Can You Eat Saltwater Catfish Trash Fish or Treasure
Vložit
- čas přidán 27. 08. 2024
- Join us as we clean a cook the most common trash fish of all.
Are saltwater catfish good to eat? The question is answered!
CHECK OUT OUR NEW AMAZON STORE FOR OUTDOOR COOKING ITEMS AND CAST IRON HERE:
www.amazon.com...
Become a Patreon www.patreon.com/backwoodsgourmet
![Can you eat SALTWATER CATFISH? [Catch, Clean, Cook]](/img/n.gif)
Check out the NEW AMAZON STORE for great outdoor products and save the link to your favorites. You can purchase anything on Amazon thru this link to help support our channel. amazon.com/shop/backwoodsgourmetchannel. Thanks
Backwoods Gourmet Channel it's like skinning a gar fish, A PAIN IN THE ASS.. You keep doing what you do brother- and don't trash those fish left over because you can make a nice fish stock with that
I feel 95% of "trash fish" is trash because the people making it can't cook.
Not Your Average Fish Keeper.
Shark is not one of em. They just plain suck.
@@primeribgaming2681 I've never eaten shark meat before. Do most sharks taste bad?
Koopa Troopa Poopa
They urinate through their skin, so it gets in the meat. I caught one, bled it and gutted it right when I caught it, soaked it in milk, and drowned it in blackened seasoning, but it still tastes like urine. Same for all sharks.
@@primeribgaming2681 Wow! That's interesting and disappointing at the same time. It's mostly a shame, because sharks have a lot of meat I bet.
Koopa Troopa Poopa
Yeah, but they are good dog treats. Lol.
I’ve grown up eating saltwater cats and sail cats. I never knew they were considered trash fish. They are delicious
Me too. I always cut the skin behind the dorsal fin and used the front side to hold it with my left hand and pliers in the right hand. Easy as pie. Never filet them just fried them whole.
It boils down to listening to people instead of trying it ourselves. Growing up poor in florida, hardheads, sailcats, bonito, jack cravalle all tasted good. The elite folks scoffed at them. Theyre the ones that started those lies...
@@bonepicker1 HELL YEAH!!!!
Many years back my wife and I were camping on the causeway of the Sunshine Skyway. I caught a Gafftop Sail, it was probably 6 or 8 pounds. Once I got him dehooked and ready for release the guy next to us came over hollering to not let it go. He was saying how good they were. Now being the fish snob I am I wanted nothing to do with this slime coated monstrosity. He said if I would give home the fish he would fillet it and cook it up for us. Week he was homeless living out of a 70’s circa Chevy C100 pick up. I have in and let him have the fish. The only oil we had to fry it in was about 3 days worth of bacon grease. That was one of the best meals I’ve had in my life. We let the homeless guy have the leftovers. He was very grateful and so were we.
Growing up in Florida, people always said the hardheads were trash but in my experience if they're prepared and cooked right they are just as good as any other catfish. Just goes to show just because a lot of people tell you it's trash doesn't make it so.
thats like half of the fish population the ppl of nowdays only eat what is thrown in front of them at the market ....
Lobsters at one point considered. Trash fish and thrown back. Now they are a delicacy. So goes to show you. Seen several of these videos and not one negative review on eating salt water cat fish.
This is so country, I love it. Camo shirt, camo visor, Merica shorts, fried catfish appetizer, fried catfish main dish. God bless
Thanks for watching.
Not just any camo shirt, a camo Chef Jacket, buttons and all! :D Just about the best dern thing I've seen this week.
Tmendler - wait! I thought this was normal and I'm female!! 😂😂👍🏻😘
The Natty light helps
They call it a trash fish cause they're too damn lazy to clean it. Pure and simple.
Yea they pain in d ass ta clean gotta take all d red out n all
Thank you for making these videos brother. I really enjoy seeing somebody take the time to share their knowledge and experience with people, especially in regards to something as positive as not being wasteful or snooty. I have no idea why, but I find your videos so soothing. Again, thank you, and keep up the great work.
