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catfish fillets and yellow meat ?
- Thread starter dipbait
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- Feb 9, 2008
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- 5,421
All my life I just skinned and gutted catfish. The last couple of times I filleted them .Ive always filleted other fish but not cats. Cats are simple to fillet. Its super fast . The yellow meat is easy to trim , which I did, just didnt know if I was wasting it or not .
Do you fillet them with the skin on the come back and trim the skin? I skin and then proceed to fillet the meat off. Another thing with the yellow meat, the fishy/muddy taste probably is increased when the size of the fish increases so that's probably when i would start to trim it off. Then again I release all larger fish so it isn't really an issue with me.
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- Mar 29, 2006
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I never trim the yellow meat. The red meat down around the tail on a flathead or big channel cat goes. Heck, some of the buttercat, or bullheads, out of the creeks are almost all yellow meat, and are pretty tasty.
that dude is awesome.. i have never been able to find a filet knife that wicked sharp to do what he is doing.
oldschool45
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- Oct 15, 2007
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With catfish I was always taught to take a board with a nail through it. Impale the head on the nail take your filet knife and cut around the collar and the dorsal spine. Tale pliers and peal the skin off like you are taking a sock off. After that 1/2 of the fileting is already done just cut it away from the ribs. I've done this without the board & nail but it makes it easier.
As far as yellow meat goes, I caught a few tilapia down in Florida some had dark almost yellow meat that when eating were noticeably gamier than the other lighter colored filets.
Just watched the video, that's pretty much how we clean Crappie and that fast. But we cheat and use an electric knife it makes going through the rib bones easier.
As far as yellow meat goes, I caught a few tilapia down in Florida some had dark almost yellow meat that when eating were noticeably gamier than the other lighter colored filets.
Just watched the video, that's pretty much how we clean Crappie and that fast. But we cheat and use an electric knife it makes going through the rib bones easier.
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IMO if your cutting thorugh rib bones on a crappie, your doing it wrong. They are very easy to fillet boneless.
oldschool45
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- Oct 15, 2007
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Trooper, if you are doing a "few" crappie its easier to cut around the ribs. If you have between 50 and 100 (Lake Okeechobee used to have a 50 per day per person possession limit). Its faster to knock the filets out with the electric and go back and remove the ribs with a manual knife.
That's how my grandmother did it, no board though, just a nail protruding from the side of the barn.
And these for pliers:
Monofletch
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- Jan 14, 2010
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- 10,164
That guy sure waists a lot of meat! I fillet my the same way.
I always brain them first.
oldschool45
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- Oct 15, 2007
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Tonym that's not sentimental its SMART! Fish bouncing around with spines and all and me with a 7" longer razor sharp knife next to my off hand? Nope not gonna happen! It doesn't even bother me when the muscles are twitching anymore while I cut.
I wear a glove just like that guy in the vid.It allows you to hold the slippery fish.I do not cut through the ribs on Catfish that I fillet.I cut around them.What is the use cutting through the ribs then cutting them off the fillet.It's two steps instead of one.The way I do it the guts stay inside the body and it is a lot less messy. I don't want to eat that little piece of belly fat anyway.
I jug fish and have cleaned a couple hundred at a time.
I jug fish and have cleaned a couple hundred at a time.