08-09-2012, 05:44 PM
I can pretty much second everything that has been said here. I went through a phase where I didn't think I liked catfish. But once I started keeping the right ones to eat, and trimming up the fillets properly, I was back in business.
Everybody seems to have different size limits that they stick to, but for me the eaters are 5 pounds and under. Trim out the lateral line and whatever you want to call that reddish stuff between the fillet and the skin (that turns gray once cooked), as well as pretty much anything that doesn't have the same color, transparency and general look as the main body of fish flesh.
With catfish, it seems to be worth throwing out a teeny bit of good meat, in order to make sure you trim out all the bad. That being said, I try to always make sure to NEVER open the body cavity on a catfish. There is all sorts of fun juices and goo in there that I just don't want to get on my catfish meat, and once that has been cut open, the liklihood of not getting any of it on the meat is pretty low.
Then, contrary to how I cook virtually every other piece of meat in the world, I make sure it is good and cooked, as has been said. If you follow those rules, I can pretty much guarantee that cats out of the Bear River drainage will never disappoint, regardless of what you season it with, or what technique you use to cook it.
It certainly isn't aesthetically pleasing, but even the parts of the fillet that are sometimes yellow in color (which are obviously part of the main body of fish flesh) don't taste bad if you get rid of all that other stuff and cook them well.
Because catfish don't have the best eyesight, they rely more heavily on smell, taste and feel. So they have tons of equipment for that all over, and throughout thier body. I have found that removing all that fatty and nervous tissue makes all the difference in the world.
As one last note, I have only eaten a couple cats out of Willard, but in that limited experience, it seemed to me that our Bear River cats are far superior as table fare. So with all of the other delicious fish in that place, I have decided to get my catfish back on the home-side of the hill. I don't know if it was a river vs reservoir-type thing, where the river cats get more "exersize" or what. I'm sure there are hordes of Willard cat-lovers who will disagree with me on that, so I appologize in advance, but that was the experience I had.
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Everybody seems to have different size limits that they stick to, but for me the eaters are 5 pounds and under. Trim out the lateral line and whatever you want to call that reddish stuff between the fillet and the skin (that turns gray once cooked), as well as pretty much anything that doesn't have the same color, transparency and general look as the main body of fish flesh.
With catfish, it seems to be worth throwing out a teeny bit of good meat, in order to make sure you trim out all the bad. That being said, I try to always make sure to NEVER open the body cavity on a catfish. There is all sorts of fun juices and goo in there that I just don't want to get on my catfish meat, and once that has been cut open, the liklihood of not getting any of it on the meat is pretty low.
Then, contrary to how I cook virtually every other piece of meat in the world, I make sure it is good and cooked, as has been said. If you follow those rules, I can pretty much guarantee that cats out of the Bear River drainage will never disappoint, regardless of what you season it with, or what technique you use to cook it.
It certainly isn't aesthetically pleasing, but even the parts of the fillet that are sometimes yellow in color (which are obviously part of the main body of fish flesh) don't taste bad if you get rid of all that other stuff and cook them well.
Because catfish don't have the best eyesight, they rely more heavily on smell, taste and feel. So they have tons of equipment for that all over, and throughout thier body. I have found that removing all that fatty and nervous tissue makes all the difference in the world.
As one last note, I have only eaten a couple cats out of Willard, but in that limited experience, it seemed to me that our Bear River cats are far superior as table fare. So with all of the other delicious fish in that place, I have decided to get my catfish back on the home-side of the hill. I don't know if it was a river vs reservoir-type thing, where the river cats get more "exersize" or what. I'm sure there are hordes of Willard cat-lovers who will disagree with me on that, so I appologize in advance, but that was the experience I had.
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