How in the F**ing-H*ck do you clean a cat fish?

[Nainoa]

Well I got my new boat back from the dealership, as they fixed the kink in the fuel line...

And we took her out for a proper maiden voyage...

She ran perfect... Smooth and steady... Planes out very easily... Cuts through the chop with ease, and handles rough water (the little there was) like a dream. Then at rest, she stabalizes easily, and sits smooth even with boat wakes around you.

***

So we went out, and did a little Cat Fishing at a local lake chain that is LOADED with channel cats of all sizes...

We decided to keep two small ones, as we'd heard tales of "They're easy to clean if you do it like this..." (Insert description at the end.)
So we kept a 17 and an 18 incher, that my buddy caught... I caught 3 that were 23, 24 & 25 inches (In that order.) And my other buddy who was dieing to catch something on his new Musky combo, put a bobber on it, and proceded to get skunked all day long.

All in all it was a great day, perfect weather, fun times, and some fish...

***
So now we come to the tricky part... We get back to my place... Take the fish out of the livewell... And proceeded to clean them as we had been told to do... (By my Boss, and my Buddy's Dad.)


Step One...
"Pound a nail through a board, then impale the cat fish's skull on it..."

Did that... No brain seepage as I feared... Felt a little goofy bashing a catfish skull with a hammer... But I as okay with it...

Step Two...
"Make cuts to the catfish skin, and use a pliers to skin him... Peeling him like a banana..."

It was a little tricky... But not that bad...

Step Three...
"Hold up Catfish with pliers... Slit it from chin to a**hole, and remove it's guts."

Now here's where it got tricky... For one... My buddy was a total pussy while I held the fish up by the pliers (great grip workout BTW.) He goes deer and grouse hunting every year, so I assumed he knows what he's doing. So he finally gets the gullet opened up, and MY GOD THE STENCH WAS HORRIBLE!

He's sort of hacking at the esophagus trying to get it to let loose... Suddenly the fish spasms, flicking it's tail wildly, spraying GORE everywhere... Gore on my Buddy... Gore on My Car... Gore on my Deck... Gore on my House.... Gore on my girlfriend 20 feet away who was bringing me a beer...

So my girlfriend screams and runs for the bathroom... My buddy throws up a little on his pants, as he's wiping the gore off his face...

I spiked the fish back down on the nail, and start spraying everything off with the hose...

A couple of minutes go by... My buddy looks over at me and says "I just had one of those 'What the Hell are we doing?' Moments."

Step Four...

*Cut the Cat fish into steaks... They will look like a traditional V shaped fish steak... Then simply remove the bottom half inch of belly meat. (Where any potential pollutants would be stored.)

Umm... What?

Turns out the Spine and back bones of a cat fish are like friggin concrete... He was hacking away at the damn thing with his fillet knife, to no avail... So I went in and got the old Guinsu Mini-Bonesaw knife I have... And we hacked through the damn thing like a bad catfish rendition of "Saw III."

After the first cut both halves of the catfish twitched violently and then stopped dead.

Eventually we got one steak cut free, but when we tried to remove the bones, we just ended up with a strange mutilated wad of meat...

All told it had taken us like 40 minutes to get that far... Everything stunk, and the experience sucked so bad we decided to just scrap the idea, and I burried them in my garden for fertilizer.

We laughed our asses off saying "Well we're going to hell for this one... We just mutilated and tortured one of God's creatures and then tossed it in the garden."


****

So while I doubt I'll ever try to clean another catfish again... Out of curiosity, I'm wondering, and FM probably has the answer here... But how do you clean a catfish...
Because I've got to believe that "Spraying everything in a 20 foot radius with Gore." And "Make Sure your bone saw is sharp." Are not statements originally meant to go with the process!

[Hartski]

Hahahaha. First good laugh of the day!


Step 1: Make sure it's DEAD first.





But since I don't like eating catfish I couldn't tell you the proper procedure. I thought you just hacked the head off first, and go from there.

