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How do u kill a catfish before you filet the poor soul. I just don't feel good about cutting the meat off of his bones while he's still jumping around.
I don't think it would feel to good if someone took a rump roast off of my butt or helped there self to a well marbled rib steak.
I'm not sure a hit on the head with a rock even gives them a headache.
Anyone know the spot on the belly to poke your knife and deflate the bladder.
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If it really bothers you, an icepick down through the top of the head between the eyes will do it.
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At the lake I hang them on a stringer and then cut the gills to bleed them that procedure leads to prompt death. After they have bled out I throw them on ice in the catfish cooler.
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My daughters made a point with me today as I tried to put a few cats out of their misery before I started. They wondered why it was so important to me as they saw me "gently" make several attempts to dispatch the fish. I heard chuckles as they used lines such as "rip their lips off", "metal Rod in the gills", "drag with a rope", and "beat with a rock". And my favorite line that brought it full circle..."sudden compassion 3 hours later". Where does ethical start and stop?
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Ethics is a term humans use about humans, with human feelings and human emotions. Fish don't seem too human to me and I have never observed emotion from them.
In fact, I am not sure I have observed pain. I have taken a lot of fish just given them slack line and watched them stop fighting and go almost dormant.
I won't even try to give you advise regarding how, if it is necessary, or get into an argument regarding ethics, but I will tell you that this is a sign of the times. I cannot even imagine getting into a discussion regarding this even just 10 years ago. WOW[crazy]
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Well, consider the alternative deaths: ripped apart and consumed while still alive, or swallowed whole and partially digested to death or asphyxiated. Sure there's probably a tiny percentage that manage to get old enough to die of old age but that's probably a weeks long process of suffering much like getting a disease and rotting to death like fish often do.
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[quote Jedidiah]Well, consider the alternative deaths: ripped apart and consumed while still alive, or swallowed whole and partially digested to death or asphyxiated. Sure there's probably a tiny percentage that manage to get old enough to die of old age but that's probably a weeks long process of suffering much like getting a disease and rotting to death like fish often do.[/quote]
Now this is a great point.[fishin]
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Other than cutting gills, the best way I've found to dispatch cats is an ice bath. If the get put in a cooler with ice and water, they seem to get quiet in a hurry. I've hit em with rocks, hammers, my truck bumper and they keep on livin. They're tough suckers, no doubt but the ice bath trick ends it quickly.
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Like some have said, I cut staight up through the v-shaped skin between the gills clear to the back bone. They bleed out and die in a few minutes and it makes for a far less bloody fillet job later.
Trying to kill them by hitting them over the head with a bat usually results a broken bat and the catfish lives on!
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If you don't want blood all over themselves, cut their tail off while they're hangin' and they'll bleed out that way, too.
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I find a nice electric fillet knife along the back usually does the trick.[  ]
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I like the gills and tail idea. I will try that next day.
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If you don't like blood and violence I found that the best way is to put them in a cooler with enough water to cover their heads. I think it suffocates them. They can breath out of the water just fine but the oxygen in the shallow water runs out quickly.
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Hey welcome to BFT... glad to have you with us... J
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[#0000FF]That will kill them...as will a hundred other methods. What a lot of folks are missing is what different methods of killing do to the quality of the flesh...if you plan to eat them. A slow, lingering stressful death (suffocation) adds to the buildup of lactic acid and other things in the flesh. None of which adds to the flavor and texture qualities.
As with trout, the best way to treat cats you plan to keep for the table is to immediately bleed them upon catching and then put them on ice. Use either the gill cuts or cut around the tail to drain the blood. But a couple of good smacks on the head (missing your fingers) with a mallet or hammer will dispatch them too. If they rise from the grave then give them a couple more whacks. But keep the dead ones on ice. And a mix of ice and water serves better to quick chill the fish than ice alone.
When I am out in my float tube I keep the fish alive in a fish basket. They stress a bit but are usually alive and flipping when I transfer them to my cooler. And if I don't whack them to calm them down, they have been known to pop open the lid on the cooler. At the very least a sudden loud commotion from the cooler is enough to wake you up while dozing in the car on the way home.
I like to fillet my fish at a fish cleaning station before heading home...when possible. And no matter how many "love taps" I have given them, there are still some kitties with wiggle in them. You gotta have a good grip and be careful with your fillet knife to avoid injury to yourself or ruining fillets.
Most of us long-time cat chasers have tales of fish that lived an extraordinary time out of water...or which survived horrendous damage and still lived. My favorite remembery was when I introduced a dedicated troutaholic to channel cats on the lower Provo River...many moons ago. After we finished stringing a few cats...and it was time to go...he decided to try to clean one. He proceeded as he normally cleaned trout...a slit up the belly and discarding the guts back into the river. But when he held the fish to rinse it in the water it flopped out of his wet hands and swam away down into the hole. With wide eyes he proclaimed that he wasn't sure he even wanted to try eating a fish that tough.
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I gotta say when I read the Subject Line of the post "How do u kill a cat" I laughed out loud and just said ".177"..... My wife didn't see the humor. [angelic]
I prefer the gilectomy method and then onto the ice.
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Here's how you get incredible tasting meat.
Immediately after the hook is out, pierce the brain (google iki jime) or hit the fish hard directly on the top of the head to knock them out.
Then, immediately slit their gills so its still-beating heart will pump the blood out of the meat.
Next, put the fish in an ice slurry.
This process takes about 30 seconds with some practice.
I started doing this and won't go back - the quality of the meat is just so good. Cats particularly benefits from this method, since the best way (most people say) is to slit the tail and hang it so the blood drains out. This does the same thing but it's the fish's own heart, not gravity, that does it for you, plus keeps the meat as free as possible of the chemicals released by stress and fight-or-flight which sours the taste.
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Same way I've been killing fish I intended to eat since I was a tiny kid, 40 years ago. Hard whack with a strong, stiff stick behind the eyes, or a slice to the gills extending up to the spine, separating the vertebral artery. Spike in the brain works just fine.
There is no harm in treating a fish as well as you can until its number comes up, same as with any other animal. Current research suggests that most vertebrates feel pain and are capable of "suffering", whether or not they have actual feelings. Likewise, good handling improves eating quality.
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