I was wondering if any of you experienced catfisherman can give me some advice on getting the fatty, muddy taste out of your catfish. I caught a 10# blue and a couple of 2 pounders and fried them up, this weekend. I made sure to get the red meat off of the 10# pounder but still didn't taste that good. If this makes a difference they were caught on lake Palestine. Thanks in advance.

As soon as you catch them, put them on ice. Some people bleed them, by cutting the tail or gills. I soak all of my filets in ice and milk for about an hour before frying them up. Make sure your oil isn't bad or too hot, and wash those puppies down with a cold one. Have you eaten fish from palestine before?

2 frogs left on the log...normally, but all will follow the leader eventually.

3 frogs - only "decided" to jump, hadn't jumped yet...

Thanks Adam Watts for your reply. No I haven't eaten catfish from Lake Palestine before. So milk helps to relieve the taste? I'll try that.

WishinFishin, there are only three, like Adam Watts said.

Thanks

Had taste problems with Blues from Lake Palestine until I started fileting the fish and discarding the belly meat. Soaking in milk will help.

Another trick with Palestine catfish is to only eat the small ones. The 10 lber was probably pretty strong.

It is a rule of thumb to rub your fillets down with mustard before putting them on your corn meal. It will also make it a little crispy. Also, put your cats in a cooler filled with fresh water and lat them purge themself out for a day or so. My dad puts his fillets in a freezer bag with his seasonings before freezing. Hope it helps.
Dave

As I'm fileting my fish, I always have a container full of ice and water that I put them in until I'm ready to do the final rinse. I think this helps with the purging metioned above. I also tried the mustard rub a while back, I liked it but put it on a little too thick. Next time, I may water it down a bit and pat it with a paper towel before I batter them. Had a nice flavor though - try different kinds of mustard and see how they do (spicy, french, etc).

byodoc had a good point, the belly meat can tast really bad. I made that mistake once when I was cleaning a 20lb cat. I left a lot of the belly meat on and it had a nasty taste to it.

Therapy4u2fish, I do believe all your answers are in this thread, but somewhat scattered out.

I notice you are from Tyler. One thing in East Texas you want to be careful with is to make sure that 10lb fish was in fact a blue, and not one of those old big channels that have turned blue. Lake Monticello is full of those and they taste like ka,ka.

I've used the mustard marinate and it does work good....Adam, I dillute the mustard with water to thin it. And, I don't use Gray Poopant.

It sounds like you are trimming the red meat near the skin, and that is super critical. There is also some white strings that run the length of a filet that I often extract, and this helps. They run down the lateral line, and they simply pull straight out the end of a filet.

One other marinate you might try, and I do if the fish smell a bit strong, or if it's a fish like striper.....Take a bowl, fill it with ice cubes and then pour a bottle of Real Lemon over the ice and add your filets. Then add enough water to cover your filets and set in ice box for about an hour or so. Not too long, because that citrus acid will cook those filets. But, it can also cook out the bad taste and bleach them mighty white. I come straight out of the lemon juice straight into my batter and fry. Clean Peanut oil exclusively heated to no less than 350, or more than 375 degrees exactly!! Super critical!! Use a themometer!

My best advice....Chunk that smelly old ten pounder back next time, and set five pounds as your eater limit. I personally don't care to eat any kitty over about five pounds. 2-4# being the prime eating size kitties of all.

I vote that the size is the problem mostly. Other than that, I have had different experience from different lakes, and even different depths and water temperatures at different lakes (lots of differents there).

Trim the fat along the belly area of the filet and the upper back area.

Catfish is good, but because there are so many places that you can catch them (usually), the quality of meat is really up for grabs.

I have eaten ma y different sizes of cats up to 69 lbs and not had any bad tasting ones yet. May too many bullets before the fish were done.hee-hee Really, clean and season them good while freezing and there should be no problem.

I fish Lake Travis which is a clear water lake that doesn't have a problem with muddy taste in cats.But I used to have a problem with fishy taste in bigger fish, 10lb and up, until I started bleeding,removing the blood strip and fat and finally removing all the silver skin. All my fish taste great after that.

Tyff has taught me the best way of getting the muddy taste out of catfish. It's the only way I'll eat a kitty anymore. If you would like to know the secret though, I'm afraid you'll have to ask him. I won't be the guilty one of giving any of his trade secrets away. Good luck!
Juan

I do this trick to ALL species of fish I catch and eat. I leanred this method from eating deer meat...which has thta gamy tates and then I took some gormut cookign classes from a very fdamous master chef...and this is where I leanred my trick...it's really no secret....

Clena up your fillets real well. wash them wiht cold water really good.

I usually tossd down on my kitchen coutner several big paper towles...after I wash the fillets well...i put them ojn the paper towles just to get some of teh water off.

Then I put fillets in a gallon zip lock baggy...my family eats a lot of fish wehn we cook it...thus the alrge bag. Put your fillets inside (one meal for yoru family) and then pour in either...butter milk or 7-up drink. Try each of these in separate baggies to see which one you like the best. Let yoru fillets soak overnight or at least 3 hours.

Remove them from the baggies...straihgt into yoru batter and ito hot 350 degrees peanut oil...not margine, not crisco, not vegtable oil...PEANUT oil.

My kids love it and when they were small and precious..they would say, Daddy, can I have more chicken please. They thoguht ti was chicken obviously....so that's the secret.

Now dont' tell anyone, especially whoever that Juan angler is. Never met him before...just being stupid on the computer I guess.