[One More Time]

I will tell you but it will take a few minutes to type.... back in a sec

[Budweiser]

mmmmmmm catfish are one of the best tasting fish IMO, if cooked properly. I know that there are some huge channel cats in the Mississippi river.

But sorry I have never actually fished for them so I have never cleaned them before. I know that large shirmp work very well for catching them though...

[One More Time]

Well I got my new boat back from the dealership, as they fixed the kink in the fuel line...

And we took her out for a proper maiden voyage...

She ran perfect... Smooth and steady... Planes out very easily... Cuts through the chop with ease, and handles rough water (the little there was) like a dream. Then at rest, she stabalizes easily, and sits smooth even with boat wakes around you.

***

So we went out, and did a little Cat Fishing at a local lake chain that is LOADED with channel cats of all sizes...

We decided to keep two small ones, as we'd heard tales of "They're easy to clean if you do it like this..." (Insert description at the end.)
So we kept a 17 and an 18 incher, that my buddy caught... I caught 3 that were 23, 24 & 25 inches (In that order.) And my other buddy who was dieing to catch something on his new Musky combo, put a bobber on it, and proceded to get skunked all day long.

All in all it was a great day, perfect weather, fun times, and some fish...

***
So now we come to the tricky part... We get back to my place... Take the fish out of the livewell... And proceeded to clean them as we had been told to do... (By my Boss, and my Buddy's Dad.)


Step One...
"Pound a nail through a board, then impale the cat fish's skull on it..."

Did that... No brain seepage as I feared... Felt a little goofy bashing a catfish skull with a hammer... But I as okay with it...

Step Two...
"Make cuts to the catfish skin, and use a pliers to skin him... Peeling him like a banana..."

It was a little tricky... But not that bad...

Step Three...
"Hold up Catfish with pliers... Slit it from chin to a**hole, and remove it's guts."

Now here's where it got tricky... For one... My buddy was a total pussy while I held the fish up by the pliers (great grip workout BTW.) He goes deer and grouse hunting every year, so I assumed he knows what he's doing. So he finally gets the gullet opened up, and MY GOD THE STENCH WAS HORRIBLE!

He's sort of hacking at the esophagus trying to get it to let loose... Suddenly the fish spasms, flicking it's tail wildly, spraying GORE everywhere... Gore on my Buddy... Gore on My Car... Gore on my Deck... Gore on my House.... Gore on my girlfriend 20 feet away who was bringing me a beer...

So my girlfriend screams and runs for the bathroom... My buddy throws up a little on his pants, as he's wiping the gore off his face...

I spiked the fish back down on the nail, and start spraying everything off with the hose...

A couple of minutes go by... My buddy looks over at me and says "I just had one of those 'What the Hell are we doing?' Moments."

Step Four...

*Cut the Cat fish into steaks... They will look like a traditional V shaped fish steak... Then simply remove the bottom half inch of belly meat. (Where any potential pollutants would be stored.)

Umm... What?

Turns out the Spine and back bones of a cat fish are like friggin concrete... He was hacking away at the damn thing with his fillet knife, to no avail... So I went in and got the old Guinsu Mini-Bonesaw knife I have... And we hacked through the damn thing like a bad catfish rendition of "Saw III."

After the first cut both halves of the catfish twitched violently and then stopped dead.

Eventually we got one steak cut free, but when we tried to remove the bones, we just ended up with a strange mutilated wad of meat...

All told it had taken us like 40 minutes to get that far... Everything stunk, and the experience sucked so bad we decided to just scrap the idea, and I burried them in my garden for fertilizer.

We laughed our asses off saying "Well we're going to hell for this one... We just mutilated and tortured one of God's creatures and then tossed it in the garden."


****

So while I doubt I'll ever try to clean another catfish again... Out of curiosity, I'm wondering, and FM probably has the answer here... But how do you clean a catfish...
Because I've got to believe that "Spraying everything in a 20 foot radius with Gore." And "Make Sure your bone saw is sharp." Are not statements originally meant to go with the process!

