Ok I heard all the different opinions on eating saltwater cats. Just finished cooking and eating some filets. They were great. The bigger pieces had sort of a gamey taste. I did soak them in milk. Just gotta remember that reds were considered trash fish at one time.

Gafftop is not hardhead. I think most will tell you gafftop is fine to eat and hardheads are the trash. I just have no patience to clean fish so I only keep the ones I know I'll enjoy eating (reds, flounder, spec). I don't fry fish either so it's got to taste good grilled, baked, blackened or just quick pan sear.

I'm picky about what I eat and how it's prepared. I've eaten gafftop for six decades. No special preparation is required. I just roll the filets in a little French's mustard and cornmeal. IMO they're far superior to farmraised catfish.

Make sure to cut off the red meat after fileting. That's where the gamey taste is the most. They are good to eat for sure blackened or fried.

When was this?

Reds only became "Famous as food" after Chef Paul Prudhomme learned to Blacken them. Until then most people had never heard of Redfish.

You mean Paul Prudhomme (Magic seasonings)right?That Blackened recipie almost depleated the species!Well,they were never considered trash-fish in my family!Been eating Reds for over 30+years!

yes do this with any fish.

Yeah it was Prudhomme that made blackened redfish popular and people started pouring into his restaurant just to eat redfish never having heard of the fish before. I forgot the whole story. But I believe it was back in the 70s. Rudy Grigar talks about it in his book. And back then they didn't have limits and the redfish was just being heavily fished to keep up with demands.

Gafftop are fun to catch. They put up a good fight. I caught a nice 4 pound gafftop on a wade fishing trip this past week in Galveston Bay. Caught it on a black/chartreuse soft plastic. Along with many other trout.

I know several anglers who eat gafftop and they like em as for me nothing beats a good mess of blues.

Took an older friend and his son fishing that hadn't wade fished much. After a morning of wading we had pretty good stringers of trout and reds. I was really happy that I was able to put them on fish. They didn't seem that impressed.

On the way in they wanted to stop and drift down the channel for Gaftops. We filled the cooler with Gaftops 4-6# in a couple of hours. They hooted and hollered and had a great time. That's all they could talk about for the rest of the trip. BTW, They did help me scrub the slime of the boat.

They were excited about the fish fry they were going to have, they said the catfish were good eats.

To each his own I guess.....