How to Clean Gafftopsail Catfish Quickly
 

https://youtu.be/RXgJ8eRK0oE

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That is the best tasting catfish out there. I don't cut the skin all the way off at the tail, I just cut then flip the side over and let the skin hang on the fish. Good video.

When u say "out there", do you mean the Gulf?

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naw, the whole U.S.

I know gafs have a bad rep but that is about the only catfish my wife and kids will eat. Just cut the red out and don't keep them when they look poor looking.

I find them good eating but they do have a slight flavor to them just like with redfish so its easy to tell when eating them that its something different then regular catfish but it tastes good to me.

I find its very easy to de-slime then by spraying the slime off with a hose just before cleaning them but you do end up with an ice chest full of slime.

as seen in the video, you don't get much meat at all off of them compared to size (only about half the length of the fish) so I don't bother keeping anything under 24" long or its just wastefully killing them just for little French fry strips of meat.

I learned that my first time catching them. I tore up my electric fillet knife due to the boney head....lol. After the first few I went and bought a fillet knife and started knocking them out. I actually read a thread here about them, that's what made me try them.

If Gafftop is the best tasting fish out there; then why is there no market demand for them?

If market sales are the determining factor, then we'd have to conclude that black drum are the best tasting. The black drum is the #1 commercial finfish in Louisiana most years.

There's a pretty decent market for gafftops in Florida, where many thousands of pounds are harvested commercially each year.

In LA, freshwater catfish dominate the catfish markets. I think it is most likely because the sources are closer to the markets, turning whole fish into fillets is labor intensive, gafftops yield much less weight in fillets per pound of whole fish, both because the fillets are lighter and because the blood line needs to be removed: more labor and lower yield.

Anyone price gar lately? All of the sudden it jumped. I think some of it is based off trends as well. I used to throw certain species of fish back but since learning how to cook I have a different out look now. I usually will keep something odd and experiment with a dish and doing that I learned that sometimes certain fish taste horrible....lol. Maybe we should have a big gaftop fish fry and invite everyone over :D

One thing I have learned, I soak my gaftop in beer and lemon for about 15 minutes before I fry it. It's good stuff.

Neva knew what ya call them but we called them sail cats and I ate a few over the years
I hate using that technique cause its so fateful of good fish flesh but I do use it when I have 10 or more fish cause its really fast and there is enough to let some waste. I soak them in mustard egg wash and fry. Also I leave the filet on the tail flip and take the skin off.

Yeah, like most fish cleaning, there is a trade off between speed and yield.

When it's hot and I'm tired and there are a mess of fish to clean, I gravitate toward speed.

And whatever the yield, it is greater for fish you keep than for fish you throw back. I really want to encourage folks to keep more gafftops, not only because they are as good as other catfish, but because gafftops are strong food competitors with redfish and specks, and also eat their share of age 0 specimens of redfish and specks (and mullet and croaker and menhaden).

For every 5 lb gafftop you keep, you leave enough forage to feed 5 lbs of redfish and specks.

So murder every one of em and feed da crabs

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Seems valid if you prefer not to keep them.

lol yes

that brings up an interesting question.

what is the best way to kill a catfish? because I have left hard heads dry up in the sun for an hour or so and threw them "stiff" back in the water when I was done bank fishing and after I picked up all my stuff I saw they had started moving and trying to swim away so obviously they don't die from not being able to breathe being out of the water.

so short of throwing them up on dry land somewhere, what is the easiest way to ensure catfish don't survive without the mess of cutting them open?

On all catfish you can take a knife with sharp tip and slice dead center on head between the eyes and you will fill the tip of knife drop into a small hole in head, now get a short strip of stiff wire or torch tip cleaner and just push it in the hole at a angle from nose of fish to the dorsal fin and he will kick one last time and its over, Brain Dead

Or just bend over and stick der fin into der tail meat. Permanent horshe. Den just drop em to da crabs

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Gafftops eat good. Not as much yield as a freshwater cat but they taste good.
Small ones get released and hard heads get released. If I'm not going to eat it it gets to live if at all possible.

I carry a small souviner bat on my boat (5.99 at academy in the baseball equipment section). One good wack in the head usually does it.

http://assets.academy.com/mgen/85/10070285.jpg

I understand some folks do not prefer them.

