Best Eating?

[poppop]

I am hoping to start doing some catfishing soon on Badin and High Rock. I have read a lot of the posts on catfishing but I am unclear on a couple of things. Which is the better catfish to eat....maybe in order... like blues, channels, flatheads... And what about size...is there a better eating size?
And has anyone ever used deer liver for cats? I am thinking of saving my deer livers this winter, freezing them and them for cats. Thanks in advance for your help.

[Dickieboy]

Just my opinion, blues then channels then flatheads. Best size for fillets is between 4 and 8 lbs. Fiddlers, 1-2lbers are best for whole cooking. Anything over 10 is too big but can be cut down to be tasty. I have used deer liver and works pretty good but my best bait hands down is cut skipjack herring. Liver generally works best on smaller fish and typically channels. Whole live bluegill are best for flatheads, bigger the bait bigger the fish. Blues typically hit cut/bait-fish best.

[TreednNC]

smaller winter blues (shad fed) blues, flatheads (they eat live bait 95% of the time, channels...theyre more prone to eat whatever when ever. Catchin.....flathead hands down. Poppop, my brother n law's brother put 5 in the boat in Grants Creek over in your pond one night last spring over 30lbs. Lively goldfish and bream.

[poppop]

Thanks guys...so in saying that...when I read of the 20 to 40 pounders being caught....as a general rule just take a picture and turn them loose would be the best. Not saying I will catch one...but just in case. And keep the smaller ones less than 10 pounds for fillets....right.

[rango]

in my opinion and ive found the big catfish, blues weve caught up to 43 pounds, weve cleaned and cut into nuggets and deep fried have been excellent eating if we remove all the red.

[poppop]

thanks....Rango... now is the red like meat stripes in the meat, or veins? I sure love catfish nuggets. Ate about a 4 pound channel cat the other evening, I stumbled on crappie fishing... it was some kind of good. I just fillet it like a crappie and took the skin off the same way. But I don't recall any red meat...I guess I didn't know to look for it. Everything I ate was good, nothing bad about the taste at all.

[rtorhead18]

Flatheads by far are the best, then channels, then blues. On the other hand the BEST eating catfish I have eaten were caught in Oklahoma and the guide called them Mississippi whites?

As far a size, ANY flathead is good, but the others, to me taste better when they are below 7-8 lbs. My son and I have caught numerous over 30lbs (blues), and release most back. Tried earlier to cut into small chunks but they still don't taste good to me. The big blues even "stink" in the boat. Again, just my opinion.

[rango]

if you know you gonna keep em, you can clip the gills and they will bleed out in the cooler. this will help a good bit. most of the catfish have a strip or red meat on each side just under the skin. when you fillet, you can hold the blade up from the skin a bit and it will take most the red off. when you get the sking off, then split the filet by cuttin the lateral line out. this will give you two fillet strips you can either cut into nuggets or make more fillets out of. also the meat along the ribs has some red in it. the belly meat, with the inner liner and the skin removed is some good eating to.

[poppop]

I wonder which species are what we have always called "mud cats" It seems like there were the most prevalent at High Rock years ago. They normally run about a pound of so... maybe flatheads? I know what the channel cats look like and that is definitely not them.

[Quackrstackr]

Flatheads by far are the best, then channels, then blues. On the other hand the BEST eating catfish I have eaten were caught in Oklahoma and the guide called them Mississippi whites?

As far a size, ANY flathead is good, but the others, to me taste better when they are below 7-8 lbs. My son and I have caught numerous over 30lbs (blues), and release most back. Tried earlier to cut into small chunks but they still don't taste good to me. The big blues even "stink" in the boat. Again, just my opinion.

I agree 100%.

The "mud cats" that you are talking about sound like bullheads.