I landed a 12 lb flathead off one of my brushpiles this weekend,
I have heard the belly is the best part. Do you remove the inner lining or leave it
on ? Also on the fillets , do you trim the reddish meat ?

I am planning on cutting up into nuggets and deep fry , any other options ?

Last question , have you ever targeted yellows on brushpiles with rod and reel ?

thanks

MO

Trim everything that isn't white meat, belly lining, blood or mud line, and any bits of skin. Leaving the belly lining or skin on leaves a fishy taste, the blood line will leave a muddy or dirt taste.

x2

Good eating yellas are my favorite although they all are good. Never noticed a difference in the belly meat taste. Could always tell it apart due to shape and grain of the meat though. Should be some fine eating!

X 3

I landed a 12 lb flathead off one of my brushpiles this weekend,
I have heard the belly is the best part. Do you remove the inner lining or leave it
on ? Also on the fillets , do you trim the reddish meat ?

I am planning on cutting up into nuggets and deep fry , any other options ?

Last question , have you ever targeted yellows on brushpiles with rod and reel ?

thanks

MO



I catch a lot of flatheads while bass fishing brushpiles. I usually catch em on plastic worms, the biggest one so far was 50lbs. most of them are in the 15 to 25lb. range. I'm thinking about trying the same areas with live bait. Although they seem to hit the plastic worms pretty good. I caught a 15 pounder Friday night and she had just spawned, her egg sack had just a few eggs left in it, when I cleaned her.

Like mentioned above, trim both sides of the meat so your left with clean white meat. It helps to refrigerate the meat before trimming it. Put the meat in refrigerator over night and make sure its covered in water.

My thought is to try live brim and fish each of my crappie pile for about
10 minutes each.
Clearing out the opps may make more room for the crappie.

MO

He's absolutely correct. Anything that isn't white meat I normally cut out...also. another good part of a flathead is the 2 patches of muscles in the top of their heads..but they normally need to be over 20# to be able to get enough meat to make it worth it.

They used to get in my crappie brush too, they love to eat crappie and crappie jigs. I'll be glad to fish your crappie holes Where are they?

Any catfish meat the has that silver/black color is going to taste like the bottom of the lake. I never keep any meat with it on it.

\


in Lake Palestine , north of the Dam , south of hiway 31,


MO

I always fillet them and cut belly meat off and lay flat in a cooler to cool them trims up a lot better seems like a lot of waist but sure is good eating

In cutting the belly straps, Yellows usually have better tasting meat than Blues or Channels. Depending if there is fat on the outer or inner layers of the belly straps (left or right side), I usually layer slice off the thin to thick layer of fat buildup. Next, I slice the belly strips cross grain, in thinner strips, not in chunks. This allows the meat to be tender after frying in a sense compared to beef, pork or chicken. By doing both of these, I can almost have the belly straps tasting like the rest of the meat. Yellows will be best, then Blues, then Yellows. If you leave the excess fat, you are in for a very bitter taste. Without thinly slicing into strips, it also helps to retain the interior fat collected within the meat itself, not referring to the inner or outer portions of the belly slab. By doing this, it helps to disperse out the excess fat. Of course another good step, is to soak your boneless meat in water in the refrigerator or ice chest, as it too helps to disperse out the extra fat. That includes the rest of the catfish meat too. Sometimes, I might process my Cats for 1 to 2 weeks in ice chests to simmer down the meat. It obviously makes a difference, as I am never short of hungry folks as I deep fry. I have even had fellow Catfishermen bring half of their catch from a Salt Water Fishing trip for me to fry, as they said I fry the best tasting fish up.

Also, I use Mrs. Tucker's shortening. I prefer a large cast iron pot as it holds the temp much more evenly than a big aluminum pot. I fried some Tilapia fillets & crinkle cut french fries in it up at work back in February, and one co-worker had to run out & go get some Mrs. Tuckers. He tried it with fried chicken & said that was the best tasting chicken ever. While many poo-poo grease (claiming it is bad for you), it seems to be able to get to a higher temperature which therefore cooks faster, leaves the meat crisper (and more tender inside), and absorbs less in its interior. Using oil requires a lower heat or it burns, thus cooking it slower, allowing the meat to be less crisp, and absorb more to be oilier (or greasy) in the meat itself. So maybe the bad bit about grease might apply to slow cooking, but not deep frying.

Mrs Tucker's is shortening made from Cotton seed oil and citric acid. The original plant in Sherman Tx employed a lot of folks from around where I grew up. Pure lard from Armour is hard to beat for taste but doesn't hold up well to the high heat needed for frying fish.

BTW, no belly meat for me especially from blues besides the fish I keep and clean aren't usually big enough to have belly meat slabs.