Fishing Forum

Headed up to UL yesterday, beautiful day despite thunderstorm warnings. lanched at Provo, motored a little south and got into the cats. This guy was the first, we figured "damn" this is going to be a great day, he's 13 plus lbs 31 inches. Caught 10 more keepers, (missed a hole lot) all good eaters but nothing like him. We were using primarily red sided minnows/shinners, fishing in close to the reeds.
Anyone know a good smoking recipe for catfish? oops!!! resize sorry...
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Wow thats tough to beat. What a catch. Where do you get the minnows? I am moving up next week and want to try to get out for some cats at some point. I have noticed a lot of people talking about minnows, but not sure where to get them. Dead or alive? I fish Lake Mead in Las Vegas with anchovies and have caught cats, but nothing near that one.
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These are local trapped minnows / shiners we get out of our lakes around here, ie Scofield res, Electric Lake. You can also get them at Sportsmans, but something about them guys (commercially packaged) that just ain't right. Good luck
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So do they sell traps that you set up? I am assuming then that they are dead and probably frozen for future use. Thanks.
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Boy that is a hog! Congrats! You can buy throw nets at sportsmans, smith & edwards, and I am sure other places. That is how they are catching their own minnows...correct me if I am wrong?

[cool]Minnow traps are how a lot of people get their minnows. It takes a lot of practice and skill to get a bunch with a throw net, but once mastered, it can be pretty good...
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[cool]TubeDude has an EXCELLENT smoked catfish recipe. If you do a search on this website on posts by him with "smoked catfish" in the subject line, you should be able to find his posts on that complete with pictures or you can send him a p.m. (private message for the new folks).

Congrats on a nice kittie!
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That thing looks huge are you sure your scale works properly thats a nice Cat good job
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Nice catch[cool] I notice your skills on the soft water are just as good as they are on the ice. P.S. I'm the guy who bought the ice shack from you. Thanks again and we will have to share some water some time soon.[fishin]
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Very nice fish
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[cool]Nice goin' on the big kitties.

Attaching a PDF file on my process for smoking them. Just finished a batch. Yum.

A suggestion. Fillet the fish and then remove as much of the red flesh along the sides as possible. That sensory tissue contains a lot of oil and you need to cook out as much oil as possible. I take my fish almost to the jerky stage. I also cut off and discard the last two or three inches of the end of the fillet, near the tail. Same thing. Oily and too thin. Turns to paper when it smokes down.

EDIT: I just reread my instructions. Make a note to give the "brined" fillets a GOOD rinse. Otherwise too much of the salty taste remains for some folks.

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Thanks Tubedude, I did a search through the archives, but guess I ain't smart enough to finger it out []. Going to give it a shoot on the next batch of cats we we. Thanks again. Say, have you had an opportunity to try that trout smoke recipe I sent you? just curious.
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[cool][#0000ff]TROUT??? What are those?[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Sorry, about the only thing I smoke (fishwise) is catfish. I do catch a few trout but usually fillet and oven grill them.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]But, I still have your recipe in my file...just in case.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The big thing you will discover about smoking the catfish are that they are very firm, very oily and they take a lot of cooking to finish them off and dry them out a bit. But, worth the effort.[/#0000ff]
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