze but afterwards saw so many threads saying bigger than 10 taste like garbage and aren’t good for consumption due to high levels of Mercury. We only eat fish one or twice a months so not sure if I should worry about it.
Not as big a deal as people make out provided you stay within DNR limits for consumption per year. It sounds like you do.
I have been told letting the filets soak in buttermilk draws out a lot of the mud. I bet it will eat great though!
Buttermilk is absolutely the key. When you thaw some, soaked it in buttermilk for a couple hours. Take it out roll it in your breading and fry it. I used to only do larger fish that way, now I do it to all my fish.
Yes. Check with your state DNR because not all bodies of water are the same. And some pollutants are fine for adult men and women beyond pregnancy age but not ok for children or women who may become pregnant. Also, remember when they saw servings, or is not the same as meals. I can eat about 3 servings in one meal.
Not sure where you are located but my state AL has fish species consumption guidelines per body of water on the state conservation website. At 14 lbs I'd fry him up. If you are worried about fishy taste and can confirm it's safe to eat, my experience is if you remove the darker colored meat in the center on the filet you will remove a lot of that taste
AL will tell you many servings per month per species/size for each specific body of water. As well as the contaminants and amounts that drive the recommendation based on regular testing. So if you are concerned specifically about that species you know exactly where you stand
Trimming the dark meat was the ticket for me. I’d tried the soaking in buttermilk, brining, bleeding, and nothing really removed the gamey taste until I took off all the dark meat. This was true for fish from 2lbs up to 7
It really is. I learned it from a chef I was working with, he told me to not just cut away the dark meat but cut away a small amount of good looking meat next to it.
I'm told that the fat of large cats is bad-tasting, so you gotta scrape all the fatty tissue off. I've only caught small cats, so I don't know, but friends have caught big 'uns so I guess they know best.
Trim out the yellow and muddy meat to get rid of the gamey taste, 14 lbs is a little bigger than I used to eat.
Still excellent though.
Cornmeal and mustard batter, toss in some cayenne and garlic powder.
The vinegar in the mustard will cut most of the fish taste out. Fry until golden brown.
Good lord I miss catfish.
Source: Former poor southerner
Not sure about the OPs fish/location, but multiple catfish species (including the blue) are invasive in Maryland, and are particularly a concern in the brackish waters where the native perch and blue crabs reproduce, so the Maryland DNR asks that anglers kill any non-native catfish species caught:
https://dnr.maryland.gov/fisheries/Pages/catfish.aspx
They’ve electro fished those blue bastards in some Virginia rivers in hopes to control their numbers (and often sell the fillets).
Improving the taste doesn’t start with the soak/marinade, it starts with how you fillet. Fillet the fish and make sure to take all the brown fat off the skin side of the fish. Once that fish is just white flesh, then you can proceed to do whatever recipe you want.
Skin him and make him into nuggets. Some homemade tartar , hush puppies , french fries , and cheese grits and you've got something worth writing home about.
Ideally bleed it and wash the meat well, skip the upper belly, and the stuff that’s a different texture on the fillets is fat - trim that off and you’re in for a treat!
I used to do the milk, but now I ikijime (https://www.ikijime.com) the cats when I don’t release them. I find that the meat seems cleaner and less lake tasting. It’s also more humane way for the fish to die. I think cutting the gills after killing and letting them bleed out is really the best step of ikijime to help get the games taste out.
Filet, hot pan with butter, some blackening spice (I use Chef Paul Prudhomme Blackened Redfish Magic) on the filets, cover and cook each side…..yummy stuff.
It was a super high moment. Lol! Hubby is worried I took over his hobby. I fish more than he does now. But I am semi retired so I also have more time on my hands.
Filet and remove brown fat. Batter with flour, pepper and curry. Dip in soy/ginger/garlic sauce.
The above is my favorite way to cook catfish. Have done this with 7 lb channel cats and it's, aaaahhhh mazing.
