How do you cook a big catfish?

[zhitoman]

With all those talks about catfish I decided to give it a try. So tonight i went to a well known lake in Monmouth county. I had 3 catfish rods, the bait of choice was chicken hearts. I was hoping to catch some bullheads, or small channels. Spent about 5 hours there with no results. Then when it was already after 9, I was lucky enough to get a 18 lb channel catfish. I am still shaking lol. So how should I cook it?

[bigfishy]

Not exactly sure how, as i've never done it...But pretty sure you've gotta filet or chunk the meat...I personally like it with the skin on, unless i got super muddy during the catch and landing...

Well chunk it up, salt , pepper or any oter dy spices you prefer and deep fry it or pan fry t....My favorite is in regular olive oil....Sometimes ifry just with th spices or somtimes i do a egg wash and bread crumb dip before frying it...

Congrats on the beast and try to post some pics before you chop it up:)

[gnuisance]

Must See Picsssss

[acabtp]

Must See Picsssss
x2

[Eskimo]

I was lucky enough to get a 18 lb channel catfish.

PICS or it never happened.

Check with Youtube. They always have good fish preparation videos.

I have never had this problem. From what I gather, you gut and skin the catfish. Then, starting from behind the head, you cut the fish into 1" wide steaks until you get to a portion of the fish where the filleted meat would be under 1" in thickness. Then you cut the fillets off the fish.

[dboyd101]

PICS or it never happened.

Check with Youtube. They always have good fish preparation videos.

I have never had this problem. From what I gather, you gut and skin the catfish. Then, starting from behind the head, you cut the fish into 1" wide steaks until you get to a portion of the fish where the filleted meat would be under 1" in thickness. Then you cut the fillets off the fish.


Nom. Catfish filets. Nom.

[Fish n Jeep]

From what I've read, they are tastier if you cut the gills and bleed them out on ice before fileting them. I would think this is probably true for most fish.

[nutleysigns]

in a BIG PAN lol

[zhitoman]

Here the picture, i know it sucks but that's the best i could do.

[june181901]

Skin it, filet it cut in chunks and dip it in corn meal. Fry it covered in corn oil or vegetable oil after heating the oil.
Learned that when I was stationed in SC.

[Rickhem]

Some guys I used to work with always said to let the fish swim in your tub for a day to help get it cleaned out before cooking it. And in the event that you got it home and it was already expired, then they said to fillet it and soak the meat overnight in a salt water solution. Both of these are supposed to help remove that dirty taste that some catfish have.

Since I'm pretty much 100% catch-and-release, I'll admit that I've never tried either way.

[jimmythegreek]

From what I know the small ones are the tastiest, the 5+ fish are kinda blah, never ate one myself so just repeating what Ive been told. I know a die hard guy and he actually puts em in a kiddie pool and changes water out for a day or two and it helps the tatste out tremendously he claims. Alot of work for a fish in my opinion haha..........nice catch tho that thing is a tank

[bulletbob]

We have big ones up here in NY state.. I tried to eat them once or twice, skinned them, they were super fresh, only an hour out of the water.. Inedible as far as I was concerned.. I stopped even trying to eat them, and now just release them.. Maybe NJ cats are better, but the ones up here stink and taste exactly like black swamp ooze..

Most locals here that keep them soak the fillets in milk or salt water a few days..
Personally, I don't need to eat a fish that has to be "soaked" to be edible...
Good luck, and let us know how it goes..
Lots of guys love them, but lots don't.... bob

[gwl2oneida]

Deep fried skinless chunks in beer batter or corn meal. I use tartar sauce and hot sauce.

[tommyboy]

nice fish,filet him bread and fry

[gnuisance]

keep the small ones. release the big ones

[Eskimo]

.





I like catfish. My favorite way to prepare them is to fillet them and fry them up with bacon.

Here is a Channel Catfish I caught earlier this summer. It was quite good.


http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn38/Full_Stringer/OfftopicPics/Catfish_Kayak1_zps7b2301c3.jpg (http://s300.photobucket.com/user/Full_Stringer/media/OfftopicPics/Catfish_Kayak1_zps7b2301c3.jpg.html)




.

[zhitoman]

keep the small ones. release the big ones
That is my first new jersey channel catfish. Where do I catch the small ones?

[fishman-rd]

Have never tried cooking myself, but they are tasty if done right... type in Catfish recipe on YouTube & you'll get a ton of hits...

[lunkertaker]

Skin it, filet it cut in chunks and dip it in corn meal. Fry it covered in corn oil or vegetable oil after heating the oil.
That is what I would Do, have done it too many times to count and it always tastes good

[Eskimo]

Here the picture, i know it sucks but that's the best i could do.

Wow, you weren't kidding. That is a big catfish.
Unless you live in a doll house and have a really tiny kitchen sink...




.