07-05-2007, 11:59 AM
[cool][#0000ff]You would gain nothing by leaving the skin on the cats. While it is tough in its natural state (wet), it disintegrates when cooked and would do nothing to hold the fish flesh together. It has a very unique skin, among fishkind. It is totally scaleless. The scaly skinned fishes usually have skin that hardens into a protective covering when the fish is cooked. Trout and salmon are good examples. A lot of anglers prefer to leave the skin on until after these fish are cooked.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Filleting and skinning catfish definitely helps improve the taste, and also removes some of the oiliness of that species. In fact, on larger catfish, you should take one additional step and slice out as much of the reddish tissue as you can. That is the sensory tissue along the lateral line, in between the skin and the flesh. The larger the catfish, the more of this tissue there will be...and the stronger the taste. Here is a picture of that process from my past post on filleting cats.[/#0000ff]
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![[Image: gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=5203;]](http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=5203;)
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REMOVING THE DARK FLESH. Once the skin is off the fillet, you can slice out the line of darker tissue, if you wish. These fish did not really have enough to adversely affect the taste, but larger ones often will. Begin by making shallow slices in toward the center with a sharp knife. Then, beginning at one end, fillet it right off the flesh. [/size]
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[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Filleting and skinning catfish definitely helps improve the taste, and also removes some of the oiliness of that species. In fact, on larger catfish, you should take one additional step and slice out as much of the reddish tissue as you can. That is the sensory tissue along the lateral line, in between the skin and the flesh. The larger the catfish, the more of this tissue there will be...and the stronger the taste. Here is a picture of that process from my past post on filleting cats.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
REMOVING THE DARK FLESH. Once the skin is off the fillet, you can slice out the line of darker tissue, if you wish. These fish did not really have enough to adversely affect the taste, but larger ones often will. Begin by making shallow slices in toward the center with a sharp knife. Then, beginning at one end, fillet it right off the flesh. [/size]
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