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Apr 19, 2020 19:01:14 #
Took a little bit for them to get started but they did! So the smoker is gonna start Tuesday. I post a pic of them finishing on the smoker. 
Apr 19, 2020 23:30:47 #
Wow. I've caught many a catfish in my 72 years, but I've never eaten it smoked. What have I been missing?
Apr 20, 2020 02:40:08 #
Apr 20, 2020 09:09:28 #
FinFisherman wrote:
Took a little bit for them to get started but they did! So the smoker is gonna start Tuesday. I post a pic of them finishing on the smoker.
really nice stringer of cat. Are you smoking fillets or gutted fish. If it is gutted fish do you skin them first?
Apr 20, 2020 09:12:18 #
Weekend Hooker wrote:
really nice stringer of cat. Are you smoking fillets or gutted fish. If it is gutted fish do you skin them first?
I don't know about catfish WH but I have found that if you smoke fish with skin on the meat doesn't dry out so bad. Even the filets.
Apr 20, 2020 10:33:43 #
Trout and such I smoke with the skin on, however with catfish you need to fellet and skinned and cut up into even chunks. Try to have them all about the same thickness and size. I fry up the trimmings.
Apr 20, 2020 10:41:55 #
Weekend, even though these are small; And I have ordered catfish in Texas that came whole on the plate, but hardly nobody guts a catfish. Electric fellet knife would make fast work of it.
Apr 20, 2020 10:44:50 #
Maybe Fin does it whole on the small ones. At first I didn't notice how small they were.
Apr 20, 2020 10:50:03 #
FinFisherman wrote:
Took a little bit for them to get started but they did! So the smoker is gonna start Tuesday. I post a pic of them finishing on the smoker.
Nice litter of kittensš
Apr 20, 2020 11:05:44 #
JRK227
Loc: Cedarburg, WI
I remove the head and gut. Brine overnight and smoke with the skin on, it helps keep the flesh moist. Been doing it this way for years.
Apr 20, 2020 11:47:34 #
uncut6 wrote:
I remove the head and gut. Brine overnight and smoke with the skin on, it helps keep the flesh moist. Been doing it this way for years.
Sounds good. Iām gonna give it a try. Never tried smoked catfish. I always fillet them then skin them. Do it all with an electric filler knife just like I do any other fish.
Apr 20, 2020 11:54:12 #
Catfish hunter wrote:
I've never had smoked catfish either so since you get more than I do I'd like to know how it turns out. Maybe I can catch a couple this year.Sounds good. Iām gonna give it a try. Never tried smoked catfish. I always fillet them then skin them. Do it all with an electric filler knife just like I do any other fish.
Apr 20, 2020 15:20:40 #
Graywulff wrote:
I've never had smoked catfish either so since you get more than I do I'd like to know how it turns out. Maybe I can catch a couple this year.
Iāll definite let you know. My next trip is gonna be perch and trout but thereās cats there too. Most of the bigger cats I get while Iām fishing for predator fish on the Snake River in Washington so that might not happen this year from the looks of stuff. I have a couple of cat spots here but theyāre small ones. 5-6 pounders. I donāt keep cats under 5 pounds cuz thereās not much on em. Just let em back you grow up. The last one I caught was a channel cat. Weight exactly 6 pounds, 27 inches long and only yielded about a pound of edible meat. Theyāre mostly head and bones on the front half.
Apr 20, 2020 15:41:11 #
I have got to disagree again about your way of felleting Catfish. If you start at the head just like a perch or walleye and take the rib bones and then the skin. And then trim the bones off with the electric knife. You get the whole fellet. It takes Mabey 10 or 15 more seconds when you get used to it. Catfish hunter you waste half the fellet by leaving the rib bones.
Apr 20, 2020 16:18:27 #
fast_randy wrote:
I have got to disagree again about your way of felleting Catfish. If you start at the head just like a perch or walleye and take the rib bones and then the skin. And then trim the bones off with the electric knife. You get the whole fellet. It takes Mabey 10 or 15 more seconds when you get used to it. Catfish hunter you waste half the fellet by leaving the rib bones.
I didnāt say I threw that away and I do do it, almost, that way. I just donāt cut through the ribs with my knife. I filet all that meat off after I cut the tail section out plus I trim out the cheek meat as well. The front half and the cheeks go in my nugget pile. If you clean up EVERYTHING edible on the front half of a 20 pound cat youāll get 1/4 of edible meat. When I discard a catfish carcass. Thereās not a teaspoon of wasted meat left anywhere. Do you also disagree the front half is mostly bone and head? Thatās all I said. Iāve weighed 100% of the clean meat from a 6 pound cat including the rib meat and cheeks. 1.3 poundsš¤·š¼āāļø
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