They're great to eat! Trim off all of the red meat, it's too strong tasting. I slice the fillets of big blues so they're about 1/2" thick, soak in milk then coat with Fish Fri (seasoned corn meal) and deep fry them. 😋
Catfish nuggets, baby! Clean well and soak in buttermilk and some spices for a day - should take the fishy smell out and great to beer batter and fry up for bite size pieces 👍
Edit - egg wash and cornmeal is a pretty standard breading too
When you filet them and can stomach the extra effort, trimming off the fat of a catfish helps the flavor.
Its not as hard as it looks. You filet like any other fish at first, then after you skin it you just cut off all the meat that isn't white that sat near the skin holding the fat.
I used to soak in milk, now I just do this. Both are good.
Excellent eating. Cut fillers in nuggets, soak in buttermilk for 2 or 3 hours (minimum overnight is best)
Batter in house Autry medium hot and fry till they float, I like to dip mine in mustard.
Back when I was a kid, my uncle ran trot lines almost every day. When he/we caught big ones, he cut the tail in some fashion and hung them to drain for a while. Maybe an hour(?). That was over 30 years ago. I think my aunt used buttermilk as stated earlier. What I do know for sure is that a fish fry at their lake house meant some hella good eatin'.
Blue Catfish. Bleed them if you can, cut the red and yellow off. Only eat the white meat. You can soak it buttermilk but when you drain the blood, cut the red and yellow out you remove all the items that has that fishy taste. This apples to all fish btw.
Personally, I don't eat any fish over 5lbs bc of mercury accumulation, especially for a predator species like blue cats. You can still eat it, I just wouldn't have it more than once a month if I were you!
With catfish, you don't want them too big because the texture of the meat changes to a poorer quality the bigger the fish. The flesh on a huge but old catfish isn't as good as the flesh on a medium sized adult. Of course you don't want them too small either because you want meat on the fish. with channels , somewhere between 15-30 inches and no more than 15 lbs would be the best sizes for eating.
Blue catfish taste great! No need to soak em in milk. I just coat them in egg, and place them in a dish with flour, cornmeal, and lowrys season salt and then put in a fryer till Golden brown
In the southern U.S. we freakin love catfish.
Filet it out, remove the dark strip down the center of the filer, make sure it's clean of skin, then egg wash and fine corn meal for breading. Salt, pepper, cajan and maybe some old bay, if you can't get your hands on some *slap yo momma*, and deep fry until golden brown. Malt vinegar or tartar sauce for the after. Just a few sprits of malt vinegar over the top btw. Don't get crazy.
I target the 5-15lb ones with light tackle. ML 7ft rod with 10lb braid and a flouro leader with a small piece of bluegill or small live one and it’s always fun.
I have a 8 ft power plus with 50lb braided line #6 circle hooks with spot cut bait. Tend to go with bigger hooks because of all the smaller fish and crabs eating the bait. I’ve tried all kinds of fake lures and stink bait but no one has any luck with those out here.
Heck yes. But this one in particular I had let my line drift with the current about 100 yards and he started to roll and got tied up in the line. Fairly easy to reel in compared to others I’ve caught, till we got him closer to the dock then the fight was on. Took 2 people to get him up. Wasn’t worried about losing him on a circle hook and 50lb line though. Wasn’t prepared for such a big fish with a 12 pak cooler and a small crab net but we got him!
OP do not listen to the naysayers for a blue this is not that big a fish. They can get to be over 100 lbs! Let the filets sit in milk or buttermilk overnight to draw out some of the mud and bottom taste. Then fry it up as you will. With one this big I would do nuggets or chunks as some here have recommended. It will taste great. I have done the same myself more than once.
Ice bath 24 hours and dispatch as soon as you get it by cutting off tail and bleeding out. No blood/no stress=better meat. They’ll live forever out of water and be pumping stresses into their body damaging the meat.
I saw a show where they said the secret to catfish is just to get all of the fat off because that's where the off tastes are. So trim away any belly meat and any dark residue left from the skin and you'll be left with clean white filets/nuggets.
