Fresh is best!! Although I am going to have to try that Mrs Tucker's.

Fresh, all the way! Now like the folks said earlier. Mrs. Tucker's is great to fry in.
After eating about 10 lbs of both Blue and Channels apiece
last night;
we have came to the conculsion. Need more Fish-Frys to determine an accurate answer! Might take all winter.LOL!
Thanks Bittercreek

+1 after that a channel cat then a blue cat. IMO

Teachum noted:
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"I rake the meat off the bones to get bonelass straps. Then I slice big wafer steaks off of the top (back) straps. I also already trim the red olfactory gland off before I do that."

I don't know what any of this means. Please elaborate.
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OK, here goes. Hope I can explain it without typin' up a few pages. Due to my Mom as a kid having a bad experience with swallowing a fish bone one night, I cut mine up to have boneless meat. While many use electric fillet knives to cut fillets off real qwik, I don't. I try to get practically all of the meat off the bone possible. Others have watched me do it, realize it takes more time, but amazed as to how much boneless meat yield I get. Many that watch me at Running Branch say they have never seen it done that way. Jeff & James watched me & saw how much boneless meat I keep, and they quit filleting them & cut it up like I taught them.

After cutting the head off, I slit the belly & get out all the rest of the guts. Then I cut out the bottom belly fins. Then I slit on each side back to tail on bottom fin ray & pull it out by pulling from tail (with fish skinning pliers. Then I slit each side (at tail) just before actual tail where no meat is & snap the tail off. Then I slit around top High fin. And rip it out with fish skinning pliers. Then slit down top towards tail. Then pull skin off on each side with fish cleaning pliers. Next is slit on each side of the cartilage on top, then pull out with skin pliers.

Now for cutting off the boneless meat. I use a Winchester hunting knife (cost was about $15 a few years ago). <http://www.knivesplus.com/winchester-knife-hunting-wn-1339.html> I have my daughter my 27 year old Western hunting knife & bought a $40 Buck knife. And it somehow got out of the boat, so I decided on the Winchester. It has served well & for much cheaper. You need a thicker one, as a fillet knife (thin blade) will butcher the meat or you might even lose a finger.

I lay the trimmed cat on one side. First I cut off each sides' belly straps, even with edge (or ends) of the rib bones. I then make a slight incision just above the ribs on the trimmed cat that remains & slit towards the tail running on the centerline. I come back & then run the slit deeply, all the way down to the centerbone. You try not to do it many times or you will be wasting meat. I turn it over & do the same on the other side. I then shave the meat off the bone from the center, heading to the top of the fish for the back straps. Once you have both sides' back straps, you now have meat left on the bottom side of the bone skeleton. Cut at angle near the end of the rib cage (after awhile, you will know how to get the most meat salvaged), then shave off the bottom strap of meat for each side. Only two more cuts left for each side. And this takes practice to get the most of it. Shave off the meat on top of the rib cage working from the front, as well as near the main skeleton. Once both sides are done, then turn it to where the belly is looking at you. There will be a sliver of meat right on the outer edges of the rib cage (inside the cage). The larger the fish, the larger it will be. One pounders may not be worth it to try & get that last little bit.

From each side you will have these sections: full length back strap, bottom strap, belly strap, rib top, and riblet (from down under). So you will have two each. Now while you have gotten the most meat out, these pieces need trimmimg as they have certain spots that are either very gamey, very bitter, or strong (due to fat). I'll have to explain what to trim or snip separately later.

Your snip concerns my steaks I spoke of. As you lay the full length back strap down in front of you, after you make a cut or two which was towards the head, the meat will be the roundest & largest. Slicing out wafers 1/2" to 1" thick as you head towards the tail end. When it gets too small, then trim the other as you see fit. But you will have these round small boneless steaks. The best are from 8 to 15# BlueCats. As you move the meat around, they have a translucent type look that the colors can be seen. They will look like the letter "B" or the number "8". When you fry these up, you can get them slightly crispy on the outside, but they are very tender inside. And clean tasting.

As to the olfactory bit snip ... The catfish is equipped as one lean, mean sniffin' machine. However, it does not work like we think it might. In the center of each side is an olfactory gland. If left in, it will taste bitter. This looks like a bloody strip & can be trimmed off with a fillet knife (not the hunting knife). This gland strip will be in these boneless portions on each side: full length back strap, bottom strap, and rib top.

As to the belly straps, they usually have a lot of fat mixed in them & can taste very strong, but you can trim it down, if you know what to trim out. But I'll have to describe that another time. Hope this helps in answering your questions as to my comments you had a question on.

When I do a "controlled burn" (liquid fuel Coleman stove with one cast iron pot filled 2/3rds with Mrs. Tucker's grease/shortening) sometimes at Running Branch on Lake Limestone, and those around or near come over to get a bit, everybody eats as I fry it up. And there are definitely no complaints. Served with ice cold Del Monte ketchup. Heiz is too salty, and Hunts is too sweet. Del Monte is just right. One guy up from Houston (he had seen a pic of us & my boat with a 100 pound run, on the Running Branch website a few years back) said he had been trying all kinds of oil & greases, but just could not believe how good it tasted with Mrs. Tucker's. He even took a few pieces back to his trailer & woke up his wife to try some. Then he came back to eat more.

As to me, I can taste the difference between Blues, Channels, Yellows, and which portions the meat is from. Also, when cleaning Blues & Channels, I can smell the difference. The guts stink on a Channel compared to a Blue. And you wonder why they nicknamed me "Catfish"?

Last Church Fish Fry I did was the north side of Houston back in January. I had 4 deep fryers running- 3 with boneless catfish (from those I catch) & 1 with boneless Tilapia fillets (from Wal-Mart 4 pound box), one Coleman stove running with Ore-Ida Crinkle cut french fries, one small bottle propane stove running with Hush puppies, and a charcoal grill with catfish & tilapia fillets (for those that cannot have fried foods or those that just want to try it).

It would have been a neat video of me running the fryers. One run, I would be popping stuff in, next run pulling cooked items out, then keep repeating, sometimes mixed. I can't complain, as they reimbursed me for all expenses (except my catfish & my treat of the Tilapia) & even my mileage, plus my fuel & meals, and more. I was told I can come back anytime, as they are ready for more.

I like blues ..But only if they are caught tail cut off right then bled out gutted and on ice. cook it how ever just get that blood out

Thought I would pop in to see what's going on in the Tx world of cats.

We don't have any blues this far North although there are many that claim to have caught a blue (just a blue/grey channel). So I can't compare.

Ol' Pete taught me how to clean channels.

Fillet from behind the rib cage.
Trim out the lateral line.

Place in water and refrigerate over night

The next day trim off all of the yellow (fat)
Chunk up and deep fry.

Minnesota people are nuts for walleye and when given walleye and channels prepared the above way, they can't tell the difference even when told.

I found a company that makes a light dry coating for fish and for the folks that like a little spice, a Cajun dry coating. I just bought some pancake mix from them and lucked out because they are having a 15% off sale this weekend only. Sturdiwheat is a great change of pace from the standard corn meal/shore lunch coatings.

One of these days I'm going to try flathead. I'm just afraid I'll like it too much!

Briank, great to hear from you up North.
Send us some Walleye Pics, next chance you get!!
I am so ignort, Cannot post pics of the Fish-Fry in question
from the other evening.
Thanks for all the respones,. Get a kick out of TFF; and all you good folks here.
God-Bless
Thanks Bittercreek

channel cat is now my favorite since mr. whiskers showed me how to remove the "mud vein". i also really like yella cats and white crappie!