This may seem kind novice for most of you, but how to do you handle a catfish once you caught them? I've heard that you have to watch for their gills and fins. Usually I just release them with out even touching them. The wife gets mad at me each time as she wants to try them for eating. TIA (thanks in advance)

Since I've been thanked in advance I can't screw this up.

You have to be careful of the spines. A poke with one is painful but it is a long way from your heart

Grab the fish between your thumb and third finger behind the spines. Now you can handle the fish.
The head of a cat is prominent. On the side of the fish the skull bone will protrude . On the fleshy part cut through the skin around the fish at the edge of the skull except below the protruding bone just cut straight across.
Use a pair of pliers and pull the skin off.They make a special plier for catfish but plain pliers work OK.
Cut off head and proceed like any other fish.
Some people hang the fish by its lip to skin it.
Some catfish are so large you can't grab them with one hand.I hope you catch that one.

Best of luck.

I havent handled a whole lot of catfish but the ones I have taught me to be carefull. Alot of folks say grab them behind the head and pin down the dorsal fin with the palm of your hand so it lays down against the back. This works and saves you but another way I found is to grab them on there "chest" so one of the pectoral fins goes between your fingers. there is a plate on the "chest" of the catfish that serves as something to get a grip on. That way, you dont have to worry about the dorsal and you can grab them a bit quicker.

you don't have to worry too much about the spines unless they're very small fish ... like under 2 lbs ... once they reach the 2 lb range the spines get duller ... they get real dull after they reach 5 to 10 lbs and lose the stinging ability as it's no longer needed for the larger fish.

Catfish are really good table fair if caught from waters that aren't subject to mercury or other pollution.

I've got some cleaning tips on my tips section at the url below

I hold my cat's with just the thumb & forefinger just behind the head....Then I remove hook with pliers....When I clean my cat's..
I make one cut behind the gil then skin the cat....After the cat is totally skinned...I take my handy dandy elec knife and run the blade right down the spine of the fish...After you get that nice fillet...You have to cut the rib's from that fillet...Then wash your fillet's very good...Then either cook that day,or place them in a freezer bag...When I freeze my fish...I fill the freezer bag with water...This help's keep your fish from getting freezer burn....

Thanks for the tips. Last weekend we went to the aqua duct out by Taft and caught two 3-5 lb cats, not only did I get them off the hook, but cleaned and fried them using a receipe from Tiny's web site. They were good. A new era of fishing for me.

arrtkid

I put your site in my Favorites file. You've done a lot of work and put a lot of good stuff in there. Thank you for sharing all of it. I'll be going back as there is obviously more than I took time to check out. Got some interesting looking links there, too.

We have small cats in the local lakes and I'll give it a try this year. Been so busy with trout since I retired here I haven't done much else except some panfish with the grand-younguns.

Great tip on filleting, then skinning after. That leads me into a remark about soaking fish and game in chilled salted water, which I was taught to do many years ago. My Dad, grandpa's and uncle's all did this. It "draws" the blood. Most of the strong gamey taste is in the fat and the blood. I always soak fish and game in at least two changes of chilled water, pouring the bloody stuff off. I use two or three times as much salt as you do and trim off all skin, fat, "mud lines" and etc.

I'll say it works well for me, and as I'm over 70 I have fed a lot of people a lot of fish and game with no complaints about gamey meat.

Looks to me as if there's a lot of ideas there that translate over to fishing for any big fish and any deep fishing, as we do for lake trout in Lake Tahoe.

Thanks again for the site!

12ga

__________________
"Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach him to fish and he will eventually bring in others and fish your honey-holes dry."