As a young man, I fished these salt water catfish. When you opened the skull, they had two white calcium lumps inside. We call these catfish pearls. I collected them and had a bag full. Don't know if you all knew this. That was seventy years ago. They are better to eat and taste better then fresh water cats. Reason why, because freshwater cats suck thru mud and pollution. Salt cats suck coral sands and have a much better diet. Nothing wrong at all eating saltwater catfish. Plus, easy to catch. YUMMY.
EVERYTHING tastes good after enough beers! LOL
This is good to know! Growing up fishing off the Texas gulf coast, we ALWAYS tossed gaff tops and hard heads back into the water. Hundreds and hundred of them. Sounds like we missed out on some good eating! I do remember that the whole reason we would release them, was the difficulty cleaning them.
Thanks for watching.
Takes bite then look at the camera "I'll have another bite of that"....this guy is 😎....I love it
Every time I see one of these trash fish videos, they have always liked the saltwater cats. When ever I run across someone that says they taste like crap, I ask them, have you ever eaten one? They always say, no. LOL
This was honestly my first time eating them. Thanks for watching.
I love this trash or treasure series!! I've always been curious about trying fish that are typically thrown back!
Had some random people pull up by our camp on the beach in their RV, they saw we were catching Gafftops and told us to keep them and they'd cook em up for us. They made a gumbo style fish stew with it, just gutted it, chopped it up and threw it in, head and all... I'm not a fish stew person, but it was excellent!!!
Glad you made this video. Here along the TX gulf coast hardheads are considered trash fish, but you'll see a few folks saying gafftop are good. I tried my first hardhead many years ago and I say they are better tasting than blue, channel, and gafftop. Gafftop are too slimy to keep : ) They'll muck up the cooler real good and just aren't worth the mess, imo.
Native Floridian and gulf coast lover. I've caught and enjoyed many saltwater catfish. In cleaning, I've always just filet them from the get go. Thanks for your vids! Dave
I have watched folks trying to do that. Old habits die hard. Thanks for watching.
Thanks for the doing this video. I grew up on the Texas coast and have heard the same things about hardheads and gafftop. I've been wondering if everyone was right. I might try a sailcat next time I catch one.
I'm going to check out that jackfish video. That's another fish I've been curious about.
Sail cats are good but I've always believed hard heads are trash
you are absolutely correct. The only way to eat catfish is fried. Looks great.
Back when young and dumb I didn't know that these were trash, I'd always eaten fresh water cats, didn't see any difference because they lived in salt or brackish water. What I have discovered is where they are caught and what they're eating prior can greatly effect the taste. On your bigger fillets if you take the time to cut out most of the really red meat along the lateral line before slightly saline water soaking in the fridge (too salty water will make your fish salty), you can cut down greatly on the heavy taste you get sometimes.
The ol boys I grew up around told me, "Milk bath & refrigerate your cat/bullhead fillets for 24-hrs, this flushes some of the murky flavors from fish prior to breading & frying.
I have also heard of that for freshwater cats.
That's the way my grandma did it, she could make anything taste good
my dad used saltwater bath, my only uncle that dis fish used the milk bath. i guess it is just who taught you as far how you do it.
Jeffrey Donaldson The saltwater bath is what my grandma used.
Use buttermilk to soak them or game..pulls the blood out of them..
Nice fish fingers looking really beautiful never had cat fish great presentation !!
I have maintained that most fish, properly cleaned and fried, will eat just fine. Mullet was once considered a trash fish, but now is one of the most popular on the gulf coast. When I was a teenager and didn't 'know better', I ate Ladyfish, Pinfish, Grunts... all were pretty good. The best part is many of these 'trash fish' are plentiful and fairly easy to catch.
Now I’m bummed. I’m over 60 yrs old and never ate saltwater catfish but gotta try it after watching this video.
I ate my first one at 53 because I was always told the suck. Thanks for watching.
Hi I'm a commercial fisherman in Texas and we sell galftop to market and a little tip if you cut the tail off and bleed them the meat will be whiter and better tasting
That is just not seen anywhere that I have been in FL. Thanks for watching.
