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I am hoping to start doing some catfishing soon on Badin and High Rock. I have read a lot of the posts on catfishing but I am unclear on a couple of things. Which is the better catfish to eat....maybe in order... like blues, channels, flatheads... And what about size...is there a better eating size?
And has anyone ever used deer liver for cats? I am thinking of saving my deer livers this winter, freezing them and them for cats. Thanks in advance for your help.
Just my opinion, blues then channels then flatheads. Best size for fillets is between 4 and 8 lbs. Fiddlers, 1-2lbers are best for whole cooking. Anything over 10 is too big but can be cut down to be tasty. I have used deer liver and works pretty good but my best bait hands down is cut skipjack herring. Liver generally works best on smaller fish and typically channels. Whole live bluegill are best for flatheads, bigger the bait bigger the fish. Blues typically hit cut/bait-fish best.
smaller winter blues (shad fed) blues, flatheads (they eat live bait 95% of the time, channels...theyre more prone to eat whatever when ever. Catchin.....flathead hands down. Poppop, my brother n law's brother put 5 in the boat in Grants Creek over in your pond one night last spring over 30lbs. Lively goldfish and bream.
Thanks guys...so in saying that...when I read of the 20 to 40 pounders being caught....as a general rule just take a picture and turn them loose would be the best. Not saying I will catch one...but just in case. And keep the smaller ones less than 10 pounds for fillets....right.
in my opinion and ive found the big catfish, blues weve caught up to 43 pounds, weve cleaned and cut into nuggets and deep fried have been excellent eating if we remove all the red.
thanks....Rango... now is the red like meat stripes in the meat, or veins? I sure love catfish nuggets. Ate about a 4 pound channel cat the other evening, I stumbled on crappie fishing... it was some kind of good. I just fillet it like a crappie and took the skin off the same way. But I don't recall any red meat...I guess I didn't know to look for it. Everything I ate was good, nothing bad about the taste at all.
Flatheads by far are the best, then channels, then blues. On the other hand the BEST eating catfish I have eaten were caught in Oklahoma and the guide called them Mississippi whites?
As far a size, ANY flathead is good, but the others, to me taste better when they are below 7-8 lbs. My son and I have caught numerous over 30lbs (blues), and release most back. Tried earlier to cut into small chunks but they still don't taste good to me. The big blues even "stink" in the boat. Again, just my opinion.
if you know you gonna keep em, you can clip the gills and they will bleed out in the cooler. this will help a good bit. most of the catfish have a strip or red meat on each side just under the skin. when you fillet, you can hold the blade up from the skin a bit and it will take most the red off. when you get the sking off, then split the filet by cuttin the lateral line out. this will give you two fillet strips you can either cut into nuggets or make more fillets out of. also the meat along the ribs has some red in it. the belly meat, with the inner liner and the skin removed is some good eating to.
I wonder which species are what we have always called "mud cats" It seems like there were the most prevalent at High Rock years ago. They normally run about a pound of so... maybe flatheads? I know what the channel cats look like and that is definitely not them.
I agree 100%.Quote:
Originally Posted by rtorhead18
The "mud cats" that you are talking about sound like bullheads.
They have whites in KY lake too.Quote:
Originally Posted by rtorhead18
quackrstackr....I googled bullheads and I believe you are right.....what I call mud cats are bullheads..the best I can recall. They aren't worth a flip to eat either are they?
Flathead's,big and small followed by channel then blue's for me.A blue over 7or8lbs too big for me.I also cut the dark yellowish meat out and they get that in warmer water.
what kind of catfish is this?
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3064/...ac159446_m.jpg
The only ones I ever tried tasted like mud and were about the same consistency. I figured then that the name pretty well suited them.Quote:
Originally Posted by poppop
Only bullhead I ever had was the best catfish I ever had......then again it came out of a small gut running through Congaree National Monument, cooked in crisco on a campstove.....always tastes better like that lol
Bullheads (mudcats) are pretty good caught early in spring and from clear lakes. Small bullheads are some of the best flathead baits around, if legal in your state. One of the best flatheads I have caught was on mudcat that had eaten bait first, then became part of food chain to flat head.
Yep. Saw a 43lber come out of a basket...yes a basket to catch salt and pepper sized catfish...dont ask how he got in, neither the commericial fishermen nor I could figure it out when we brought it up and saw it. It had eaten every catfish in that thing and then regurgitated half of em lol. :eek:Quote:
Originally Posted by rtorhead18
Caught a 22lber that had a 16"er in it. Couldnt tell if it was a small blue or channel, as I personally havent caught a bullhead outa Norman.
It would have to be the flathead.
I guess it all depends on where you fish but to me blue cats are the best hands down, any size, big or small..
Caught some out of Badin a couple years back.... talk about the whitest, cleanest catfish meat I've ever seen anywhere!
Then my list goes...
2. Channels
3. Flatheads
4. Bullheads
5. White Catfish
Never had anything else... but I do wonder what those Mekong, Amazon and Wells catfish are like :)
I wont eat anything but flatheads, channels, and blues. the rest are junk fish. I prefer fish that are 10 to 25 or 30 pounds so i can get a nice thick fillet out of em. personally i cant tell the difference in taste in these three species or by size. smaller than 10 by the time you trim off the yellow and red meat i feel youve wasted alot of fish for not much meat let them grow up some. the ones over 30 pounds are just for pics and turn loose. there meat is still good but they are alot of work.
as for bait i usually use bream live and cut.
For me it's Flatheads. No other catfish compares. Particularly when you're talking about fish over 20 lbs.
Yep a flat head is the PEARL OF THE RIVER. The best fish in freshwater HANDS DOWN. No other fish as good as him. Size doesn't matter with a flattie. Second is BLUE or CHANN. I like them up to about 5 pounds. Anything over that the blue gets a lot of red meeat which you can cut out but I don't like killing a 60 pound blue cat for 10 pounds of white meat. I let the superduper big one's go.
Flathead Is The Very Best:d,to Me Anyway.
Wouldn't Clean A Channel--peroid. Had A Guy Offer Me A No.3 Tin Tub Full Of 1/2 To 3 Lbs.channels , Told Him To Bury Them Is The Garden For Fertilizer--he Agreed--thats Why He Was Giving Them Away.
flat heads are best eaters only becouse they hunt there food but over 30 lb you have to nugget them or they taste like your eating cotton
blues and the channles
only thing is blues get biger then any cat we have in usa so i put them back becouse it takes them years to get big
alan
thanks guys for the responses....
LIsten to Rango when it comes to cleaning them. All of them will taste good if caught out of a clean body of water and cleaned properly. I am picky about the meat I eat off a catfish. I trim anything that has a hint of yellow or red to it. I also save as much good meat as I can which means skinning out the belly meat, And even the head steaks on a flathead. To me, flatheads rank first, and then blues and channels. I have found channels tend to have more yellow meat than the others, and blues tend to have more red meat.
flathead are by far the best eating of the three.