03-08-2014, 10:20 PM
[#0000FF]A lot of folks prefer to skin smaller cats and cook them up whole. I used to do that a lot when I caught a bunch of small white catfish...in the Sacramento area. They are very good eating but they average less than a pound in that area. Not quite big enough to justify the filleting process.
I used to have a catfish skinning tool...made by some local guy in Sacramento. It was a pair of sturdy pincher pliers with a short triangular sharp cutter blade on one side. It was used by using the blade to slide through the skin around the head and then you gripped the skin with the pinchers and pulled it down over the tail. When you got good with it you could skin and gut a small cat in just a few seconds. The finish was to grip the spine behind the head and break/twist off the head and the guts would follow.
Since I have adopted electric fillet knives in my fish prep kit I now fillet even smaller cats and bullheads. Only takes a short time and the electric knife is very efficient in harvesting the maximum amount of fish flesh.
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[signature]
I used to have a catfish skinning tool...made by some local guy in Sacramento. It was a pair of sturdy pincher pliers with a short triangular sharp cutter blade on one side. It was used by using the blade to slide through the skin around the head and then you gripped the skin with the pinchers and pulled it down over the tail. When you got good with it you could skin and gut a small cat in just a few seconds. The finish was to grip the spine behind the head and break/twist off the head and the guts would follow.
Since I have adopted electric fillet knives in my fish prep kit I now fillet even smaller cats and bullheads. Only takes a short time and the electric knife is very efficient in harvesting the maximum amount of fish flesh.
[/#0000FF]
[signature]