Damit. I been throwing them back. I just threw 2 big ones back. I ask other fisherman every time I go to the coast.
I'll never throw one away again. I was already contemplating on trying it for my dam self.
Thanks for the video.
Try them at least once and forget about the folklore. Thanks for watching and learning.
I am very happy that I subscribed....you have great presentations. It's very odd how people can have snobby attitudes about their fish choices.
Living here in Wisconsin I see it all the time. Sometimes people judge the taste of fish based on the appearance or the maybe on the difficulty
of cleaning them irregardless of their flavor....please tell Mrs.Backwoods to speak up, I would like to hear her opinion....keep up the great work.
Thanks for watching. Mrs Backwoods gets a little shy around the camera. Any other time you can hear her, believe me.
Backwoods Gourmet Channel At what Temp. did you fry at? 300° F?
Backwoods Gourmet Channel lol
Donald Polanco Yes, but no higher than that.
Backwoods Gourmet Channel I heard it's not really about taste.It's the high mercury this fish carry cause of their eating habits of eating in the mud.But that's what I heard.
BG I am a subcriber from México living in the Yucatan close to Mérida. These HH catfish are plentiful here and I fry them up about the same as you. The Mexicans use them to make a catfish soup with vegetables. Plentiful natural resource. Very tasty. Nice to see you do a catch & cook. I agree with some of the comments below...most don't know how to clean and fry them up to where they taste a damn. Cheers man cool video.
Caldo
Authentic and real. Love it!! Keep'm coming.
We catch sailcats at the inlet in St. Auggie running 4-5 lbs on average. It's one of the best tasting fish in these waters.
I'll bring em to you then bro lol so sick of catching them in St. Augustine
Man you are not old, you emanate a youthful spirit. Second this is third video I saw and it also was a treasure; picking random videos and them being all treasure leads me to believe I should start playing the lottery. Lastly thanks for this video. When I used to fish with my late aunt she and her husband always told me to throw away those fish they weren't worth cooking. I wish she was here and I could catch a fish and cook it for her.
I threw back a huge sail cat my buddy said that thing ain't no good. Jason we're eating the next one .
I've found catfish are easier to skin frozen. Freeze them, then thaw them just enough to defrost the skin, and it peels off much easier.
Michael Ritter then you lose the freshness. Straight out of the water is best. Probably why a lot of people hate fish its been frozen.
I rented a House boat around Cabbage Keys for a week and caught many Hard Heads and Sails. I wasn't familiar with these cats but, cleaned and cooked them anyway. They tasted great to me. I didn't realize they were considered trash fish at the time.
Thanks for watching. Certain times and tides, it is all you can catch.
why go thru all the trouble of skinning them if u are gona flilet them?
I have tried to fillet these and take the skin off after. Very difficult since the skin is so tender. You will either cut through, or leave a bunch of meat behind. All commercial fishermen do it like this.
miamiwax yeah, I just filet mine
I have never skinned a catfish that I was going to fillet. Can't imagine the saltwater variety being any different.
You don't even need to clean the guts or heads if you're going to fillet them. Use the heads and the rest of the body for crab bait!
I've been throwing these back my whole life. I can catch 20-30 sail cats in a hour or 2 where im at if I wanted to. Will definitely try them out now!☺️
Me too. Maybe I'll keep some. Somebody said the post thru the skin...don't know if that's true....would like to know.
As a Louisiana kid, I used to camp on the beach in Pensacola and catch both kinds of these cats for dinner! Yummy!
I caught a second saltwater hardhead today. This one was big enough to be worth the trouble of cleaning. Your video was inspiring. That fish is going into my belly. Favorite breakfast: fried catfish and scrambled eggs.
Just caught and released two of these tonight. I did not even know what they were. Looked them up and found this video. Learn something every day. Thanks
I have found that people will say a fish is unfit or trash just because they are ugly or hard / fussy to clean. Someone says the are no good then all their kids think they are no good and so on. when truth is they are good fish.
