Question About Cooking Catfish

I raise hybrid catfish in my pond here at the ranch.

I feed them of course, with quality catfish food.

I had a neighbor come catch a good sized mess of them. And when I saw him yesterday, I asked him how the fish were...

He said they were no good. He stated that they cooked up real pretty, but had no "fish flavor"... They weren't "fishy" enough.

Frankly, I didn't know what to tell him. I have eaten fish from the pond, and they tasted fine to me...

Am I missing something?

Don't think you're missing anything.

He probly has Covid and lost his sense of taste.

I'm not a big fan of catfish, but the best catfish I have ever eaten were farm/pond raised and fed high protein dog food. Way better than any I've eaten from rivers or lakes. I don't like fishy fish.

I always feel like farm raised fish do not taste quite right to me, almost bland compared to what wild fish are. You feeding them out of a bag would essentially make them similar to farm raised. Store bought catfish is weird and not as appealing to me as what we catch in the creeks rivers and lakes.

Just like the trout that are released by parks and wildlife, i quit taking the kids to catch them because the taste like carp.

Honestly, I would've told him to fish elsewhere. Gosh dangit, someone gives me permission to fish their tank, I'm gonna do something nice for them, and not gripe about the quality.

Anyway, when it comes to tabby cat's, we no longer keep anything over 2 pounds. Fillet all. Rinse well. Season with Tony's, then drizzle butter while they're on the grill. Haven't had a bad one yet.

That's right, LOL.

I do agree with that also.

Yeah, I have some pretty good fish in there!

NICE!!!

I like my chicken fried. Fish too.

No other way!

Always heard that catfish taste "too fishy" if over a certain weight. I've not seen that with these fish.

Growing up in Georgia, all of our catfish were caught out of red dirt creeks. Grandma thought they were terrible, unless my Grandpa put them in the stock watering trough for a couple days. Cooked with love and hot grease, I always thought they were wonderful!!

Nice fish one of the tricks of good tasting fish is washing them after filleting a and or skinning. I catch a lot of fish out of patman and the pines and some out of cypress creek. You need a large pan or tub filled with water and throw fish in after cleaning and with water hose with a good nozzle on straight stream spray into pan while rolling fish around with other hand water will foam up some that is fat and oil off of fish keep washing until water is clear and if catfish have a lol red or grey on fillets trim this off this will not taste good after cooking. This works good on store bought fish also. Cooked a 16 lb blue from Tawakoni Sunday night and it tasted fine just took the time to clean it properly and wash it good. And now hooked on catching them big blues wife caught a 48 and I got a 49 was a lot of fun we turned those back in water.

If he wants nasty fishy tasting fish tell him the Trinity river provides his quality of fish.

I've eaten catfish up to 82 pounds and too many to count between 20 pounds and that. Fish are much like deer, how they eat has a lot to do with how they are handled. Keep them cold, clean them well, trim all red meat, skin, fat off etc. We use to do a fish fry at our church two times a year for a couple hundred people, fish was all caught in local creeks lakes etc. never had a complaint on anything from just over legal size to big 20+ pounds. The bigger ones take more trimming work and cutting into frying sized pieces, but when done right are good too.

I always think it’s about the cleaning; with that in mine, was he trying to say he likes that “catfish” flavor? I don’t know how to express it, but like cooking dove, I like the grill and bacon way, but I also like that wild flavor of doves fried. Some people hate it.

shame on you for not cleaning cooking and eating the fish for your neighbor.
I mean he went through all the hard work of catching your fish for you lmao

Yeah, it kinda pizzed me off that my fish weren't good enough for him.

How dare I?

I have come to the conclusion that no good deed goes unpunished.

lol

What catfish eat influences how they taste. I hate those muddy tasting filets. Farm raised like the OP's are the best in my opinion.

He was trying to keep you from eating your own fish. Don’t believe that bullsht.

I’ve cooked a lot of fish for a lot of folks and never had anyone complain that they weren’t FISHY enough.

have ya talked to him since? he mite be pullin yur leg?

Channel cat usually has a muddy taste, at least from the waters I fish. (west of FW). Blues and flatheads tend to taste less muddy to me. Catfish from lakes like Kirby or Arrowhead are going to taste different for sure!

Depends on what they eat!

Those are some nice looking kitties!

Now that's a mess of fish!

I have had good farm raised catfish before but then again I've had some before that tasted like the feed they eat and thats not very good lol