Cut all the red out of it when filleting

You have a lot to learn Gary… if you don’t like them done up like that you’re a communist

Dang those look good.

And the yellow fat along the topline.

same with sturgeon^^^

Just cleaned a mess of cats this weekend after the local tournament. Took 2nd place with 158 lbs total let the flats go as I view them as trophy fish. Going to try a batch pickled and the rest are going to a vets catfishing day I participate in yearly. We have a big fish fry with all the fixings after a long morning of fishing then I clean the catch for them to take home. I love eating cats just gotta wash with milk and it takes all the mud flavor out. Green County Pete gave me that tip a few years ago when him and his son came over for the tournament.

Thats exactly what they are called around here, mud filets. Never tried the milk trick and likely won't as long as walleye and perch are still biting. Thats a good thing you are doing for the vets, good on you....

That does look good Savell! I'll keep learning.

make nice even size pieces I have fried tournament winning flat heads and they are good fried , but they are too big too cook well.

your basically making fish stick size or nugget size

half in inch thick 1-1.5 inch wide maybe 3 inches long they cook fast and even without being under done in the middle or overdone at the edges.

what some restaurants might call catfish finger size even and not too large.

then soak in whole milk 20 minutes to an hour a gallon ziplock in a bowl reduces how much milk you need burp the air out.
the bowl is because bags leak
rinse in cold water and lay out on a towel to dry off as your getting your breading ready

the milk binds to the enzyme that makes fishing smell/flavor

375 peanut oil

drain on paper towel or bread heals

Bruce, we do the same thing, except on a little larger scale, lol. Generally about 15-20 folks. We have several ponds on the plantations that we thin out from time to time. We keep all bass under 15” and load the coolers with them. 3 of us cleaning them can have a whole cooler done in no time. Bass, fries, hush puppies, and coleslaw is a fine meal!

As far as catfish being unfit to eat…don’t come South, lol. About every restaurant down here serves them either filleted or whole. My son gets a week off to go with his manager to Alabama limb lining every year for a fish fry his plantation puts on for all the workers including anyone or company that sets foot out there to do any work. They come back with about 10 large coolers full and spend the next several days filleting and packaging them by species (channels, blues, flatheads, etc).

Family fish fries , we have them with my wife and kids , invite the neighbors who are also our hunting partners.

used to have big family ones when I was a kid.
my Great aunts , great uncle , grandparents , my parents
my great uncle new the spots , my dad had the boat , there would be 5 of use , Grandpa Marsh , Uncle Bill , Dad, my brother and I all just hauling in perch.

then we would go to Uncle bills house and he had a couple 55 gallon barrels behind the garage with planks across them we pulled those out and set it up as out fish cleaning station , back then I was on scaling duty

scale till my hands were so sore I could hardly hold down another fish.If I was smart I would have used a fork to hold with my left and scale with my right.
I wasn't given a fork I was given a spoon to scale with.

then we fry them all up and Grandma and Grandpas , the ladies my Grandma , two great aunts and my mom would bread and fry them.

only one great aunt of that bunch left and she turns 91 in two weeks and we are having a Fish boil for her birthday.

I like a fish boil also , had one a few weeks ago with family and neighbors a 10 pound laker

No buttermilk needed here. Filet them clean and soak in salt water until it's about time to cook. I know this sounds trivial, but don't pull the filets out of the saltwater. Run more water into the bowl of filets and let it overflow to get all the gunk out, then remove the filets from the bowl.

There is a vein down the center of the filet you will cut out, my grandpa always called that the mud vein. Dice them up into nuggets after removing that vein. Remove any yellow fat also

I use Zatarans seasoned Fish fry breading. It will make you turn your nose up at House Autry.

Lots of guys will dip in buttermilk and then bread them, and that is good, but I like more flavor. I dip mine in Franks Red Hot and then bread them and fry.

They get gone quick....

What’s a fish boil?

We have a low country boil down here…crawdads, shrimp, corn on the cob, red taters, smoked sausage. When it’s done you just drain the water, cover the entire table with newspaper, and pour entire contents on the table. Everyone sits around and just picks through the contents. Zatarains crab boil is what everything is boiled in…no better eating in the South!

