# channel cats



## needchange (Jun 30, 2012)

anyone eat these? i've been a walleye snob for years, with the occasional crappie on the plate, but the walleye i catch are a seasonal commodity and i can catch plenty of cats all through the summer. i've never kept one though. does their flesh get mushy in the summer?


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## Bret (Oct 3, 2003)

The only way you will know is if you pan blacken one with butter and blackening spices in cast iron on the gas grill at temperature too hot for the inside kitchen. You cannot get it too hot. Cooking only takes a couple of minutes. I'll bet you will be quite happy. It is the proper way to pay respect to the catfish. Garlic mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus are fitting. Have fun.


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## ksfarmer (Apr 28, 2007)

Grew up eating channel cats. Mostly in the spring and summer. Actually now I prefer bass, but filleted and deep fried channels are still good fare.


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

Smaller ones usually taste best


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## needchange (Jun 30, 2012)

btf, are you talking under 20 inches or even smaller?


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## mekasmom (Jan 19, 2010)

needchange said:


> anyone eat these?


They are good. Much better than bull heads....less fishy.


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## Wolfy-hound (May 5, 2013)

They are yummy. Best are butter cats, but most catfish are yummy.


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## skeeter (Mar 23, 2013)

Channel cats taste great and they are one of my favorite fish. Easy to filet but take some time to skin. These are some of the biggest fish I have ever caught and the larger ones were better tasting than the smaller ones. They are much better tasting than the bullheads that are commonly found in the lakes and ponds. 

My favorite way to cook them is is roll them in salted cornmeal and throw them on a hot bbq. Cook until crunchy and the meat is flaky. Enjoy.


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## MichaelZ (May 21, 2013)

I think it depends where you catch them with respect to taste. Up in this northern area I have gotten channel cats from the St. Croix river and they are great to eat. The river is fast moving and sandy bottom. Once I got some catfish from the Cloquet River near Duluth in slower moving water with a fair amount of muddy bottom - these fish tasted muddy. I don't think these fish get soft in warmer water but don't know for sure. 

At any rate, bread them up and fry them. Plenty of oil and plenty of heat, as suggested by others. A good simple breading is flour with some garlic powder. Place fillets and flour into gallon ziploc, close up with air filling inside and shake them up good to bread.


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## skeeter (Mar 23, 2013)

MichaelZ said:


> I think it depends where you catch them with respect to taste. Up in this northern area I have gotten channel cats from the St. Croix river and they are great to eat. The river is fast moving and sandy bottom. Once I got some catfish from the Cloquet River near Duluth in slower moving water with a fair amount of muddy bottom - these fish tasted muddy. I don't think these fish get soft in warmer water but don't know for sure.
> 
> At any rate, bread them up and fry them. Plenty of oil and plenty of heat, as suggested by others. A good simple breading is flour with some garlic powder. Place fillets and flour into gallon ziploc, close up with air filling inside and shake them up good to bread.


I caught mine out of a local lake and usually could only get one in the spring when they came into the shallows to breed. So not too sure how much the water moved there but they tasted much better than the bull headed catfish that I usually caught there. I think that muddy taste depends on how much fat the fish has but I'm not sure.

Try cornmeal instead of flour. A friend likes to roll his in mayonnaise then in the cornmeal before he fries it. I just use salted cornmeal when I fry or BBQ. I like the crunchy outside a bit better than the flour breading gives to fish. 
I do like catfish better breaded than seared or baked.


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

needchange said:


> btf, are you talking under 20 inches or even smaller?


I like them about 12-14 inches.


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## wildcat6 (Apr 5, 2011)

Channel cats are good. All catfish are good except the Mudcats. I prefer, Bluegill, Shellcracker, Crappies, and Walleye but we eat Catfish regularly.


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## o&itw (Dec 19, 2008)

(true) Channel cats are great. In some areas what they call channel catfish, aren't.

If they are a pound or two, skin them, cut off the head and gut leaving the dorsal fin and tail on, take only the caudal fins off, then deep fry them. When they are done and on your plate, take hold of the top and bottom finds and pull them straight out (along with the connected bones). Then take a knife and run down one side of fish from tail to front. The whole side of the fish will lay over boneless, except a few ribs in the front. Grab the tail and pull up and it will remove all the bones from the bottom half. These small ones are known as fiddlers.


If they are 4 lbs or more, just cut them across into "steaks". The meat up by the lower front ribs which is yellow should be removed when you clean them. It has a greasy bad taste.


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## BigJim (May 13, 2013)

I like blue cats but the best catfish are flathead, IMHO, I won't eat channel cats unless they are pond raised. Channel cats are true pond possums, they will eat anything. The blue will eat mostly other fish, dead or alive and occasionally will take stink bait but rarely. The flathead will eat only live fish or very fresh killed fish. The flathead is the best tasting IMHO. The flathead doesn't get too big to eat, the blue is ok when large but the channel is not good when too big.

There is no need to skin or gut a catfish, filet them with the skin on. stop when you get to the tail, flip with flesh side up and filet the skin off. You will see a dark streak running down the center of the filet, cut that streak out, that is a fatty streak and this is what tastes bad.

This is how I cook cat fish, 1 cup flour, 2 cups cornmeal, salt, pepper and a dash of garlic. wash the fish, pat dry, place mix in a bag, drop fish in bag and shake. Shake excess mixture off fish and drop into cooking oil. Heat the oil to 375Â° drop fish in, watch the bubbles, when cooked to light brown and the bubbling has slowed down noticeably the fish are done. May not be the best way but this is how I do it.:grin:


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## o&itw (Dec 19, 2008)

skeeter said:


> They are much better tasting than the bullheads t


One has to be hungry to eat a bullhead/mud-cat/yellowbelly. :hrm:


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## tinknal (May 21, 2004)

o&itw said:


> One has to be hungry to eat a bullhead/mud-cat/yellowbelly. :hrm:


Not necessarily. Spring bullhead from a cold water lake is very good eating.


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## Darkwater (Aug 15, 2010)

The water doesn't get much warmer than it does here. Channel cats are great! Very few in ponds, most are in running water. Creeks, rivers.

My favorites are the "butterbellies", or "buttercats". Brown bullheads are common here.

All catfish smoke well. They dry out to a leather type of meat like jerky.


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## wannabechef (Nov 20, 2012)

Bearfootfarm said:


> Smaller ones usually taste best


This...1-2 pounds


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## smilodonfatalis (Aug 2, 2013)

I've never had a bad tasting catfish. I ate bullheads from a canal in Florida and they tasted exactly like farm-raised catfish but had a better texture.

The channel catfish is the same species that is farm raised for grocery stores now days. Wild channel catfish have a better texture to their flesh than farm-raised but otherwise taste the same.

I've never eaten a "muddy" tasting catfish, so I don't know what people mean when they say that.


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## deepfried (Aug 5, 2013)

I love channels. Dipped in a mix off egg and Texas Petes hot sauce then battered and fried. 

:darkbeer:


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## Jolly (Jan 8, 2004)

We've got different nomenclature down here.

Around here, it's mudcats, blue, willow and opelousas cats.

Wonder how that equates?


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## mickm (Jul 23, 2010)

The opelusus are flatheads. When i heard that in the south, i thought they were comparing them to appaloosa horses, bacause they can be spotted.

What is a butter cat?


No matter what fidh you eat, only eat the white meat.


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