Sailcat experiment

Max said they were good eating...others weren't so sure. Max was right. Slimey, like freshwater cats, led me to use gloves while cleaning. No mess, no fuss. Soaked two days in cold salt water and removed all the dark red meat that was left. 15 minute soak in milk and water, then a dip in milk and egg, rolled in corn meal, seasoned with redfish magic, deep fried. It is pretty, white meat when cooked with a very good texture. No strong fishy taste or "after taste" so common with farm raised catfish these days. It is at least as good as spanish, just a little harder to clean and prepare for cooking.

If I'm trying to put together a fish fry and the water is muddy enough to track coons across, I won't cull them at all.

Yep, good, My dad always saved them for eating. Don't remember soaking them that long in salt water, maybe an 1/2 hour b4 cooking, but just in cold ice water. He used to catch them in Mobile Bay. He liked to soak all fish in Ice watet, specialy Mullet

I've tried them several time and if you wash them well and get out the red meat their just fine. I haven't soaked them at all. I only keep and clean the larger ones. I've noticed they do have a tendency to curl up like bacon when frying but no fishy flavor.

ha ha...reminds me of my first sailcat cleaning experience. i tried to skin that thing like a regular catfish. what a mutilation that was but it only took me one to figure out i just needed to filet them like a scaled fish. was never disappointed with what came out of the oil even without prior soaking.

It seems like , around the first half of November or so, there's a decent run of sailcats. I find them to be delicious, comparable to clean-stream channel catfish.

Y'all get you some of that action, which continues into the evening on a cool fall day. If the surf riles up a mite, sailcats seem to bite that much better and fight harder. They'll bend your pole, I guarantee!

We had a 14' jon boat, with a 4hp Kiekheifer Merc that we used to fish Bon Secour and Oyster Bay, and we enjoyed a few shore lunches of topsails, and they do curl up. That was a long time ago, and so much fun.

See, that's fishing at its best! A small jon boat and fish biting that put a serious bend in your rod. Shore lunch with fresh-caught fish -- whatever the variety -- Now that's living!

I had fried sailcat today for lunch. I'd! like to reiterate my enthusiasm for this excellent table fare fish! Beautiful, firm, mild white meat with no fishy aftertaste!

I'm gonna fillet one out next time I'm down and blacken it. Rich mention the taste of farm raised catfish being bad. Most of what you find in supermarkets is imported and some like the "striped pangus" that is served at Big O's in Gulf Shores is "farm" raised in pens in the heavily polluted Mekong River in Vietnam. Take a minute to read up on how a lot of the imported "farm raised" shrimp and fish are actually grown. I gladly pay the premium for U.S. produced seafood if I'm unable to catch my own.