Fresh water catfish is best steamed with Chinese black bean sauce and other herbs and condiments. Oh, leave the skin on and top it with sliced green onion. Finish by pouring a few tablespoons of smoking hot vegetable oil on the steamed fist. Best catfish ever and must be healthier than the fried variety.
Never considered eating saltwater catfish. Hmm, I discovered I have biases after all. Gotta try it.
Mr Backwoods I just subscribed. Us brown folk down here in México use these particular catfish called "Bagre" in soups "Caldo de pescado" from the Mexican state of Michoacán. Very delicous. Greetings from Cancun
Welcome and thanks for watching.
I like informative videos. From my experience (sixty years of fishing the gulf coast) I've cooked hard heads on occasion and I have to say being half head I wouldn't bother with any less than around three pounds to be worth the effort. As to the gaftop they often get 8 or more pounds and the larger ones need to be bled or the red meat along the lateral line should be removed for best taste. Besides frying they also smoke well on the grill.
Threw 2 hard heads back Sunday cuz everyone was hollering they are trash. Now I'm bummed I listened.
Good video. I can catch as many hardheads as I want off my dock on Pensacola Bay. Think I'll give them a try.
Good to see Mrs Backwoods. Ya'll hunker down this week!
Got plenty of beer and some meat to throw on the smoker. Not even sweating it, I have lived here all of my life and have been through them all.
Great video! I saw a similar video a few weeks back about bluefish. That one ended pretty much the same as this. Cooked and cleaned properly, it tasted far better than expected.
Man I grew up in south central Florida, and just as you said, always herd can't eat salt water cats. But when you grow up in a house with six other brother and sisters, you learn to eat what ever is put on the table. So yes I've not only eaten, but also enjoyed salt water cat fish. Thanks for putting the word out there.
Thanks for watching.
I once caught a bunch of Gafftopsail catfish and decided to experiment and see if they were as horrible as I heard they were. I cut the bloodline out after I filleted them and let's just say everyone at the the fish fry was asking what kind of fish it was and praising how good it taste lol.
Great Video! Never had a hard head but Sails are plentiful in the canal in my back yard and I'll verity there as good as fresh water cats, which I love! Catfish are the only fish my wife will let me cook in the house cause THEY DON'T SMELL like fish. BTW, I grind oatmeal in a coffee grinder for my flower and fry them in 100% olive oil (not extra virgin as it smokes at too low a temp). That way they're extra healthy.
I missed a lot of chances for a good fish meal because I was told this or that fish was trash or poisonous. For the most part I've found very little truth behind the rumors. Thanks for letting us know about these cats.
Thanks for watching.
Sail-cat filets soaked overnight in lemon juice and water leave an oil slick that will leave people guessing anything but sail-cat when they eat them. This works with mullet as well.
Wouldn't that cook them?
Awesome man, thanks for doing all these trash or treasures for us! Looks like Ima be eating almost anything I catch!
I eat lake cats. Ya know they say they are scavengers but, all the cats I catch are full of muscles or brim.
Excellent! Learning from start to end. From catch to cooked on plate.
I have always through those back. I always catch gaftop when I'm salt water fishing but was always told that's crap fish throw that back lol. I'm gunna have to try it next time I catch them. Great Video!
Man I know this is old video but I wanted to try this myself mainly because I couldn't see these fish being any worse than freshwater catfish. There are alot of different species of fish I have never eaten, like gar, or carp, but I always thought when my Dad told me these were trash that he was just repeating what everyone told him. I really appreciate the effort you put in this video, gives me confidence to try some time!
Very cool video, awesome presentation, my dad is in Ft. Lauderdale fishing right now and he caught 3 and his friend on the our boat said, no sir, we’re keeping those lol, me personally, never ever knew of a saltwater catfish lol, now you have made me want to catch some lol
just ate sand shark for the first time a couple weeks ago AKA trash fish. it's actually one of my favorite fish now.
