Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Butchering Catfish

Link to my knife, work equally well on flounder, redfish and whiting. I haven't had the chance to clean specks yet. I haven't sharpened it in 2 years of regular use (just fish though)

Fillet knife

Who makes the skinning device? Tried a search without results & zooming on the photo. Thanks.

Nail that bad boy to a tree and get after him with skinners then filet the meat off the sides. Note, there is much good meat on the bigger ones ahead of the filets.. Catfish stew comes to mind

Got to where we caught blues at the lake here for fun and turned em loose. Water is so damn hot not much good eating comes out of that lake anymore IMHO.

Yellows have to be around 40 plus pounds in the river to trim much fat. But I would imagine lake ones might have more fat.

I love the cheek meat the best out of ones big enough to mess with.

Rost, I hope you some day get to try yellow cat out of the Neches River north and east of you.

I always likeed to hang them off of a tree limb using stout wire and a hook. I made the hook from a tarp strap hook with a point sharpened on it. miles

Once the fish are weighing as much as the ones you caught, I knock 'em in the head, turn 'em belly up, and cut the belly out in one piece. With an electric filet knife, you can start just behind the double belly fin and just around the edge of the ribs, up to the breastbone, then around the ribs back to the starting place.

You will have one big piece of meat with a separation in the middle. You "filet" each half, then "filet the silver skin off.

Then I either skin and steak the rest, or filet from the ribcage back in the conventional manner depending on the size.

The big rib bones are way to hard on electric knives, so even with smaller cats I filet from the big upper fin aft.

Cats up to 3 lbs or so are very easily skinned by making a few relief cuts in the skin first. Hold the head in L/H and use the Walmart skinning pliers in R/H. Then you can break the back just behind the big upper fin. Takes less than a minute per fish.

Like Pat said, they cook pretty good with the bone in.

They cook good with the bone in. But its even better when a sloppy person filets em and leaves us the bones... with a decent amount but not to much meat on em. They fry up good and eat better.

I use the same nail to skin frogs too.

i just frogs in 2 with a hatchet. then take a good pair of pliers and skin him like you were pulling his pants down. grab him between the legs and jerk them down to his feet. chop of the feet.

i just cut frogs in 2 with a hatchet. then take a good pair of pliers and skin him like you were pulling his pants down. grab him between the legs and jerk them down to his feet. chop of the feet.

my spike board is actually made of a rectangle of aluminum 1/4in thick ,its about 16in x 24in i drilled a 2in hole in it at one end. then i welded a spike to a flat piece of steel about 4in square. then i bolted the sqaure on the underside of the sheet of aluminum with the spike sticking up thru the hole. i figuer this way i can take the spike off to sharpin or replace it. i built it to last a life time. clamped down on a good heavy table it ain't moving.

Barbarians!!

I wish I could mentally picture that or see a video, Cur.

Have y'all gotten rain and are your quail coming back?

My wife got me the same knife for my birthday or father's day a couple of years ago too. Nothing like it. I've been filleting fish for almost sixty years and never had a knife like that. Handle it very carefully, right out of the box. Fish come apart very easily for that knife.

Can't forget those catfish cheeks....they're up on top of their head. rub your thumb on top and you'll feel two soft spots and that's their cheeks. Just get a sharp knife and go around the outside of that covered hole and you'll have some fine meat a little bigger than nice size scallops.

I know ya don't need the stroke Andy but you're gettin it anyway. Its good to see a man doing right by his kids. Best to ya'll.

Enjoyed the blog.

Thanks for all the help gents!

Fillet them from the rib cage back and leave the skin on. Layer them with a salt, pepper, brown sugar mixture sprinkled on the meat for a day or so in the fridge. Then cook em in the smoker or the upper rack on the gas grill. The skin keeps them together a lot better, you don't have to eat it. You'll like the results I bet. 1 to 3lb's are better, but I eat a lot of bigger ones in the spring skinless and fried. Marty

Thanks Marty