Since I fish, I must brag....

Caught three last night...2 blue cats, one of 12 pounds and one 6. Also a 6 pound channel cat.

Not all that great, but the river was high and really fast, and I only fished about 2 hours after a fruitless search for bait. Good thing I took some frozen shad from a previous trip with me.

With fresh bait I should have had 100 pounds in a few hours.

It ain't really bragging if you can do it. 8)

brag brag brag :wink:

what about th ones that got away!!!! lol :wink:

Speaking of catfish, has anyone here ever eaten gafftopsail cats? All the books say they're edible and I frequently see people loading up on them at the bridges but are they really worth the effort, gastronomically?

never heard of them ???????

According to a brief web search, gafftopsail catfish are a type of ocean catfish.

http://www.nefsc.nmfs.gov/faq/fishfaq2.html

may be why i never heard of them :

They look almost like a channel catfish, but with longer fins.

If they eat like channel catfish, then they are worth it. I caught a couple years ago down on the Gulf coast, but didn't eat them so I really have no knowledge.

Sorry, I should have mentioned that they are salt-water cats. They belong to the family Ariidae which is composed solely of marine species and are not closely related to channel cats or other freshwater cats which, in North America, are all of the family Ictaluridae. As I previously mentioned, I see people, mostly imigrants, fishing purposefully for them, and the books say either that they are "edible" or "good" to eat, but don't say HOW good to eat they are. I don't go by the fact that people are eating them because these same people also catch and keep Jack Crevalle, which is a fish I have always been told is NOT good to eat. Perhaps that is untrue but before I try either fish, I'd like to know more because I'd hate to go to the trouble only to find that they DO taste bad.

P.S. There are two species of marine cat found in Eastern U.S. waters and the books all caution that ONLY the Gafftopsail is edible.

P.P.S. Tim, I just checked your link and that is the first time I have heard it claimed that BOTH species are edible. Didn't say HOW edible, though.

Man, they might be "edible" but I wouldn't pursue it. I think the ones who say they are edible and good are the same ones who claim bonito, jacks, cuda, and other "trash fish" are good to eat. Blechk....I, personally wouldn't try them. I just clip them off. Yech....

Yeah, I think I'm gonna continue to pass on saltwater cats. It's a shame, though, that they're not as tasty as their freshwater kin because they sure are easy to catch. So easy in fact that I don't bottom fish inshore, except on the grass flats or beaches, because that's about all you catch besides toadfish and stingrays.

After I caught the same, what we called, hardhead catfish three times one night, I cut the body off and used it to crab for the rest of the night. This was umpteen million years ago when I was my son's age or younger at Goose Island on the Texas coast.

Hell, all I ever caught was suckers :