Had the Allen family out today to celebrate a birthday!! They wanted all cats for a fish fry this evening! Was a little worried with bluebird skys,shifting winds then no wind. But like I always say it's better to be lucky than good!!!
They loaded the boat with quality fish and a couple of slots!!
Give me a shout to book your trip!!!

Nice work Tom. Thats a pile of fish!

Nice haul. Good job.

That'll do for a fish fry sir

Ooooo, Looks mighty good there!!! Prime BlueCat for sure! Any in that pile weigh between 12 & 14 pounds? If not in the slot & they are keepers, they fry up the best, for sure.

As to the 12 to 14 pounders (Blues), I do it the old fashion way. Cut the head off, gut them, cut & pull fins off, peel the skin off. I cut below the ribs to get the belly strap from each side. Then I slit right down the center of the bone from front to tail, then rake off the top slabs on both sides, next bottom sides from end of ribs to tail. Last, is rake off the ribs top side, then same inside of ribs. Stopping short of further way I trim out the meat, the point I was going for, is the two top back straps. I lay them out & slice wafer steaks about 1.25 to 1.5 inches thick. You can go from the front down the slab about 2/3rds of the way to the tail like this. From about the 2nd or 3rd steak, if you lay them flat or in your hands, they have a translucent type rainbow glitter to the meat. The steaks will look similar to the shape of a capital "B" or figure "8".

I fire up the cast iron pot, either on the Coleman stove or deep fryer, with Mrs. Tucker's shortening (pot about 2/3rds full). Get to where it is smoking, or hot enough to light a kitchen (larger) match on. Fish will be salt & peppered dipped in 3 possible batters: 1) corn meal with a little flour; 2) Tony's Crispy Creole batter; or 3) Bearden Farms batter. The first few will come out a little darker, as the heat levels out (comes down a bit in Temp). Then after that, they should be golden brown. The outside will be just slightly crisp or sealed good, and if you snap it in half, the fish meat will be tender & flaky inside. Enjoy with ice cold Del Monte ketchup. There is nothing better than the 12 to 14 pound BlueCat steaks. With the hot catfish bites & ice cold catsup, you can blow smoke rings of approval, as it is Mmm Mmm so good!

Keep up the great fishing Tom!!!