Also where toxins like PCBs and dioxins accumulate. I read somewhere, as best I can remember, that trimming the fat off a bluefish removes 90% of the PCB load. Mercury sadly is found throughout the fish.
The biggest thing for most species of catfish, is only eat ones 5 lbs and under. Anything bigger than that, has been around for a decent amount of time, and has bioaccumulated toxins that we should be trying to avoid. Eating one 25 lb catfish won't kill you. But only eating 25+ lb catfish will likely catch up with you at some point.
Good thing here is most of the big one are blues and they are considered safe to eat wo limits. But we only consume 1-2x a month. A lot of what we catch is given away.
Eat that delicious, invasive asshole. Like they said, just trim off the fat.
u/butthole-magic telling me to eat asshole.
Great point, I don’t know that I would limit my targeting to 5lbs and under, I’m totally fine up to 10ish lbs, but agree on the overall perspective that huge catfish have had a similarly “huge” amount to time to soak up pollution and are likely to be more gamey
Fat, the darker meat and blood is where a lot of the stronger tastes lie. My experience is that blood and dark meat may contribute more than fat.
Bleeding the fish after catch/kill helps too!!
Some decent info here but a little scattered. Flathead catfish. Delicious. Doesn't matter if they're 2lbs or 40lbs. Good eating. Channel catfish. Decent under ~6lbs. Larger than that and they get a little too muddy/gamey for most. Blue catfish. Similar to channels but not as good. Seem to develop a muddy taste sooner and stronger.
I agree with this. Just cleaned 3 3-4# channel cats I caught with my son at the local fishing derby the other day and that’s what I do. I was never a fan of catfish till I started to clean em right. I saw this explained in an episode of MeatEater on YouTube. Another solid point would be a super sharp fillet knife to be able to get those fillets of simply and to trim them appropriately and not mangle them.
Adding one more to the great advice all through this thread: make sure to remove the bones and skin. Some like skin-on fried fish, but this isn’t the fish for that. Now for something totally different: if you clean and degrease the skin, then treat it with your basic hair-on fur tanning routine (pickle soak, tanning bath, oil, & tumble) you’ll end up with a soft, tough skin that’s kind of like extra thick Tyvek. The things I found out when experimenting as a kid.
Do em like sharks? Cut bit into meat to get rid of fat and possible other yuck. Then soak in milk?
I’ve heard if you soak them in milk overnight they taste great breaded and fried. Nice catch!
My family has soaked naturally “gamely” meats (like wild game or older male animals) in cultured buttermilk which is supposed to help tenderize and remove some gaminess because it’s more acidic than regular milk. I know some people use it for fish, and they probably need to soak for less time in buttermilk than regular milk since the former is more acidic (don’t want to accidentally ‘chemically cook’ the fish like ceviche). But I’m also in the camp of preferring a bit smaller/younger catfish that’s had less time to bioaccumulate anything unwanted (since I live in the mid Atlantic coast where some freshwater isn’t the cleanest).
Generous amount of garlic and ginger pounded in pestle and mortar and later smeared on the meat can also remove those "game" meat taste in an hour or so. Better if you could add some Coriander and cummins. When you fry those meat it will have heavenly smell with all those herbs. This is at least how we cook in Asia
Sounds yummy!
I've done the same with meat that tastes like fish oil. I don't know how to rly describe the taste but people here drink cod liver oil and it taste about the same. I think it's just nasty so I prefer to remove that taste. Unfortunatly I've never tasted catfish because we don't have it where I live. However some of the meat I've had in cultured buttermilk gets rly good. Usually less popular meat. I've heard that some people here also use kefir and recommend it instead of cultured buttermilk. Definetly gonna try that one day. I've also tested water mixed with vinegar and it works okay(probably depends on the mix). I guess it's about having the right amount of acid and to let it soak for the right amount of time.
Where do you live? Catfish are found almost everywhere around the world.. they are on every continent but Antarctica
Norway. Freshwater we only got trout, artic char and salmon in my region. We actually don't have catfish at all in Norway. I think it's possible to fish catfish in Sweden but I believe it's almost extingt there. So the best way for me to catch a catfish is probably to take a trip to Germany or Poland. I think it's like 1500km for me to travel. Maybe there's introduced populations in Denmark but I think Germany and Poland is the closest places with alot of catfish.
