Any good advice for Fileting Channel Cats?

[Chinook Nut]

Hoping on catching a few at Brownlee next week and looking for some tips. Thanks :pray:

[Rank Amateur]

We use an electric knife, start behind the gills, hit the back bone, work your way to the tail, but don't cut it off, flip the fillet off the carcass over the tail and try to find the layer between the dark meat which is next to the skin and the white meat, run the knife back to the initial gill cut. Have another person cut the ribs out (one big piece) and rinse it a couple of times and you have some good eating! Of coarse flip the carcass over and repeat.

It helps to have an elevated block of wood to work on so that you have room to lay your knife down flat while working down the back bone and when filleting the meat from the skin.

Make sure to get rid of all the dark meat, especially the center line.

Watch out for the pectoral and the first dorsal spines, they are very sharp and will cause some real pain. I use a glove on my fish handling hand, use the spines to hold the fish up against the elevated board. Cutting through the gut is kind of messy, but does not seem to harm the meat at all.

http://www.ifish.net/gallery/data/500/medium/Grabbed_Frame_8.jpg

These are the good eating size, not too big and not too small. 4-6 pounders are the better eating and the little ones don't have a lot of meat.

We are headed over on the 10th, we will be down on Oxbow. Have a good time!

[Hunt'nFish]

I can attest to Rank's catfish skills......YUM, YUM! :food:

[Chris61182]

I can attest to Rank's catfish skills......YUM, YUM! :food:


I think that picture he posted is all that is needed :bigshock:...

...well unless of course you meant in regards to cutting and cooking the little critters. :grin:

[FelonFinder]

Or...

Take your kitty and start your blade at the tail running along the spine. Hit the ribcage and then tilt your knife outward and bring it out. This leaves the ribcage and guts inside the fish. Once you've done this, take your fillets and using a sharp fillet knife, run the knife between the skin and the desirable portion of the flesh, removing the nasty red stuff. Toss your cleaned and trimmed fillet into a bowl of 7-up for a few hours. Batter, fry, serve. This is the same method you can use for any panfish as well.

[Hunt'nFish]

...well unless of course you meant in regards to <snip>....cooking the little critters. :grin:
Yep. I'm not normally a catfish fan but Rank's catfish is top notch.
Dale provided the catfish for our IFish Predator hunt this winter and WOW, lip smack'n!

Perhaps where I've gone wrong is by not removing the red meat. Perhaps I should remove it on some and not on others, and fry side by side for a taste comparison. I hate to waste meat.

Dale, perhaps you would share your recipe w/ the rest of the gang.
Hunt'nFish

[BleuBackKoke]

Can someone explain the "thumbs down" icon? I guess I don't understand...this seems like a perfectly good thread

[rum runner]

I like to bleed my catfish also.... hard to kill otherwise and it isn't fun filleting a live fish and they tast better too.

[Geoff Pace]

Chinook Nut,
If your going to brownlee just go to a fish cleaning station like the one at hewitt park out of Richland and stand there and watch and get hands on expierence. the one thing I learned over there was to buy an electric knife thats the only way to go ,I work in cannerys in alaska and know how to use a fillet knife those things just run circles around a regular knife.
Geoff