But I was surprised that the gafftop cleaning video had more views in the first week than any other video I've posted. It turns out over 2000 viewers have been interested how to clean a gafftop.

It was something of a surprise that there has been more interest in my gafftop cleaning video than in my videos for catching bull reds from the beaches or in the passes. A lot of folks seem to be interested in giving them a try or improving the technique they are currently using to clean them.

you got a video on how to clean a stingray???????????

heard they was good eatin but for the life of me I have no idea how to cctually clean one or whats edible on them suckers lol (I heard its just the wings)

I've never caught a stingray, nor have any been caught from my boat or by my family fishing the beach. Five years ago, my son caught a small one on my brother's boat, but we cut it off and threw it back.

Last week at the jetties, a boat close to us caught a really big one fishing mullet on the bottom just like we were. I'm not sure why we don't catch them, but we don't.

I am working on some more cleaning videos: bull reds, drum, channel cats, etc. But to clean them, you gotta catch them. I'm thinking about some cooking videos also.

Seriously anyone interested in getting on some gafftops needs to head out to Da Bay.

If the title existed VBay would be known as the Gafftop Capital of The World. If they were a sport fish, it would be the premier fishery on the gulf coast. They can be found with ease pretty much anywhere out there but no area holds more Tops than Southwest Pass. I am pretty sure the creator carved it out just for them like a little slice of heaven. Its hard not to catch them when you don't want to most days. I imagine if you tried it would be next to impossible not to fill the boat. They are always there and always seem to be eating.

I've only tried to catch them once. Last summer after a long day of casting, burning gas, and casting some more. I saw some birds working in the pass and knew exactly what was under them. I stopped and let the guys I had with me wear them out. They put 40 in the boat in about 30 min. They are fun to catch when, especially if you have been fishing all day without a bite. I don't guess I am cool enough to not enjoy a gaff top beatdown. I don't think it would have been as fun if we didn't keep them so we did. I gave them to my neighbor. He told me he used them for crab bait but it turns out he cleaned them and sold them. Had to use hydrochloric acid to clean the fish box but it was worth it. All the Gafftop video talk reminded me of it. In case you missed it last time here it is.

https://youtu.be/wtZYfrig2lk

Awesome post. Great info.

We just spray the ice chest with the hose and leave it in the sun to dry.

They are good and bad to clean. Granted I've never caught a real big one. I laid it flat on a table and cut through the skin along the ribs and along the back bone and continue filleting the skin off out to the edge of the wing. Next I filleted the wing meat off of the skin on the bottom of the wing.

the last time I looked, I never saw any videos on youtube for cleaning stingrays but I just searched again, and now I see some videos showing how to clean stingrays

this guy makes it look so easy and simple to do https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YiafYmAMVg

so you just pull the skin off then like some people do with catfish

ahh, after watching a few videos, I see there is a "backbone like" cartilage down the middle of the wing that the meat should be trimmed away from for ready to eat frying fillets, otherwise its like cooking "bone in" fish you have to separate from the cartilage

I have an aluminum one, it makes a "ting" sound when you bust em. like hitting a home run

I caught a stingray at the cameron jetties a couple years ago. I was using 40 pound braid and did all I could to keep it from just out running me and spooling my line. It went about 100 yards and went under another boat and wrapped up two of their lines that they had out and then I got it headed back my direction. They cut their lines so I could finish fighting it. About 30 minutes later I was disappointed when I finally brought it up to the boat and saw what it was. I cut it off quickly. No idea what it would have weighed but had interest in finding out.

Kudos to the peeps in the other boat who cut their lines so you could fight your fish.

That sets the bar pretty high. We usually get our lines up quick if someone has a fish headed our way, but other boats have not been so courteous.

Best thing to do with a sailcat is stick um in the throat by the head and rip'm to the anul fin and throw them back......crabs got to eat too......

Sabine has a nice population too. I have had some crush a topwater during the summer make you think its a nice trout. But I think your right about V bay holding the gaff top crown.

This picture was up in Lake Charles [near I-10].

I was catching big drag pulling Sail cats 4:1 on trout. The trout were about 14-16 inchers, so I kept at it while it lasted.