Oil, temperature, time, batter..,?

Peanut Oil, 350 degrees, until they are floating, soak in yellow mustard and a little hot sauce, roll in yellow corn meal with salt and pepper

This but I use canola oil because of peanut allergies. I might start the oil as high as 370. It's better to let the breaded fish set up for awhile before frying.

Corn meal with lemon pepper, 350 for 7 minutes. I cook fish at least once a week. I use vegetable oil because it's cheaper. I strain it twice and can use it three times before I have to throw it away.

Soak inbuttermilk. Roll in Louisiana fish fry and fry till they float.

For catfish:

Soak in buttermilk,then salt,and add a good shake of Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning for each side. Mix 1 and 1/2 cups yellow cornmeal, 1/2 cup self-rising flour with an extra 1/2 teaspoon or so of salt mixed into cornmeal mix.
Heat oil corn or peanut oil to about 375, add fish without over-crowding. Turn once after fish starts floating until lightly brown.
Hold in hot oven (275) on paper towels until ready to serve.

For bass or crappie, replace buttermilk with brushed on mustard.

Whatever oil is handy. I like to add some pancake mix to my batter, keeps it a little sweet, about a 50/50 mix. My fish fryer tells me when the oil is ready, but I think it's around 375. Cook it till it floats

Canola oil at 375

Batter using zatarans crispy southern with lemon and a sprinkle of tony's

Fry till crisp and golden brown. I pick the basket up and poke it with my finger. If your going to cook by a time I hope all the pieces are the same size and thickness.

Deep fry catfish filets in peanut oil. Heat the oil gradually to 390. If you heat it too quickly (on high) it will scorch the oil and give a bad flavor to the fish. When you add the fish, the oil will bubble and you'll lose your heat. Turn up the heat so the oil can recover and hold at 360 while frying for 9 minutes.

Do yourself a favor and buy a package of frozen breaded okra and put it in there after you've done your fries.

Also, fry your fries twice if you have a big crowd. The normal basket will hold 2 pounds of fries. It will hold 4 pounds that has been precooked, and they will come out crispier.

Same here except maybe use Louisiana Fish Fry instead of corn meal.

use Seasoned Louisiana Fish Fry on it and youre done!

Corn oil or what ever oil I have, 350-375, lemon pepper with a little salt, corn meal and cook it till it floats/golden brown.

I use either a packaged fry like La Brand, or a mix of 1 flour to 3 cornmeal, S&P to taste, maybe a dash of ceyenne. 375 oil until it floats, then just a few more seconds to crisp up the crust. On a side note, we fried "eating sized" catfish, about 11" body and tail, whole when I was a kid. First the fish would float, but you had to wait until it turned itself over before it was done.

I've seen one fish fry ruined by a peanut allergy. It's simply not worth it to me.

Mix of corn meal and corn flour 50/50 that I grind myself, seasoned with Tony's and dropped into veggie oil at or about 350.

I agree Bill, to many allerges with Peanut oil these days.

Try crushed saltines instead of corn meal or batter.

That's what we always use.
Good stuff.
Fry between 350-375
And try not to eat it all as soon as it is cool enough to sample

Vegetable and canola oil's flash temp is lower than I like for frying. Fry it too cold and you get soggy, greasy fish. Hotter oil=cleaner, crisper fry and won't come out greasy. That's why I like peanut oil. If you have someone with a peanut allergy, cottonseed oil is a good substitute. Has a higher flash temp so it won't burn at the higher temps I like for frying.

Mix flour and Corn meal 50/50 season with tony's till it's just a little too salty. Drop fillets in a bowl of eggwash, pull and dredge in batter mix, set aside. When a pinch of flour will bubble quickly in the oil it's ready. I like to roll the fillets in the batter once more immediately before dropping in the grease.

When they float they're done. Do not cover with paper towels! I keep on a cooling rack on top of a cookie sheet in the oven to let the grease drip through (prevents sogginess).

I also like to fry some pickles in the grease beforehand as an appetizer.. maaaaan I'm gettin hungry just thinkin about it!

You can find a whole bunch of different answeres on the interweb, but I started using canola oil because what I found several years ago said it had the highest smoke point of the readily accessible reasonably priced oils.

Looking now after reading what duckcoach posted I found info all over the board.

That said almost all of the commercially produced/refined oils have a smoke point of greater than 400 degrees and that should be big plenty for frying fish.

Do gator and frog legs just the same...

IMO there's no such thing as reasonably priced oil! I just bite the bullet 3 or 4 times a year with 3 gallons of lou ana peanut oil @ $29.99

I buy name brank canola vegi or corn oil for like 7 bucks a gallon. I know it still isn't cheap but its $3/gal cheaper than peanut oil, which I can say I have never seen a benefit of using and has a much higher affinity for allergy issues.

Other than all the cool kids say use peanut oil what are the benefits? Seems like the big chains would use it if it were better, but they don't.

I mean I've had some noticeably greasy food come out of canola oil. I have no qualms using it in a pinch but IMO peanut oil definitely makes a difference.