First, pound him in the head with a steel bar, hammer, just make sure he is dead.

1. On each side of the head, right behind the gills there is a pointy bone under the skin. Take a knife and slice from one bone straight over the head to the other bone on the opposite side (start right behind it in the soft spot). This is called ringing. Try to just cut the skin. If you cut too deep you will pull meat with the skin.


2. Place your palm on the fish head with his lips on the side of your pinky. Place thumb and first finger behind front horns. This enables you to hold the fish without the nail. (Big fish will require the nail though).

3. Clip and twist of horn on back with skinners. Grip head really hard (as described above) and grab hide with skinners and start pulling it off (you will have to really pull hard). There will be a "v" of skin left on the belly to get later.

More in a sec...

[One More Time]

4. Now that the fish has been skinned flip him over. The "v" of skin should be left on the belly. Grab it with skinners and pull toward the head. Be careful because you will pull the meat off this area very easily.

5. Flip the fish back over. Take a knife and put it at about a 30-45deg angle and look for this place. Just above the gills (it may be just a little behind) on the fish's spine there is a little soft place between the head and spine. (Take the knife edge and press on the spine moving towards the head, you will feel the mushy spot). Once you find the spot, slice down about an inch at the 30-45deg angle. (The knife will go through it like hot butter.)

6. Flip fish on back. Find the pointy bone where you started ringing. Start slicing the belly from the head. You will make an arc towards the lips with the knife (just follow the bone of the head).

More in a sec...

[fitnessman]

Ya'll are making this harder then it is. Channel Cats being on of the few I meat hunt (Wife LOVES them off the grill..Cajun) I clean about 100 or so a year.

Step #1 Snip horns off with side cutters.

Step #2 Fillet like any other fish.

Simple and easy

[One More Time]

7. Now grab head (as described above) and body of fish. Twist and pull head. Snap, pop it is off. Slice belly open from back to front. Remove the guts.

8. You can slice it in steaks or just fillet it. For steaks, I would use a knife with a serrated edge and a big blade. Kinda do a sawing action. Any questions?

[fitnessman]

One More Time....The method you have is meant for large Flatheads.

Channel under 10lbs are very easy to fillet and saves much time.

I target the 3-6 pound channels for taste. I also recommed soaking over night is a bit of saltwater.

Also remember with any fish..Do not consume any stomach meat. 90% of all toxins in fish are stored in the stomach meat/liner.

[One More Time]

One More Time....The method you have is meant for large Flatheads.

Channel under 10lbs are very easy to fillet and saves much time.

I target the 3-6 pound channels for taste. I also recommed soaking over night is a bit of saltwater.

Also remember with any fish..Do not consume any stomach meat. 90% of all toxins in fish are stored in the stomach meat/liner.

We used it on small ones too. My dad and I used to commercial fish for a secondary income when I was young. We sold fish by the pound so you definately wanted all the weight you could get.....LOL!

We would form a line. Dad was the skinner, I was the gutter (I wasn't strong enough to skin then, I was 10-12ish). Countless hours spent with dad.....ah, the good old days....with exception to the mess....LOL!

[fitnessman]

We used it on small ones too. My dad and I used to commercial fish for a secondary income when I was young. We sold fish by the pound so you definately wanted all the weight you could get.....LOL!

I see

I kept a 35lb Flathead that wouldn't release last year and cleaned that way.

Yuck! I will stick with Channels!

Awesome you got to spend that kind of time with your Father.

[Nainoa]

7. Now grab head (as described above) and body of fish. Twist and pull head. Snap, pop it is off. Slice belly open from back to front. Remove the guts.

8. You can slice it in steaks or just fillet it. For steaks, I would use a knife with a serrated edge and a big blade. Kinda do a sawing action. Any questions?

I will pass this on to my buddy who is our group "Fillet Master."

He's jonny on the spot with Pike, Walleye, Pannies etc... But the catfish was a confounder!

