Tweet
Jeremy and I fished the flats, each getting our keeper rock but the fishing was nothing to write home about. However, when we got into launch there was a commercial fisherman who'd just pulled up his nets. The back of his truck was full of catfish. It was kind of amazing to see all the fish loaded up into individual crates. He was headed off to a distribution center to sell the fish and he'd claimed his catch was terrible. That's hard to believe seeing hundreds of fish in his truck. In one day he'd pulled out more fish than I'd done in years, maybe ever for that matter.
He had several species. Channel cats and flatheads in abundance. He had white catfish as well, a species I'd never seen, and they looked like "cartoon characters" according to Jeremy with their oversized bulbous heads. I was really interested in trying a flathead so he gave me one for a couple of bucks and threw in a white catfish to compare the two flavors. When I brought the monster flathead into the house my wife quickly stopped what she was doing in the kitchen and left. She said, "That's too big. It looks like a pet" Hahaha, I got her to snap a quick picture before she ran to another room while I cleaned it. The fillets that come from the fish are not exactly clean looking. It looked like I did a messy job of filleting the fish, maybe I did, but the meat was rather soft and spongy, much different than a rockfish.
Having cooked both species I can now give an assessment on the meat. I was apprehensive because I'd taken home a channel cat once and could barely eat it. It tasted like Dundee Creek where I caught it. With these I took no chances and soaked them in buttermilk for 24 hours. The buttermilk had turned pinkish by the time I pulled the fillets out. The fillets were rather thick so I cut them crosswise and breaded them, seasoning with blackening spice. I fried them in canola oil at 375 degrees. Now time to eat.
I will start by saying, the meat was very tasty. There were no off putting muddy or fishy flavors, just pure white meat. I don't know if that was a function of the buttermilk or just how the fish is. I think I'll stick with the buttermilk. I wouldn't consider either fish meat firm, but the white catfish was the firmer of the two and a slight bit drier. The meat of the flathead was rather good and I'd certainly be happy to eat it any day. To be honest, I enjoyed my flathead meal a little better than the rockfish I had yesterday. The meat was moist. It didn't flake, but the "flake structure" was rather small. So if it would have flaked, the flakes would have been tiny. I think this led the fish to be tender and not chewy like other catfish I've had. If you catch a flathead go ahead and eat that ugly beast since they are an invasive species and are rather delicious even at the 29", 12 lbs of this one.
Oh yeah, on more thing to note. The flathead had the tail of a fish sticking out of it's throat. I gripped it (I could fit my entire arm in its mouth) and pulled it out. I was a full sized herring, or at least that's the best i could make out of the mangled fish.
He had several species. Channel cats and flatheads in abundance. He had white catfish as well, a species I'd never seen, and they looked like "cartoon characters" according to Jeremy with their oversized bulbous heads. I was really interested in trying a flathead so he gave me one for a couple of bucks and threw in a white catfish to compare the two flavors. When I brought the monster flathead into the house my wife quickly stopped what she was doing in the kitchen and left. She said, "That's too big. It looks like a pet" Hahaha, I got her to snap a quick picture before she ran to another room while I cleaned it. The fillets that come from the fish are not exactly clean looking. It looked like I did a messy job of filleting the fish, maybe I did, but the meat was rather soft and spongy, much different than a rockfish.
Having cooked both species I can now give an assessment on the meat. I was apprehensive because I'd taken home a channel cat once and could barely eat it. It tasted like Dundee Creek where I caught it. With these I took no chances and soaked them in buttermilk for 24 hours. The buttermilk had turned pinkish by the time I pulled the fillets out. The fillets were rather thick so I cut them crosswise and breaded them, seasoning with blackening spice. I fried them in canola oil at 375 degrees. Now time to eat.
I will start by saying, the meat was very tasty. There were no off putting muddy or fishy flavors, just pure white meat. I don't know if that was a function of the buttermilk or just how the fish is. I think I'll stick with the buttermilk. I wouldn't consider either fish meat firm, but the white catfish was the firmer of the two and a slight bit drier. The meat of the flathead was rather good and I'd certainly be happy to eat it any day. To be honest, I enjoyed my flathead meal a little better than the rockfish I had yesterday. The meat was moist. It didn't flake, but the "flake structure" was rather small. So if it would have flaked, the flakes would have been tiny. I think this led the fish to be tender and not chewy like other catfish I've had. If you catch a flathead go ahead and eat that ugly beast since they are an invasive species and are rather delicious even at the 29", 12 lbs of this one.
Oh yeah, on more thing to note. The flathead had the tail of a fish sticking out of it's throat. I gripped it (I could fit my entire arm in its mouth) and pulled it out. I was a full sized herring, or at least that's the best i could make out of the mangled fish.
Comment