big ugly AKA. Oprah's minge ditto
I don’t pull the skin and gut them and all that…just fillet and cut under the skin just like any other fish, it literally takes less than a minute. And btw…first thing I do when I catch ‘em is cut their gaffs off! I hate digging around in the cooler and getting impaled…
great vid. one tidbit though. I live here in fl off the Indian river. eat sailcat weekly. when u clean them cut through skin around head except the top, snap his head back, spine sticks out,grab spine with pliers and pull head down along his back. comes off like a sock. oh make sure to cut fins off
I like to fry every freshwater fish and saltwater catfish. On the other hand I like to make most saltwater fish on the stove marinated with olive oil and seasoning. But I sometimes fry saltwater fish and it's usually better then grilled lol
On your sailcats they say cut the tails and let them bleed out also take the heads and let them dry out then scrap all the excess shin off and start taking the head appart by the sections and in the center section will be a crussifix
I live in SW florida and both of those cats are great to eat...Keep'em coming
I've never eaten Hard head...Gafftop, yes. This video has changed my thinking of trash fish that I call Hard Heads.
Great video.
I had never eaten either until you saw me eat it right here. Thanks for watching.
down in galveston all i can catch with shrimp are salt water catfish. got a flounder once. once! They just eat the live bait up so quick
Same thing here sometimes. Thanks for watching.
Thanks for the nice video… We hammered the Gaff Tops in Grand Isle this weekend… basically all we caught… and a few sting rays!
We thru them all back which made me curious as to if, in fact, anyone eats the dreaded Sail Cat! In short, happy to find your video. Appreciate you!
I'm definitely keeping my catfish next time I go to Galveston
Cleaned nice 39 and cooked some Gaftopsail catfish last week. Love it.
Tried cleaning hardhead before but seemed to be a mess. I might try again with some large ones. I see a few videos where it might make them better.
Went fishing in port bolivar and caught a good soze gaff topsail cat fish. I would say 3 to 4 pounder, i 2wnted to keep it but was discouraged to throw it back, because of the trash fish rumor as well. Thanks for the vid
I think some trash fish just get that name because they get in the way of what some people really want to catch. So they just get downed.
If you remove all the fins before you pull of the skin, it will be alot easier.
Cut the fins on the back from the tail and all the way up towards the head, and a light cut on the belly side from top to bottom.
I certainly agree frying fish is the best way to cook it. I know cuz i am from micronesia and i live literally surrounded by the Pacific Ocean. Anyways, we mostly cook fish by frying. Now we also cook them on the ground using coconut fibers and shells as our charcoal. We usually use coconut milk to cook it with. However, frying is the best way to cook fish. It brings out certain qualities that you may not get otherwise. That's why it is popular to slap a fish on the frying pan. I hope you visit micronesia one day and do an episode of your show there. You would love the variety of fish we have to offer.
My goal is to start traveling with this channel and showing folks how people cook outdoors in other places. I'm going to need a lot more subscribers before that can happen since I am not wealthy.
Backwoods Gourmet Channel gotcha i'll share your feed on fb
That was great video lad. Really enjoyed it. Worth a sub
i love salt cats. more so than freshwater cats. i was just for an easier way to clean. i did it the same way minus the nail trick. that was exactly what i needed to see. thank you for this video
You have a new sub from Scotland...found you by accident and stayed for the great content
Greetings for the US. I am of Scotch/Irish descent. So welcome and thanks for watching. Hit that subscribe button for much more.
Haven't eat any in 30 years but riding 200 miles to fish if other fish weren't biting then we brought back coolers of these and other people would gladly give the ones they caught , they taste great !
That is the thing. I drive 85 miles to the coasts (East and West). Been on many trips when we have caught lots of great eating fish but could not legally keep any due to seasons or slot limits. These fish are alternatives, not our target species. If it were not for all the damn laws and regs, I would have never needed to even try this fish.
Fried catfish rocks!!!! I’m going to try this when I’m Florida next month.
The easiest way I've found to clean those sail cats is to cut them behind the ribcage following the rib line and then fillet them, once you do that just run your blade between the skin and meat, comes out to a beautiful, boneless fillet. I was brought up that they're a trash fish until I got curious one day. Came out tasting like redfish, I keep everyone of those dang things now. Hardheads though, still a little skeptical. Great video though!
you can eat them there is just a ton of bloodline to be cut out,unless you want a mouthfull of oily blood
I'm a Hillbilly who makes it to Florida occasionally. Sail cat is excellent fare. Fried is best. I'll have to take your word on the hardheads. Thanks for the video.