Thanks Bro's!

[fitnessman]

I will pass this on to my buddy who is our group "Fillet Master."

He's jonny on the spot with Pike, Walleye, Pannies etc... But the catfish was a confounder!

Thanks Bro's!

I would of loved to see the Gore sceen...I would of been rolling

Pike are an art to clean as well...The Y bones can be tricky..Steelhead have the Y bone as well.

It great when we have long outings...My only job is fish cleaning..I don't have to cook or clean Just clean the fish, which most often me and my best bud are the only ones catching much.

So you happy with the new boat?

[Thordic]

anybody ever jug fish for catfish?

[Nainoa]

I would of loved to see the Gore sceen...I would of been rolling

Pike are an art to clean as well...The Y bones can be tricky..Steelhead have the Y bone as well.

It great when we have long outings...My only job is fish cleaning..I don't have to cook or clean Just clean the fish, which most often me and my best bud are the only ones catching much.

So you happy with the new boat?

Yeah that's my Buddy's job as well... He's great at Y boning, and when he fillet's, there's almost never a bone in sight, yet maximum yeild of meat... He SUCKS at cooking and cleaning, and has no motivation or physical ability for other grunt work... So all he does is clean fish...

The Gore Scene was hillarious... We were laughing the whole time, even as my buddy was throwing up, he kept giggling... Then complained that giggling and vomiting hurt really bad!

***
The boat has been a chore to get to this point...

My first attempt at a maiden voyage, ended with a kinked fuel line that stranded me in the middle of the lake basin... And I had to use the trolling motor to get back...
Yelled at the dealership... Got it fixed in 8 days... Instead of the usual 3 week lag, that is common this time of year...
Now I'm still waiting for my clean title copy, and boat registration from the state... I'm getting a little paranoid that I've just exceeded my temp permit.

***

So really yesterday was the maiden voyage...

I was really impressed... She handles the water a hell of a lot better than she was even advertised... There was A LOT of boat traffic yesterday, so I was always Quartering people's wakes when we were under way, and she went right through them smooth as silk...

She sits stable and smooth when you're fishing her... Usually at my size and weight, where ever I move or sit in a boat, the boat lists a little in my direction, unless counter balanced... But she didn't list at all...

Someone moves around a lot and she stablizes right up again...

Electronics will even continue to give me readings at Full speed, which is 26 MPH...

I'm still breaking in the motor, so it's a little tricky as they say for the first hour of run time you should alternate speed every 2 minutes... And then when I have to move through Slow or No Wake Zone's I'm still paranoid as all hell... Can't help but see this time clock in my head counting down 2 minutes!
(Even though I know if I'm going to go over the 2 minute zone, that it's not really an issue at the low speeds.)

But I figure it's better to be a little paranoid than it is to just be non-chalant...

All in all... She is super smooth... As fishable as a small pontoon, and as fast as I need her to be...

And the 20 pound rear Mushroom-claw, and 28 pound front navy anchors insure that when I want to anchor... I am not going anywhere!

***
My next task that I'm still wrapping my head around, is how to mount the two rod holders for when I want to Musky Troll...

My current thinking is to remove the back deck of the boat... And bolt mount the two Rod Holders to the back... Then reattach the Back casting deck again.

[Tiger Driver]

You censored "heck"

Sorry, I just found that a bit funny

[Budweiser]

anybody ever jug fish for catfish?

Not sure if this is the same thing, but on the show dirty jobs they were catfishing down south some where like that. What they did was just stick their arms in the water and pull the cats up after the cat had tried to swallow about half of their arm!

Pretty intense but they caught alot of them.

[One More Time]

Not sure if this is the same thing, but on the show dirty jobs they were catfishing down south some where like that. What they did was just stick their arms in the water and pull the cats up after the cat had tried to swallow about half of their arm!

Pretty intense but they caught alot of them.

