Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Pickled fish..........catfish???

I have a sizeable amount of channel cat that have the typical muddy flavor and I don't fry fish after going grain free.

Will pickling make it less edible?

Honestly I have never had pickled fish of any kind but I am looking for options to save it. I can throw it away, give it away, smoke it or try pickling.

Dude.........
Dont.....

Sounds NASTY 🤮

I have always preferred smoked catfish over smoked salmon.

There is a Swedish product called Rolltop. It’s pickled herring. Quite tasty, actually.

Salt water harvested young fish mostly man....
Not an anceint serpent channel cat from the bottom of a slow moving river system.

Just saying...
LOL.

Sauteed, butter and lemon, little garlic.

Sauteed, olive oil, finish with sriracha or tabasco.

Blackened.

that's the problem w/a lot of catfish.

that's why locals call them mudcats.

they're usually more muddy flavored from ponds.

generally, the faster the stream the less muddy flavor.

No question these are muddy water fish and don't hold an candle to even the biggest flatheads we pulled out of Amistad.

Gotta cut the mud vein line off em
And soak em in buttermilk or lemon juice over night.
Cook em in a spiced batter

Still dont matter
Always will have a slight dirt taste.

Blue cats are a little better.


Jmo


Ain't ate catfish in alot of years either.
Just don't care for the dirt taste.
Had crawfish 1 time also
Didnt care for those 1 bit.
Anything pole netted up out of the brackish water along the interstate and road drainages and swamps
Just dont strike me as something to eat

YMMV....

Cut off the red flesh/fat

i soak them in ice water with salt before freezing.

Never ate a bad catfish.

But I'm in headwaters territory.
Summits dividing the Potomac, Susquehanna, and Ohio rivers are within 10-15 miles of here.
Our cricks and river are shallow and faster than in flatter areas.
Other than trout, our fishing is largely limited to manmade lakes.

Oh Lawdy!!! Thats just not righteous.

Fry em.

Apple baked channels draw out the mud taste and is pretty darned good. Channels cut length wise across the fillets and boiled in crabboil with a little Frank's hot sause is good too.

Soak in mustard before frying. you wont taste the mustard but it helps muddy or stronger tasting fish a lot.

The mustard is a good idea too. We use French's honey mustard. Haven't used this often but it is a nice change up.

Rollmop herring. Delish.

After skinning catfish use a real sharp fillet knife and slice a 1/16 th off the sides with the silver skin along with the red meat layer. The father they are, the more you trim. Fat blue cat on shad are worse.

Douse in lemon and hot sauce, roll in cornmeal with some Old Bay, Tony Cs and fry. Good luck.



This herring on mayo and cheese crackers with or without garlic is good. Chedder or blue cheese or hatch chili cheese.

Sounds like an experimental cooking night.