Why Not Clean Those Fish You Caught?

The "Lost Finger" method of catfish filleting

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The only thing more fun than catching catfish is eating them. There is a small chore in between those two steps. Somehow the tasty bits need to be separated from the less desirable ones.

Everyone has their own ideas about cleaning fish. With the exception of little fiddlers, I only clean them one way. Filleted. Bones were a big problem with our kids and filleting was the only option. The easiest way to keep bones out of your throat is to get them out of the fish. Many folks think filleting is wasteful but if done correctly, very little meat is left on the bones. There are several ways to fillet a catfish but I think this method puts the most meat in the frypan. Since this page went up, several folks have written me to say that this was not the best way to fillet a catfish. Once again, this is only the way it is done at my house.

The tools you will need to fillet a catfish are a very sharp fillet knife, a decent pair of skinning pliers and maybe, for safety's sake, a Kevlar glove. When I say a sharp fillet knife, I mean shaving sharp. The knife doesn't need to be expensive (my favorite one cost less than ten bucks) but it needs to be so sharp that the shadow will cut your finger. Skinning pliers are another low budget item. Any good sporting goods or discount store should have a pair for less than five dollars. You can use regular pliers in a pinch but once you use some good skinners, you will never be without a pair. The Kevlar glove is for people who have trouble keeping up with the location of all their fingers . While filleting a fish with this method, the knife and the fingers are in pretty close company at times. That is why I call this the "Lost Finger" method.

Catfish seem to have an aversion to being filleted and some method should be used to put them in a little more favorable mood. This is not the most pleasurable part of fish cleaning but it has to happen unless you like having fish barbs stuck in your hands. Having had a barb stuck into the soft area between my thumb and index finger about an inch and a half deep, I can say that it isn't my favorite thing to do. Catfish barbs are like stingray barbs and porcupine quills. They go in easy but the doctor takes them out. The smaller fish barbs also have a very sharp edge that will cut like a razor. Trust me on this one and put the fish to sleep. Hammer to the head on smaller fish and pith the bigger ones. Pithing is an easy method of paralyzing larger catfish but it takes a little practice to master. Basically you take a piece of strong thin wire and insert it into a soft spot on the fishes head. It has to be maybe a 4 pounder or larger to have the hole in it's head. The soft spot on the head is just forward of the eyes and in the center. The spinal column is at the rear of the brain case. After the wire is in the head, you have to "feel around" for the hole that goes from the brain into the spinal column. After you run the wire a short distance down the spinal cord the fish will stiffen and quiver a slight bit. When the wire is removed, the fish goes completely limp except for the gills. I prefer to cut the tail and let them bleed to death as I think this improves the flavor of the meat but bleeding makes a mess and if I can't do it, I will pith the fish. It takes some practice to find the spots but you can work it out. A stiff stainless wire, about the same size as a large paperclip and 8 inches long will work. The wire I use is made from an old Mercury outboard shift cable. I drove the wire into a short piece of broom handle to make a sort of grip. It's a little big for the smaller fish but tough as a boot. Pithing is something that would be helpful to see someone do first but it isn't rocket science and with some trial and error you can figure it out. I am going to get some images up to help you locate the areas to insert the wire.

Skinning

Make two small cuts in the skin just behind the head. There are two muscles that run from the head along the bone where the top barb is connected. Make the cuts where those muscles connect to the head. Just make the cuts deep enough to cut through the skin and not the meat.

Take the skinners and starting from the cuts, peel the skin down towards the tail.

If you like, you can hang the fish from a hook or a nail in a pole to do the skinning. Don't worry about skinning the belly because with the exception of flatheads, catfish bellies are greasy and pretty nasty tasting. If you skinned the fish correctly the gut will never be opened and the meat stays much cleaner.

Filleting

Take your filet knife and cut the meat away from the bone that the top barb sits on all the way from the head to behind the barb and also cut it loose from the bone below it and from the head. This will leave a piece of meat about the size of your finger on a decent sized fish.

Now comes the trickier parts that will require some practice. With the fish laying on it's side, insert the tip of the knife just behind the anal vent and run it to the top staying very close to the backbone until it comes out on the top.

Work the blade along the backbone all the way to the tail. At this point the fish is half filleted on one side.

Set the fish back on it's belly and connect the cut behind the top barb and the cut from the filleted tail section.

Keep cutting down the backbone until you encounter the ribs and work the knife around the ribs. You will not get too much meat from this area and I usually just separate the fillet from the carcass when I get to the ribs.

Repeat on the other side and you are done.

If you are going to keep the bigger catfish, there is one more step you might want to do. There is a portion of the meat just under the skin that, if removed, would make the fish much better tasting. Click here to see how we remove the stronger tasting meat.

This sounds pretty complicated but once you do a few it gets easier. The really important thing is to keep your fillet knife sharp. If it will not shave your arm, it will not fillet the fish too well.

I know this isn't the way your Uncle Bob does it. This works pretty good and you can change things to suit yourself. It may seem slow at first but after some practice you ought be able to clean a decent sized fish in a couple of minutes. There are faster and easier ways such as using an electric knife but they waste way too much meat.