Nope that is noodling......crazy dudes. Jugging is tying line and a hook to something like a gallon jug and letting it float around. If the fish hits the jug will eventually wear him out. It is funny.... people jugging usually have about 20 jugs out around them..... Looks like a minefield. Sometimes they block the whole friggin' river.

[Thordic]

Not sure if this is the same thing, but on the show dirty jobs they were catfishing down south some where like that. What they did was just stick their arms in the water and pull the cats up after the cat had tried to swallow about half of their arm!

Pretty intense but they caught alot of them.

my grandpa does that (I was raised in mississippi) but what they do is they trap the catfish with these big box like traps then they reach in there and pick them up. But jug fishing is tieing a string to a milk jug with a hook on one end and some catfish bait. Then you throw a few in the water wait about half an hour and you can see the jugs runnin all the way over the pond. It was a fun thing to do as a kid

[Budweiser]

Nope that is noodling......crazy dudes. Jugging is tying line and a hook to something like a gallon jug and letting it float around. If the fish hits the jug will eventually wear him out. It is funny.... people jugging usually have about 20 jugs out around them..... Looks like a minefield. Sometimes they block the whole friggin' river.

You would think that that would be a fuggin mess to untangle.

[Thordic]

nah you usually dont put them that close together. In our pong I would only put out about 5 or 6 in different locations.

[fitnessman]

http://www.down-east.com/

Nainoa, these are the best rod holders HANDS DOWN!!!

Most Musky guys recommend these, as I do.

I have the S-17 Model.

Trust me on this one!

[Nainoa]

http://www.down-east.com/

Nainoa, these are the best rod holders HANDS DOWN!!!

Most Musky guys recommend these, as I do.

I have the S-17 Model.

Trust me on this one!

Yeah I've read a lot of good reccomendations on Down Easters... Only problem is that the clamp-on models, have a 2 inch max space... And my Rails are all 3 and 5/8th's...

And I failed to find a 4" Clamp made by DE... And I can't afford in my budget to drop another $600+ dollars on having the 2" tubular rails installed on my boat... At least not this year.

EDIT: Oh... Or are you saying, that I should order the Bolt On kind?

Powder coat or just the Galvanized metal?

[fitnessman]

The S-17 Model will work just fine on your boat (that's what I have). Galvanized is the only way to go. Bolt on.

Once you buy these you are set for life...You can kinds seem them at work on my Avatar there

I can troll three jets easy, sometimes four depending on wave action.

[Nainoa]

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to fitnessman again.

[warriors]

mmmmm i love catfish. Hey fitness you like brim or crappie?

[Chipman]

anybody ever jug fish for catfish?

I have done it a lot and I have used yo-yo's before if you want another obscure way of catching catfish.

http://www.whiskerkitty.com/YoYo.html

[fitnessman]

mmmmm i love catfish. Hey fitness you like brim or crappie?

Yes, I eay my share of those My favorite hands down is Lake Erie Perch :drools:

[Nainoa]

The S-17 Model will work just fine on your boat (that's what I have). Galvanized is the only way to go. Bolt on.

Once you buy these you are set for life...You can kinds seem them at work on my Avatar there

I can troll three jets easy, sometimes four depending on wave action.

Okay... So looking at the S-17... Just want some confirmation...

Am I correct here, in that I'm still going to have to pull up my back casting deck, and bolt through from the bottom up, and then fasten the nuts from the top side to the Machine Bolts?

[fitnessman]

Okay... So looking at the S-17... Just want some confirmation...

Am I correct here, in that I'm still going to have to pull up my back casting deck, and bolt through from the bottom up, and then fasten the nuts from the top side to the Machine Bolts?

I don't know about the casting deck.

Machine bolts are what I used, you want the nut underneath though (the nut will catch line if on top). I do believe they came with the mouting hardware.

I put: 1 Port side, 1 Starboard, and two off the back. This way by using 11' trolling rods off the sides you can run two 7' trolling rods off the back.

I dunno if you use Jets or birds..But for my boat it is set up perfect for trolling.

BTW: What speed can you troll down to?