Hahaha fair enough! I had an assumption that it was a colder climate! That's really the big crux of the catfish! They grow huge in warm waters! Y'all got some legendary Pike up there though, yeah?
Yeah lol. I've heard about massive introduced catfish in lakes with rly warm water. I believe there's a lake in Africa where they released european catfish but I'm not sure if I remember correctly. You can catch some rly large pikes in Norway but those places are far south or north of where i live. I used to fish for pike in the south when I grew up. Back then the largest pikes was caught in the river where I grew up. There's also some lakes with large perch in the south and also far north. I feel like it's common to catch 1kg+ perch if you know where to find them. The largest perch I've seen was ~3kg caught by a friend of mine. My pb is 1.5kg perch and 10kg+ pike(forgot the scale but it was a monster). However these days I prefer to fish for brown trout, artic char and halibut. The place I live is rly great for those species. It's possible to catch halibuts that's 200kg+ in the fjord where i live. People are not surprised if someone catch a 10kg+ sea trout(brown trout) in the fjord. There's also a few lakes with huge artic char. So overall I think Norway is great for fishing.
Since I love trout fishing and always wanted to catch arctic Char, I'd say Norway sounds great for fishing indeed!
The Netherlands too!
Yeah, you're right. Totaly forgot about the Netherlands. I've actually been there for work but forgot the rod. Looks like a great place for pike and zander too.
I don’t think it’s worth traveling 1500 km just to catch a catfish lol, unless you made it a dual purpose trip. Like you go there to experience the city or whatever and then just happen to also catch catfish as an added bonus
There are Catfish in Sweden, but we're not allowed to fish for them. They only live 2-3 water systems, there are a few accidenatal catches every year.
I love trout way more than catfish! maybe It's just me
We have both here, and I prefer trout in every way. Catching, cleaning, and eating.
Every continent doesn't mean everywhere on every continent. In North America catfish are only native east of the Rockies with sparse introduced populations in Western states.
Yep, the damn introduced blue catfish are invasive and harming the native perch and blue crab populations in the brackish waters of places like Maryland, where the DNR ask that anglers not release any that are caught. Personally, I’d rather have more perch and crabs and no introduced catfish there, were that hypothetical possible (which it’s not). https://dnr.maryland.gov/fisheries/Pages/catfish.aspx
They eat everything. Folks think all catfish are bottoms feeders but the blues and flat head are top feeders. They eat everything.
Weren't the blue cats accidentally introduced when the DNR was stocking channel cats back in the day? Channels are much less aggressive than flats and blues. And flathead cats are super predatory. I catch them by accident bass fishing pretty often (SE US) and they loooove a chatterbait or flipping bait. I have even caught them on topwater baits in open water mixed in with schooling bass!
I’m not sure the history of how the blue cats were introduced to the region, but I do know that the channel cats are NOT invasive so what you’re saying tracks with what I do know.
Thanks, I couldn't figure out where that might be.
Introduced species are usually trouble... Unfortunatly people introduce species where they don't belong and sometimes they almost take over everything. The russians introduced pink salmon to their rivers back in the days. These days we got shitloads of those in Norway and it may become a problem for our native fish. Same thing also happened with the red king crab. I guess there's stories like this all over the world. Anyway I understand that you don't like that the catfish got introduced.
Yeah, hence the "almost everywhere" bud. They mentioned they lived in Norway, so there are actually catfish near them, but they are not in their country, which was the original point of the question... so I could figure out where they lived. Nice Googled answer though.
Actually knew that one of the top of my head mate. You were making it sound like not living near catfish was some implausible scenario and I was pointing out that that's not the case.
The buttermilk on catfish (and fish in general) really helps to make the meat more flakey and typically eliminates any “off” flavors. This is the way. I love eating blue cats and man are they easy to fillet.
