I admit that I didn't read all 9 pages so this has probably been said.
I have seen many people including myself that said catfish is nasty. Problem is they ate catfish that was not properly cleaned and it tasted badly, leaving the impression that it must all be bad. A big cat (I only eat 20 pounders or bigger) has some of the finest meat around once all the red and yellow meat is cut off leaving only the white flesh. I can slice it thin and fry it next to walleye, crappie, or bluegills and folks can't tell the difference in taste only the look of the chunk they are eating. Now them big ol belly slabs off the flatheads get saved whole and put onto my smoker with a good helping of butter and seasoning, mmmmmgood. I will say that the channel cats are scavengers and have a different flavor. With some cleaning they are eatable, but not as good as flathead or blue cat.
As for the flats eating all the native fish, this really surprises me as we have put them in ponds around here and still have plenty of bluegills, crappie, and bass in the same ponds. There must be a huge population of the flatheads to make a noticeable dent in the smaller fish. We have flatheads in my little pond by the house (maybe 1/4 acre at best). The kids can catch bluegills and black bass all day long most days and crappie in good numbers when they are biting. Dang if they can ever catch one of the flatheads though. The flats do usually get the blame them when a big fish gets on the line and breaks free.
