Duggie Jeff & Skiffin John ~ ShowDown Tampa

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  • alligatorpointer
    alligatorpointer Member Posts: 131
    #22
    fishmanpa said:

    Catfish rules!

    Catfish, especially farm raised is wonderful! Beer battered and fried it's unbeatable! Add some hush puppies to it and you have a true Southern delicacy.

    "T"

    Hard-Head Catfish = mudcats

    I mis-typed my original 'Subject' ... meant Hard-Head and not Hard-Heat ... and hope nobody was offended. Hard-Head Catfish or Mudcats are nothing like "farm-raised", T.  The ones we catch in the gulf waters are slime-covered, and have venomous barbs that can cause nasty puncture wounds which make them very difficult to handle safely.  I just never knew that anyone would consider eating them.  

  • fishmanpa
    fishmanpa Member Posts: 1,227 Member
    #23
    alligatorpointer said:

    Hard-Head Catfish = mudcats

    I mis-typed my original 'Subject' ... meant Hard-Head and not Hard-Heat ... and hope nobody was offended. Hard-Head Catfish or Mudcats are nothing like "farm-raised", T.  The ones we catch in the gulf waters are slime-covered, and have venomous barbs that can cause nasty puncture wounds which make them very difficult to handle safely.  I just never knew that anyone would consider eating them.  

    Sail Cats

    Ahhh... you're talking about sail cats. I've caught them before. They have long pec and dorsal fins that are pretty nasty. I've caught them but not tasted them.

    "T"

  • alligatorpointer
    alligatorpointer Member Posts: 131
    #24
    fishmanpa said:

    Sail Cats

    Ahhh... you're talking about sail cats. I've caught them before. They have long pec and dorsal fins that are pretty nasty. I've caught them but not tasted them.

    "T"

    sail cats are NOT the same as hard-head catfish

    Sail cats (Bagre marinus aka gafftopsail catfish) are good to eat if you skin them ... be careful handling them because they can also stab you ... but they are NOT the same as hard-head catfish (Ariopsis felis).  I think the sail cats have a graceful look ...those long fins on sail cats kinda make me think of the way shrimp boats have their net rigs draped so beautifully on either side. Another interesting thing about the sail cats is their "crucifix fish" legend which has to do with the shape of their inner bone structure ... see link:  http://www.lafishmag.com/CrucifixFish.html

  • fishmanpa
    fishmanpa Member Posts: 1,227 Member
    #25
    alligatorpointer said:

    sail cats are NOT the same as hard-head catfish

    Sail cats (Bagre marinus aka gafftopsail catfish) are good to eat if you skin them ... be careful handling them because they can also stab you ... but they are NOT the same as hard-head catfish (Ariopsis felis).  I think the sail cats have a graceful look ...those long fins on sail cats kinda make me think of the way shrimp boats have their net rigs draped so beautifully on either side. Another interesting thing about the sail cats is their "crucifix fish" legend which has to do with the shape of their inner bone structure ... see link:  http://www.lafishmag.com/CrucifixFish.html

    Tastes like chicken

    Alligator has been said to taste like chicken but they're not the same. Six of one...half a dozen of the other.... 

    "T"

  • Ron Silver
    Ron Silver Member Posts: 94
    #26
    alligatorpointer said:

    Hard-Head Catfish = mudcats

    I mis-typed my original 'Subject' ... meant Hard-Head and not Hard-Heat ... and hope nobody was offended. Hard-Head Catfish or Mudcats are nothing like "farm-raised", T.  The ones we catch in the gulf waters are slime-covered, and have venomous barbs that can cause nasty puncture wounds which make them very difficult to handle safely.  I just never knew that anyone would consider eating them.  

    Was Just a Visitor

    Was just a visitor to the gulf area a few times, but I never heard of anyone eating them.  Cast netted mullet and fried those up.  Delicious.  But the ocean cats-caught a zillion of the them, same with the small black tip sharks all while wade fishing.  Had a receipe for the black tips but never went through the effort to clean and cook them.  The cats I just threw back. 

     

    Wiki says:

    Hardhead catfish are edible but, like all catfish, require some effort to clean. It is one of the thirty most recreationally harvested species in the 5-county area (Volusia, Brevard, Indian River, St. Lucie, Martin) encompassing the Indian River Lagoon (IRL)in central Florida.[8] From 1997-2001, 361,022 hardhead catfish were harvested within 200 miles of the shore in the IRL region.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardhead_catfish

  • Skiffin16
    Skiffin16 Member Posts: 8,305 Member
    #27
    Salt-Water Cats...

    I haven't eaten either, hard-heads or sail cats...

    But I do catch tons of them, might have to give a try, LOL... But usually darn cat fish are just more work to clean than I want to put into them...

     

    I do like some fresh water Cat Fish though, especially Channel Cats.., again, a pain to clean, or more specific, to skin. You have to stick their tails through a nail in a board, and use pliers to pull their skin off. I don't even scale my fish, just fillet them, and slide a knife between the skin and meat, easy peasy... Other than Pompano, which I just fillet, cut the rib bones out, and broil skin down. The flesh comes off easy once broiled.

     

    When I fish for Pompano around a few of the bridges here, there is one specifically that I call Cat Fish Central... That's the Howard Franklyn (I-275 Bridge). That bridge holds tons of cat fish, and if you let your lure sit even a second or two on the bottom, a big old cat fish is gonna eat it.

    But it does hold Pompano..., and those huge 50# Black Drum to play with occasionally.

     

    The Howard Franklyn is a bridge in the upper part of Tampa Bay where the bay up there is at it's widest. So when the tide is ripping at the other bridges, it tends to be slower there, because of the width of the bay.

    JG

  • rachel12yrsuv
    rachel12yrsuv Member Posts: 435
    #28
    Jeff and John, so jealous

    Jeff and John, so jealous would love to have been there too, but i live too far from Florida.  Trying to save what i can while waiting for SSI appeal, and plan on buying our house next year and taking my Faith to Disney before she is too old for princesses! 

    When anyone is in Lower Bucks County Pa let me know wiuld love to get coffee(Jeff lol)!

    Glad two people who help so many got together!

     

    rachel 

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