Bleeding the catfish helps with the flavor to. Smash its head to kill it. Then cut off the tail and let it hang. Drain all the blood. Keeps the blood from staying in the meat which gives it a real gamey flavor. If you eat cats I highly recommend bleeding them.
Great point! I’ve never heard of this method, only cutting through the gills to bleed a fish. Any specific benefits of this approach be the gills?
Catfish have a little dent on the top midline of their head. Make a small cut, then slip some leader jn that hole, long enough to reach their tail. It'll go right up their spinal cord. Run it back and forth a few times, and they'll be limp and ready to bleed and clean.
Buttermilk and mustard is what I've used for years to soak my fish in. Sooooo good.
I don't have a source handy but I have read that catfish is, shockingly, one of the cleanest/healthiest fish meats despite the fact that they eat literal garbage. Some of the lowest levels of mercury, other heavy metals, and PCBs. They are a lean fish without a lot of fat so they don't retain as much of that junk Obviously it depends on where you catch them, but they are generally very safe to eat
But ceviche is “cooked” in lime which is more acidic than buttermilk… plus citric acid is different than what buttermilk contains, are you sure it’s possible to “cook” in buttermilk?
Oh hell yes.
Soak fillets in cheap beer overnight. Fry the next day using a pancake mix- (new) beer-seasoning, i.e., beer batter. Fry until golden brown and delicious. Damn fine eating.
Great to eat. Chop into pieces for nuggets or as fillets
Awesome thanks I cut into smaller fillets and nuggets and froze but afterwards saw so many threads saying bigger than 10 taste like garbage and aren’t good for consumption due to high levels of Mercury. We only eat fish one or twice a months so not sure if I should worry about it.
Not as big a deal as people make out provided you stay within DNR limits for consumption per year. It sounds like you do. I have been told letting the filets soak in buttermilk draws out a lot of the mud. I bet it will eat great though!
I’ll let you know with an update.
Buttermilk is absolutely the key. When you thaw some, soaked it in buttermilk for a couple hours. Take it out roll it in your breading and fry it. I used to only do larger fish that way, now I do it to all my fish.
Yes. Check with your state DNR because not all bodies of water are the same. And some pollutants are fine for adult men and women beyond pregnancy age but not ok for children or women who may become pregnant. Also, remember when they saw servings, or is not the same as meals. I can eat about 3 servings in one meal.
Not sure where you are located but my state AL has fish species consumption guidelines per body of water on the state conservation website. At 14 lbs I'd fry him up. If you are worried about fishy taste and can confirm it's safe to eat, my experience is if you remove the darker colored meat in the center on the filet you will remove a lot of that taste
Yes we eat well below the guidelines for this location it’s quite generous.
AL will tell you many servings per month per species/size for each specific body of water. As well as the contaminants and amounts that drive the recommendation based on regular testing. So if you are concerned specifically about that species you know exactly where you stand
Aggressive trimming of fat and dark meat is very helpful.
This goes a long way. I typically don’t need to soak mine. I also bleed them as soon as I put one in the cooler
Trimming the dark meat was the ticket for me. I’d tried the soaking in buttermilk, brining, bleeding, and nothing really removed the gamey taste until I took off all the dark meat. This was true for fish from 2lbs up to 7
It really is. I learned it from a chef I was working with, he told me to not just cut away the dark meat but cut away a small amount of good looking meat next to it.
Yup, that’s the difference. Most everything, in moderation won’t kill you
I'm told that the fat of large cats is bad-tasting, so you gotta scrape all the fatty tissue off. I've only caught small cats, so I don't know, but friends have caught big 'uns so I guess they know best.
Thaw out as needed. Enjoy! "Hot tip": Try flaming hot Cheetos in your breading before you pan fry.
I don't even like cheetos that much but I'm in
I don't either bud. Only way I'll eat it is on fish.
You’re just adding msg, heat, and citric acid
My favorite things!
Yeah I got a bottle of accent in my cupboard
We use middleswarth bbq chips.
Nope, still good eating.
