Lady_Red, do you filet any other kinds of fish you catch? If you do, fileting a catfish and a scaled fish is almost identical.
I simply ring right behind the gill and up as high on the head as possible, then flatten that knife out and slab that side of the fish off. I know some folks stop right at the tail and flip the slab leaving the skin attached to the carcass, but I simply take both halves off, toss the carcass, then use my middle finger and ring finger on the tail end to pin the skin to my filet board and take the skin off.
If the Gafftop is like a freshwater kitty, I run my filet knife a bit flatter than say on crappie or bass, cause I want to try and leave about an 1/8th of an inch of flesh on that skin. Cause on channels and blues, that is the bad tasting layer on a kitty.
My point being, if you can filet any kind of fish, you can filet a catfish. I don't like to skin them first, because on fresh water kitties like I say I wind up having to go back and slice an 1/8" layer off the filet anyway. So why add an extra step to the process, unless you like eating mud veign??
I remember my Dad when he worked on a shrimp boat laughing about all the Gaff Tops the guys would throw back because they were under the belief they weren't fit to eat. We ate a bunch of them that he would gather up and bring home.
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Mike www.WhiskerKitty.com
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