Thread: Catfish/muddy Taste

I Have Cought Some Catfish In The Past And Fried Them Up And They Tasted Muddy How Do You Go About Getting Rid Of The Taste Other Than Drowing Them In Some Kinda Sauce

We have that problem with Bullhead sometimes and we soak them in buttermilk and then scim the top liquid off before cooking

Fatman

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!

We usually keep our catfish in a fish box with clean well water for a couple days before dressing 'em. This helps to clean they out some and get rid of that muddy taste.

... is a strong, overbearing taste, it could be the red meat that's causing it. Many members have stated that, if you filet off the reddish meat portion of your Catfish fillets, the strong (muddy ?) taste will be lessened or removed.
I can't personally verify this, as I've seldom kept Catfish to eat. And the ones I did keep/eat ... were before I had heard of this.

It is, however, a good practice to remove & disgard any of the yellow fat along with the entrails, eggs, & skin. These are where most of the pollutants will congregate within the fish ...

... cp

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!

Right on Slimecoat!! That is how we do our catfish when we run our trotlines. We gill cut them on the stringer and let them bleed out. By having them bleed out, it minimizes the blood mess when you fillet them. We don't gut the fish right away because we are only minutes from the reservoir.

Here's a video that is similar to how we clean our catfish: Cleaning Catfish Under A Minute

I have experienced the muddy taste from Crappies as well if they are taken from a lake that has a large algae bloom.

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!

or just use the guts as bait.

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!

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!

This is the best way I have found for people like me who don't like the fishy/muddy/strong tasting catfish. Take electric knife and filet, just like a crappie. Take the filet and a very sharp knife and cut the red vein completely out, leaving two pieces out of each filet. Next trim any fatty/yellowish/dark colored junk off. After cleaning all the fish, put in whatever type container that will hold the filets or a portion of them not filling over 1/3 of the container. Next take garden hose with a nozzle and turn water on full pressure. Place nozzle over into container and adjust the stream to let the filets roll or tumble like a washing machine. Keep filets turning until water in the container is clear. Take filets and soak in salt water in refrigerator for several hours or overnight. One thing to be careful is until you are familiar with the water turning the filets, you might want to cover with something to keep filets from coming out of the container.

"The muddy taste is probably coming from a chemical produced by a type of cyanobacteria The chemical is called methylisoborneol." quote Slimecoat

This is what I was told about the catfish in my pond. It is caused from high organics in the water. They told me 72 hours in fresh water will remove the bad taste. With all the rain we have had my pond has flushed out real well and the mold taste in the fish is gone.