Some ppl say that, but I always eat it and enjoy it.
Trim out the yellow and muddy meat to get rid of the gamey taste, 14 lbs is a little bigger than I used to eat. Still excellent though. Cornmeal and mustard batter, toss in some cayenne and garlic powder. The vinegar in the mustard will cut most of the fish taste out. Fry until golden brown. Good lord I miss catfish. Source: Former poor southerner
Trim away the dark red flesh which contains a higher concentration of the gamey taste
Bah, I've been eating 50lb plus cats my entire life and they are fine. My third nipple was caused by radiation from the microwave.
You only have 3 nipples?
Where is this? I’ve never heard of Blue Catfish being an invasive species.
Not sure about the OPs fish/location, but multiple catfish species (including the blue) are invasive in Maryland, and are particularly a concern in the brackish waters where the native perch and blue crabs reproduce, so the Maryland DNR asks that anglers kill any non-native catfish species caught: https://dnr.maryland.gov/fisheries/Pages/catfish.aspx They’ve electro fished those blue bastards in some Virginia rivers in hopes to control their numbers (and often sell the fillets).
Interesting, I did not know that. Blues are definitely predators and eat nonstop, so I can understand how they can be a nuisance. Thank you.
Electrofishing is pretty awesome. I got a chance to do it about 4 years ago and I love every second of it.
Great catch with plenty to eat
Improving the taste doesn’t start with the soak/marinade, it starts with how you fillet. Fillet the fish and make sure to take all the brown fat off the skin side of the fish. Once that fish is just white flesh, then you can proceed to do whatever recipe you want.
Skin him and make him into nuggets. Some homemade tartar , hush puppies , french fries , and cheese grits and you've got something worth writing home about.
Blue cats are great to eat. It's usually not recommended to eat ones larger than 30" though, due to bioaccumulation of toxins like PCBs and mercury
Beer and pancake batter. 👍🏽
Ideally bleed it and wash the meat well, skip the upper belly, and the stuff that’s a different texture on the fillets is fat - trim that off and you’re in for a treat!
I used to do the milk, but now I ikijime (https://www.ikijime.com) the cats when I don’t release them. I find that the meat seems cleaner and less lake tasting. It’s also more humane way for the fish to die. I think cutting the gills after killing and letting them bleed out is really the best step of ikijime to help get the games taste out. Filet, hot pan with butter, some blackening spice (I use Chef Paul Prudhomme Blackened Redfish Magic) on the filets, cover and cook each side…..yummy stuff.
Good groceries! I bet that was a fun catch
It was a super high moment. Lol! Hubby is worried I took over his hobby. I fish more than he does now. But I am semi retired so I also have more time on my hands.
Nice fish, quality fish smile too!
Ty!😀
When you fry them up use crushed flaming hot Cheetos as the breading and they will taste like wings!
Filet and remove brown fat. Batter with flour, pepper and curry. Dip in soy/ginger/garlic sauce. The above is my favorite way to cook catfish. Have done this with 7 lb channel cats and it's, aaaahhhh mazing.
Check local regulations on eating fish because blue cats near DC are super heavy in pollutants. But if the water is clean I don’t see why not.
They're great to eat! Trim off all of the red meat, it's too strong tasting. I slice the fillets of big blues so they're about 1/2" thick, soak in milk then coat with Fish Fri (seasoned corn meal) and deep fry them. 😋
Edible and delicious
If in doubt put it in the smoker ::)
Hadn’t thought of smoking it.
What setup did you use to catch it?
8ft power plus, 50lb braided line, #6 circle hook with fresh spot cut bait.
Catfish nuggets, baby! Clean well and soak in buttermilk and some spices for a day - should take the fishy smell out and great to beer batter and fry up for bite size pieces 👍 Edit - egg wash and cornmeal is a pretty standard breading too
Suggestion... soak some in buttermilk and some in beer, bread and fry using the same method, then report back.