Just wow!

Yup, on the bigguns cut it down to size.

I would hang and bleed anything bigger than five pounds. That helps immensely, just cut at the tail down to the bone and let them bleed out.

Then snatch the skin and peel off the fillet in one big cut.

Break down the fillet into nice manageable squares then split in half cutting horizontally until you got individual portions about three quarter to an inch thick

Bass...!?? Good gracious, we need to send the intervention police down there. Next thing youll tell me is you add sugar in your iced tea..blasphemy! You ever get to northern michigan, we'll get some walleye and perch in you and youll go home and use them catfish and bass for raccoon bait...if theyll even have it!

Haha! I had some walleye in Kansas and to be honest, it wasn’t that good. I’ll take bass and catfish any day, lol.

We use Louisiana fish fry New Orleans style batter. Fry till it floats, and cook like sizes together.

My favorite for frying is a 2-3 lb squealer, channel cat, just skinned and gutted.

Whole catfish don't dry out as bad as fillets. The missus is skeered of bones so I do up fillets for her. Those I like a little bit bigger fish. Something like a 4-5 lb squealer or blue for a nice thicker fillet.

Flathead I would most often chunk up into nuggets.

My favorite to clean is the 2-3 lb squealer. Got to where I could have one skint and done in about a minute flat. Hook the two fins on the side with thumb and index of the left hand top fin up. Right hand with skinners breaks the skin, snatches it off. Drop skinners, grab knife make one cut behind top fin angled down to the spine, drop knife. Grab tail and push and bend to break the spine. Flip and insert finger into the body cavity and out the vent and rip out the guts and done.

I have had Low country boil , I have an aunt and uncle in Savannah.

Fish boil , we have new paper articles from back in 1880 -1890 that my Great great grandfather was feeding his timber crews on fish boil so we have been doing it a while.
He was a Danish immigrant in 1860.

the standard for most pots is a speed queen washing machine tub with a ss patch welded in the bottom and 2 SS baskets , I am sure it started with big cast iron pots the type you would hang on a tripod for hog scalding or making head cheese.
a turkey fry pot works fine for about 8-10 people
I actually have used my big 30 liter temale steamer the last few times it works well.

it is fish typically whitefish or lake trout
white onions
red potatoes

traditional is wood fire I worked those when I was a kid but most of the time we are running LP now unless they are doing a show for the tourists just because clean up is so much easier.

fish is chunked

the water is salted , that is basically the only seasoning and it has something in common with the salt potatoes served in mines in PA and WV in the same late 1800s early 1900s

you can serve in shifts and just keep doing boil after boil just adding enough fresh water to fill the pot again.

when I worked boils with my grandpa when I was about 8-12 they were all wood fired we would run 5 pots , 4 boil and one to keep making hot water to replenish the other pots
there was a 3-4 quart sauce pan mounted on a section of broom handle so it was easy to dip and carry water

potatoes go in first depend on size but 8-12 minutes depending on size , then add onions 8 minutes
the fish goes in fish depends on size 7-8 minutes on white fish , big lake trout might take 12-14 minutes you have to watch that and test until you nail down the time for your fish size

all times are started when it returns to a boil so the intensity of your fire matters.

that 10 pounder we did last time was 14 minutes and couple pieces could have gone another minute.
if you have thick fish don't cut them too long.

in a traditional wood fired boil about 3/4 to a cup of #2 is put in a jar or can.
We used to use a pint jar with a handle on it when working with grandpa , you walked quickly past tossing the fuel in the fire , and as we sometimes have to point out , retaining the jar in hand. you get a fire ball the pot boils over rapidly carrying the excess oil off the top
then a rod is slid in and 2 men lift the baskets from the pot and carry them to the serving line.

the goal is cooked through fish that comes off the bone easily but doesn't fall apart while serving.

a traditional plate is ,
potatoes 2-3 , onions 2-3 , 2 pieces of fish , 2 slices of rye bread and smother any and all of that in melted butter , laddeled on from a crock pot or pan kept warm , coleslaw as a side , and cheery pie for desert.

salt , pepper and butter are really the only seasonings around.

you have to understand this is a Scandinavian meal and strong spice isn't really a thing.