I really appreciate your videos. We throw HHs and sailcats back all the time. Never knew they were that good to eat. Thank you!
I have tried cooking plain everyday salt water cats several times. My opinion is, you can eat them if you were really hungry. My cats loved them. Now the sail cats or gaff fin cats are delicious.
I agree that the sailcat is much better. Thanks for watching.
I've always wondered this myself...thanks for the info!
I'll never throw one back again when camping. Thanks for sharing, loving your channel!
Thanks for watching.
We grew up in Florida eating blow fish. They are delicious. People tell me you can’t eat those they are poisonous but we ate them all the time. I guess the adults knew how to clean them. I’d love to see you do a video on them.
You nailed it with the PITA to clean. It's all about the prep. Sooooo what I think I got from this is you will be bringing more of them home.! Off subject I purchased another Spider today at an estate sale for $25. It will need an extended stay in the electrolysis spa but it's going to be a great pan....
When you get it restored, send us some pics over on the Facebook page. I would love to see it.
Will do. There is a waiting line at the spa at this time. I will get to it in a few weeks. I will do before and after pics.!
You can also filet and cut off skin just like any other fish. Use a towel to hold on to the slippery skin. Haven't eaten Hard Heads but Sail Cats are EXCELLENT. My wife is a fish snob, and she went back for seconds.
I have been surf fishing and have caught many of these catfish. Next time I'll be frying them up also. I to have heard for years they were bitter and oily. But I do remember fishing and had a 5 gallon bucket and a guy ask me was I going to keep these, he took the entire bucket full said they were great to eat. I should have listen...
They are a little easier to skin if you cut down the back first. I like the way you cut around the ribs better than what I do.
Love your videos bro
Hard heads/turd rollers are pretty nasty but gaff top is really good if you bleed them well (i just chop the tail off and let them bleed out in my chum bucket) fillet and soak it in milk for a couple hours dump on some salt and pepper or cajun seasoning then roll it in smashed up ritz or hiho crackers and fry it.
I tried turd roller just about every way it can be cooked and it's just a nasty fish, too tinny and oily
HH is the king of trash fish. We threw so many back growing up, and I never thought twice about it. Way to break the mold dude! I always wondered what made salt water cats different than the fresh water ones, because they are both eating the same things, and people eat crabs and shrimp (which eat the same food as cats)... My dad always said not to eat them. I think when you are saltwater fishing there are so many options that people just could be picky in the past.
When i was a kid i fished every day and my family ate a lot of sailcat and hard head a lot and a lot of blacktip also . I mean a lot.
Great channel.
Don't worry about all the comments. Too many people got their degrees in CZcams and are experts in everything.
Damn, I miss being home in sofla.
Keep watching. We are here and will keep you in the loop.
man i dont even go fishing but i like this channel
gafftops or sailcats are very good eating (especially) if you bleed them. Fry'em in cornmeal. yummm...and of course you have to have a beer.
Love the trash fish or treasure series!!!! Good job these videos are great
Love your videos! Informative, entertaining, and calming,,, btw can I eat pest freshwater Carp and snake head fish? Will it taste muddy?
Snakehead is delicious, carp is ass.
@@nickleback3695 true, im asian and i like most fish, but american carp are pure garbage. I dont know how the chinese do it.
I have been eating hard heads all my life and i love them!
What a treat this would be here in the Philippines. Camote (or Kamote) fries are a real favorite here. They are not easy to find as street food because of the additional labor in preparation and longer cooking time. Fine restaurants will serve you a very few on the side with some dishes. Now, pair these great fries up with a nice firm salt water fish, PURE HEAVEN for me. The best we can find when out on the town is fish & chips made with cream dory, a rather soft fish. Inland, we really need to shop for decent firm fish like a snapper to serve at home. BTW, thank you very much for the tips on coating the fish, we will be trying it out the very next time we fry.
Thanks for watching.