Catfish/muddy Taste

Overall the quality of a catfish goes in this order. flat head, channel cat, and a very distant 3rd the blue cat. IMO the blues are fun to catch but not worth eating at all.

imo bluecats, arent a bad fish to eat. there like channels you need to get them no bigger than 18-20 inches long.......3-5lbs are the best to eat.....we fixed close to 30lbs of fillets last night even the kids liked the chicken nuggets lol.....flats this way have a real strond taste.......but if i have any fish to eat sorry to say but walleye is number 1

I've got to admit as much as I like walleye, or jack salmon as the old timers here used to call them, I like crappie and flatheads more. Walleye bigger than 4 or 5 lbs. can start tasting fishy, but I never tasted a crappie or flathead that wasn't sweet no matter how big they were.

Have caught quite a few catfish over the years and last year while on Reelfoot lake learned and great way to get rid of the muddy taste.

First important point was to bleed the catfish. You can hang them on a nail and cut the tail off and they should pretty well bleed out.

Second was to soak them in 50/50 lemon juice and ice water after cleaning. I always just used an electric knife to fillet them. This mixture will turn almost a muddy color after 8-10 hours..then drain and cover with fresh water and ice and soak another 4-8 hours. Then they are either ready for frying or freezing.

It amazed me how brown the water would get, but it works!! Just make sure keep them cold.

The above will work for just about any fish..but soak times are reduced a lot with other fish. I have used this on stripers, blue gill, and even crappie, but it doesn't take near as long on soaking...maybe a couple hours at the most for blue gill...

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Originally Posted by NIMROD

Best start with fresh fish from good water. Them dress ASAP , perferably fillet while alive. Remove all red meat and fat. Cut these fillets into steaks about 3/8'' thick. Does'nt hurt to soak them too. The larger fish are usually lower quality. The Blues and Channels are best under 5 lbs. Flatheads are best of any size. We never bother with Bullheads as here they are called Mudcats . Time of year can effect the flavor of all fish. Low water in high temps are the worst. The Flatheads caught in winter when lots of fresh cold water is in the lake here is our favorite.

When you do catch some fish that are too fat you can use this method. After cutting up wash quickly in hot salt water with a little vinegar. Don't leave in but a minute. Transfer to other side of sink in water and ice to cool . Then rinse and bag to freeze or drain to fry. The larger Blues out of the Arkansas River tend to be fat and stronger tasting.

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take 2 bowls break afew eggs and put into bowl and whisp in the other bowl pour some buttermilk in it dip the fillet in one then other then batter it and drop in hot grease trust me you will like it

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Originally Posted by slimecoat

This is a lot of work but here is how I do it. Take a sharp fillet knife and slit the gills where they connect to the top of the head. Hold the fish in a net until it bleeds out. I then gut them and toss the guts. Pack in ice. When home skin with a knife rather than pliers. Leave a eighth inch of meat on the skin. Next remove the lateral line area. Remove all yellow tissue. Next rinse the fillets in a container until all fat is skimmed off. At this point the fillet should smell like clean pure air. The muddy taste is probably coming from a chemical produced by a type of cyanobacteria The chemical is called methylisoborneol. It’s a big problem on commercial fish farms. They actually have a professional taste tester come in and sample the fish before the lot is sold to a buyer. Muddy flavor in fish is seasonal and will probably lesson later in the year!

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or just use the guts as bait.

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Originally Posted by slimecoat

This is a lot of work but here is how I do it. Take a sharp fillet knife and slit the gills where they connect to the top of the head. Hold the fish in a net until it bleeds out. I then gut them and toss the guts. Pack in ice. When home skin with a knife rather than pliers. Leave a eighth inch of meat on the skin. Next remove the lateral line area. Remove all yellow tissue. Next rinse the fillets in a container until all fat is skimmed off. At this point the fillet should smell like clean pure air. The muddy taste is probably coming from a chemical produced by a type of cyanobacteria The chemical is called methylisoborneol. It’s a big problem on commercial fish farms. They actually have a professional taste tester come in and sample the fish before the lot is sold to a buyer. Muddy flavor in fish is seasonal and will probably lesson later in the year!

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or just save the guts, let them bake in the sun (in a jar of course) for 3-4 days and just wrap them in salmon spawn bags or use as chum and your ready to go! ;)

Take 'em home live and put them in a feeder tank with fresh water runnin thru it for a few days, then clean 'em up and drop 'em in the grease. Yum!!!

I have been catching catfish out of the TN river for many years. I clean the fish and when I freeze the fillets, I put a little lemon juice in the bags before I freeze em. NEver a muddy taste. ORange juice works to, but you can taste the orange juice in the fish if you use too much.