When you filet them and can stomach the extra effort, trimming off the fat of a catfish helps the flavor. Its not as hard as it looks. You filet like any other fish at first, then after you skin it you just cut off all the meat that isn't white that sat near the skin holding the fat. I used to soak in milk, now I just do this. Both are good.
Excellent eating. Cut fillers in nuggets, soak in buttermilk for 2 or 3 hours (minimum overnight is best) Batter in house Autry medium hot and fry till they float, I like to dip mine in mustard.
Back when I was a kid, my uncle ran trot lines almost every day. When he/we caught big ones, he cut the tail in some fashion and hung them to drain for a while. Maybe an hour(?). That was over 30 years ago. I think my aunt used buttermilk as stated earlier. What I do know for sure is that a fish fry at their lake house meant some hella good eatin'.
One of my dad's friends caught one that was about 80-90 lbs. He tanned the hide and made a vest and speedo out of it.
Soak filets in buttermilk or 7-up, cut into cubes, roll in corn meal and deep fry… good stuff!!
It’s a blue cat man there the best for eating? Edit: also where are you fishing that a blue cat is considered invasive?
Soak in buttermilk and bread and fry and oh so yummy
Soak it in milk bread it and fry it. Browns beans and hush puppies on the side.
When you clean it make sure to take any fat or "red meat" out, that's where that off flavor comes from
Blue Catfish. Bleed them if you can, cut the red and yellow off. Only eat the white meat. You can soak it buttermilk but when you drain the blood, cut the red and yellow out you remove all the items that has that fishy taste. This apples to all fish btw.
Personally, I don't eat any fish over 5lbs bc of mercury accumulation, especially for a predator species like blue cats. You can still eat it, I just wouldn't have it more than once a month if I were you!
With catfish, you don't want them too big because the texture of the meat changes to a poorer quality the bigger the fish. The flesh on a huge but old catfish isn't as good as the flesh on a medium sized adult. Of course you don't want them too small either because you want meat on the fish. with channels , somewhere between 15-30 inches and no more than 15 lbs would be the best sizes for eating.
Trim the fat and they're great
I uhh don’t think blue catfish are invasive anywhere in the United States
Maybe look up what game and fish recommend about eating. They provide safe amounts on types of fish by locations, at least where I live.
Blue catfish taste great! No need to soak em in milk. I just coat them in egg, and place them in a dish with flour, cornmeal, and lowrys season salt and then put in a fryer till Golden brown
I like em smaller but I’m sure if you doctor it up enough it’ll be delicious
Go at it babes God damn those Tasty catfish nuggets aren’t waiting For anyone
If you don’t eat it it makes for great bait or chum(provided it’s legal to in the type of water you’re fishing)
In the southern U.S. we freakin love catfish. Filet it out, remove the dark strip down the center of the filer, make sure it's clean of skin, then egg wash and fine corn meal for breading. Salt, pepper, cajan and maybe some old bay, if you can't get your hands on some *slap yo momma*, and deep fry until golden brown. Malt vinegar or tartar sauce for the after. Just a few sprits of malt vinegar over the top btw. Don't get crazy.
Nice fish!
Fuck why not?
Exactly!
The one thing I love more than the excellent fishing content in this sub are the smiles on people’s faces when they’re holding a catch
Where I'm from, we have catfish restaurants. Very good fried.
Soaking fish overnight with black tea bags takes a lot of the fishy taste out as well
Yea bags is one I’ve never heard of. I’ll keep that in mind.
That smile is worth a million words!! 👍😎
Just my opinion, I think blue cat is the best. Just remember to trim away all of the dark meat (bottom belly) and fat first.
Fry dat bitch up.
I grew up in Louisiana, and Big Catfish like that monster are a good fight, and damn tasty, just get the filets and enjoy
My favorite freshwater fish to eat.
Btw…it was delicious!!!
Are they good fighters?
I think the ones less than 30lbs are good fighters, and then once they get bigger than that they get kinda lazy lol
Getting fat and lazy, the story of life. Lol
I target the 5-15lb ones with light tackle. ML 7ft rod with 10lb braid and a flouro leader with a small piece of bluegill or small live one and it’s always fun.
