Reasons to Keep Every Gafftop You Catch
 

The benthic food web in Calcasieu Estuary is much different since the overharvesting of oyster stocks in 2010 and the failure to restore valuable oyster reef habitat since that time. The gafftop catfish has moved into a much more pelagic predatory role in the food web, and rather than being primarily a benthic feeder, it is now a strong competitor with specks and redfish.

Every year since 2011, we have measured relative condition factors of specks, redfish, black drum, and gafftops in Calcasieu Estuary. The gafftops have been consistently about 10% under their expected weights, meaning that they are very hungry and somewhat overpopulated relative to their available food sources. Rather than wait for the benthos to recover, they have moved up in the water column and are actively and voraciously feeding on menhaden, mullet, and croaker, and likely also on age zero specimens of specks and redfish (and whatever else they can catch).

Our extensive sampling data allows us to estimate that gafftops have about a 53% forage overlap (food competition) with specks and about a 56% forage overlap with redfish over the past 5 years in the estuary. This means that for every 5 lb gafftop you throw into your ice chest, you are saving enough forage to produce 2.5 lbs or so of specks or redfish instead. Leaving more forage for specks and redfish means that these preferred sport species will be fatter and grow faster than they would if there are more gafftops in the estuary competing strongly for food.

Gafftops are so abundant in the estuary that they are very easy to catch right now. My children and I put close to 100 lbs in the box in a few hours of fishing on several occasions in the last two years. Cut mullet on the bottom at the jetties works very well, but we've also caught them readily on live croaker free lined in the current.

can we just keep pulling the gills out and letting them go?

what about playing gafftop baseball?

Do you skin them first or do you just filet them with the skin?

I used to skin them first, like is customary with catfish.

Lately, I've tried a new technique, first cutting the fillet off the bone with the skin attached, and then using the fillet knife to cut the fillet off of the skin, much like you would do for a speck or a redfish.

The new technique is faster, and my son has learned to do it well. As a result, I can remove the fillets from the bone, pass them down for my son to cut from the skin. He then passes the skinless fillets down to my daughter to trim the red meat off and bag.

This assembly line approach goes very fast, less than 2 minutes per fish.

Skinning first is a lot more work and slows it all down.

I've never understood rationale of skinning catfish unless it was the extremely small and thin ones, which, of course, are outstanding eats on the bone.

All the sailcats we catch in VBay are real fat. Does that mean they aren't competing with reds and specks? Is it only if they are underweight that they compete with them?

Just means you need to set more hoop nets

If they really are fat, they will tend to be more benthic feeders, staying on the bottom and having a less piscivorous diet. Being fat also suggests that they are not overpopulated relative to their available food sources.

Sure, they may still have some forage overlap with reds and specks, but if they are well fed from the bottom food sources, it is likely more like 20-30% competition rather than > 50% competition.

To me, the skin and the meat closest to it have some of the fishier flavors.

Makes sense to me Mr. Crab Caught one on Catch 5 Sunday evening:help::work:

Or pull out the Ak-rite. When they wont stop flopping around make em ak-rite so you can get the hook out eaiser!

wont catch me keeping any hard heads!!!!!!!

Why not?

If the gafftops are causing a problem, wouldn't the hardheads be causing the same problem? Shouldn't they be ... kept ... or dispatched ... too?

After today bro, I dont wants to touch no hard heads

Hardheads are not nearly as efficient piscivores as gafftops. Their mouths are too small, they are slower, and are smaller. All taken together, this means they can't eat fish nearly as large as gafftops can. A 6-8" croaker, pogie, or mullet is nothing for a 5 lb gafftop.

Undoubtedly, hardheads will have some level of competition with specks and reds, but I'd guess it is under 20% rather than over 50%. Sure, dispatch them to remove the nuisance, but taking out 1 5 lb gafftop probably helps reds and specks a lot more than taking out five 1 lb hardheads.

Haha.

One of them gotcha, huh? I can understand how you feel. One of those suckers stabbed me in the hand when I was a kid. Seems like I had a hole in my hand that wouldn't heal for about a month.

After reading this thread, I'm still thinking about turning every one I catch into cut bait.

A strip of catfish works well as a taster on a ling, snapper or tripletail jig.

I say keep the Specks hungry. It'll make them bite my "Not so well presented" plastics.

It was a lot easier to catch the underfed (skinny) bull reds in 2013 than it was to catch the better fed (plumper) bull reds in 2014 and so far in 2015.

But in the long run, better fed fish grow faster (more trophies) and have higher fecundity (reproduction) rates, meaning more fish to catch in the future.