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.

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