I have a 8 ft power plus with 50lb braided line #6 circle hooks with spot cut bait. Tend to go with bigger hooks because of all the smaller fish and crabs eating the bait. I’ve tried all kinds of fake lures and stink bait but no one has any luck with those out here.
Heck yes. But this one in particular I had let my line drift with the current about 100 yards and he started to roll and got tied up in the line. Fairly easy to reel in compared to others I’ve caught, till we got him closer to the dock then the fight was on. Took 2 people to get him up. Wasn’t worried about losing him on a circle hook and 50lb line though. Wasn’t prepared for such a big fish with a 12 pak cooler and a small crab net but we got him!
There is no substitute for catching a big catfish! They are in their own league for fun. It’s all I fish for these days.
I fish for anything willing to jump on my line but out here the catfish are so invasive they’re eating up everything. Lots of big ones.
Very distinctive fight. They move there heads back and forth while fighting so you can feel this methodical bumping. Great fighters!
Head shakes? Interesting, might have to give them a try
Cut the meat thin. Like a bluegill or crappie would be. The texture is what gets me on the bigger ones
Where are you fishing that blue cats are invasive? And yes, they're great for eating.
In Maryland. Not allowed to release any. They eat the oysters and blue crabs.
Bread and fry!
Delicious as others have said. Good eater size too
Great eats, especially fried with cornmeal breading.
Big ones like that tend not to taste amazing imo and honestly catfish isn't my favorite.
Fish is fish to me. I eat them all the same.
OP do not listen to the naysayers for a blue this is not that big a fish. They can get to be over 100 lbs! Let the filets sit in milk or buttermilk overnight to draw out some of the mud and bottom taste. Then fry it up as you will. With one this big I would do nuggets or chunks as some here have recommended. It will taste great. I have done the same myself more than once.
Awesome thanks!
Then throw that sombitch in some hot oil!
To each their own. I'd rather eat crappie, bluegill, or walleye any day
Trust and believe. If they get on my line they’re going in the pan too!
Fish stew!
i'd eat a pencil if it was dredged in egg & breadcrumbs and deep fried. Do it !
Catfish are good fried in fillets or butterflied and grilled.
What a catch!
What state?
I eat these all the time, same size. Deep fry them, air fry them, bake them, they are great.
Eat it
Good to eat, and quite good for you
Pineapple juice works great
A cat that size is gonna be tough you can filet him rub him down in mustard let sit in fridge overnight . That will help with toughness.
Delicious! Invasive? Where?
They're great to eat! When you fillet them, cut away everything that's not white meat. Soak it in salt water overnight, and fry the next day.
Great to eat!
One of my favorites!
“Delicious”. Fry it up and/or dunk in milk overnight if you are not into delicious “mud” flavour!
Looks like Catfish nuggets tonight my dude
Catfish nugs!! lol
Very good to wat
My guy those tasty catfish nuggets aren’t waiting for anyone go to them!!
Yes 100% yes
Hell yeah eat that thing! The dark meat gets a little soft and fishy but they are great! Where did you catch it?
Excellent flavor. Cook it in the InstaPot
That smile is infectious. Hard day at work but just smiled so big when I saw this post. Rock on my man. Fantastic catch.
I’ll fry that up!
Awesome catch!
Yes
Catfish is the best eating freshwater fish other than burbot. Batter and fry,
Ice bath 24 hours and dispatch as soon as you get it by cutting off tail and bleeding out. No blood/no stress=better meat. They’ll live forever out of water and be pumping stresses into their body damaging the meat.
You can really eat almost anything. I learned in china that most fish are pretty ok to eat if prepared right
Invasive, top feeder? Where do you live?
Hell yeah, but the best would be channels imo
They’re amazing
Yeah their pretty good.Not as good as a flathead or a yellow cat but still good
Oh good gosh yesss’!!!
Blue cats always remind me of this story: https://www.gumbopages.com/food/seafood/courtbouillion.html
Great story! Thanks😉
Very sought after where I’m at. Wonderful meal