Fishing with Rod Discussion Forum

Fishing in British Columbia => General Discussion => Topic started by: Sinaran on July 20, 2005, 01:24:23 AM

Title: Question about Catfish...
Post by: Sinaran on July 20, 2005, 01:24:23 AM
 Hello everyone, i am new to the site and i really enjoy reading the posts and sharing information here!
Yesterday i went fishing at Mill Lake in Abby, i caught two catfish and a 'bow. That was the first catfish that i ever caught.  A guy there told me that just skin it and it would be a good eat.  I find these bottom dwellers are sure very tough.  I try to "paralyze" or kill it by smashing its head with screwdriver a few times, but it was still alive.  After about 40 mins drive back to Vancouver from Abbotsford, these catfish were still struggling !!  That's not the most surprising(shocking) part yet.  So i started to clean the fishes, catfish has skin instead of scales, so it's a pain in the my friend to clean them, and the bone is big too.  Here came the scary part... after i cut the head off the bigger catfish (about 18 inches, 5 lbs maybe), the body of the headless catfish was still moving..shockingly i turned and looked at the catfish's head, i saw the mouth was still "mumbling" !!!!  :o :o :o   hxly crap, that got a bit too scary, out of superstition, i decided not to consume the fish, and gave it to my neighbour who really wanted it. 
anyone of u know about this fish??? they named after because they r just like cat, which has nine lives?  or that fish was just possessed??   Thanks a lot for any information sooth my scare!
Title: Re: Question about Catfish...
Post by: Floater on July 20, 2005, 02:03:04 AM
LOL that was pretty funny. Too bad you gave them away those fish are pretty good eating fried in a batter with some mash potatoes mhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhm thats good eating. The reason they were still alive is cuz cat fish are just like that they can move from one water body to another on land.
Title: Re: Question about Catfish...
Post by: Rieber on July 20, 2005, 09:59:30 AM
Sinaran,

You have to be carefull with catfish - when you least expect it they will get up and walk on their whiskers, find your sneakers and pee in them to mark their territory. Also do you think the fish are any good to eat out of Mill Lake? :-X I live in Abbotsford and I wouldn't take those fish home.
Title: Re: Question about Catfish...
Post by: BwiBwi on July 20, 2005, 10:24:50 AM
Oh ya speaking of tough, after its heart has stopped. If you drop a few drops of water on it, it'll start to pump again.
Really tough fish.
Title: Re: Question about Catfish...
Post by: Fish Assassin on July 20, 2005, 01:17:24 PM
I hear that they are delicious eating, at least the ones in the southern US
Title: Re: Question about Catfish...
Post by: Hohummm on July 21, 2005, 07:26:22 AM
I hear that they are delicious eating, at least the ones in the southern US
Had the opportunity to try blackened catfish while on a trip to Atlanta. Absolutely fantastic! My mouth is watering just with the memory of it........
Title: Re: Question about Catfish...
Post by: Sinaran on July 21, 2005, 04:09:46 PM
thanks for answering my Q, everyone. I finally tried eating the catfish, i made it into rock salt pepper stir fried (fillet), yummy~!
tasted even better than the 'bows from the same lake. not as much bones like the pike minnows. one thing though, since the fish has skin instead of scales, i would suggest u to fillet it first before cooking.  Now we have another tempting catfish recipe! 
Title: Re: Question about Catfish...
Post by: sparky on July 22, 2005, 10:43:33 PM
they pretty much have to bleed out before they pack it in.  a few hours is nothing for them to be still moving.  moved out here from manitoba, fished lots of cats on the red river.  a good day for me was 5 over 25lbs and another half dozen or so around 15lbs.  they are a lot of fun.  we mostly release everything though, so no recipes....

do they have channel cats in mill lake, or is it a different type of cat?
Title: Re: Question about Catfish...
Post by: clarki on July 23, 2005, 10:31:41 AM
I've got a similar story.

Several years ago I bonked a smallish hatchery coho off the beach. While cleaning the fish at home, I was rinsing the blood line out in the kitchen sink while the guts sat on a newspaper to my left. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that guts were moving. I started to argue withself; my eyes saw the movement, but my mind knew that it had been dead for a couple hours and it was out of the realm of possibility for guts to come back to life. My mind and eyes couldn't reconcile what I was seeing.

As I stared in disbelief, a small dime-sized crab emerged from the pile of guts and started to scuttle across the counter!

Learned a thing or two about the feeding habits of coho that night...