soak it in fresh salt water

If your talking about a fresh caught Cat.... you need to remove the skin from your filets then remove as much of the dark/brown flesh along the lateral line on the skin side of the filet and the yellow flesh around the belly rib cage area.. once you have that done place them in iced salt water....( like Kalang mentioned).... this will help to remove the blood and some of the fishy taste from the filets and you will have some nice white filets... if your going to freeze them for another day remove them from the salted ice water and rinse under cold water..... place in a feeezer bag and put them in the freezer.

If your going to cook them right away.... here's what I do .....(step 1) I remove them from the salted ice water ...(step2) rinse them under cold water.... pat dry and place them in a bowl of milk until ready to cook.... I prefer to use buttermilk as it adds a great buttery flavor to the fish once fried or baked.. the lactic acid in the milk will open the pours of the flesh and release more of the fishy taste... word of caution!!!! Do not leave the fish in the milk bath for longer than an 3/4 hour, if left longer the lactic acid in the milk will start to break down the connective tissue in the flesh and it will tend to fall apart when cooked or be mushy. when you go to take the filets out of the milk leave them in ths bowl and dump the milk out while holding the filets back most of the impurities removed by the milk will be on the surface of the milk..once you drain all the milk off ... dredge them in your favorrite seasoning or breading and cook them up ( fried or baked)

If your using frozen caught filets or farm rasied store bought filets (thaw filets first and proceed with step 2)

I use a flour, cornmeal, and parmesan cheese mixture....and fry them 3 to 4 minutes a side in a mixture of bacon grease and butter

Happy Thanksgiving

YOUR SUPPOSE TO TAKE A FILLET KNIFE AND SORT OF DESKALE IT LIKE REDS /BASS/OR ANY OTHER FISH WITH SCALES ON IT THATS ALL I DO ASIDE FROM RINSING AFTER THAT OH HAVE WATER RUNNING WHILE DOING THAT.

This is what i do with saltwater fish; ie: Bluefish, Stripedbass, Blackfish. This should apply to freshwater fish too. Bleed them out. That means while they are still alive, cut the gills. This way, the heart is still beating, and pumping out their blood. By doing that, you get most of the "fishy" taste out of the flesh. You still should cut out the dark meat along the lateral line. Another is the milk bath, which I don't like...just because I dont like milk...lol. Lemon juice works well too, to get that "fishy" taste out.

I have caught fish up to 40 lbs when living in S.C.My first experience cleaning and eating catfish was a very untasty one.I pulled the skin off (like I always had with MI bullhead),filet ,and trimmed the fat.Wrong way to go about it.
When I catch them now the fish go from water to ice for 12-24 hrs.This tends to age the fish,and firm up the meat.To kind of retract the spines, use your fingers or pliers and pull the spines away from the fish and turn them clockwise to unlock.Then move the spines to the fishes sides for easier cleaning. I cut out filets,cheek,and belly meat.Once the filets are out I then flip them skin side down and skin the fish removing most of the red meat.Trim any remaining red meat and fat.The cheeks are skinned,and the belly is skinned on both sides.In this way I can soak in a saltwater solution for 12 hrs,or rinse and bag.I have given away many pounds of fresh caught and cleaned catfish in 4 years time with excellent reviews.This is a time consuming way of doing it,but the results are well worth the effort.

I agree with all the things said so far. Soaking in saltwater, removing particular parts of the fish, etc, but also remember. . .smaller catfish taste better. Put the big one's back if you find the flavor objectionable. Smaller catfish do not require any special preparation to taste good. 12 to 15 inch channel cats are delicious. Just my two cents.

i always thought fish were supposed to taste like fish, liver like liver, and chicken like chicken. i eat fish because they taste like fish and not liver.

Take the catfish meat and rinse it off in a sink. Then place it in a big bowl of salt water and put in the fridge for a few hours or overnight. I usually dont get to mine the same night, so I deal with it in the morning. After it soaks in the salt water, take it out and rinse it off one more time. Then replace it in a big bowl of water. Add about a cup of milk into the bowl and let sit only for a few hours. Then you can either rinse it off and cook it or you can rinse the meat off and freeze it. Also adding a little bit of water into the storage bag can help eliminate freezer burn. You can also put the salt and milk in the bowl all at the sametime and let sit overnight.

after cleaning all the dark meat and blood vane out of the meat, try soaking it in milk.

Eat a trout! Best tasting fish there is!

Also while filleting the fish, when skinning, try holding your fillet knife about 1/16th of an inch above the skin. This will leave some of the meat behind, but it also aids in dark meat removal. I will also post a link to a youtube video I found that is VERY helpful for fishing techniques, and cleaning/food prep.

http://www.youtube.com/user/thunder...CrV6-Pn-jc

There are a lot of videos on his channel and lots of them are very helpful and entertaining.

When I go to Arkansas every year, We get lots of kitties. We toss back small ones ( less than 18") and larger ones (larger than 30" for spawning) and clean the rest.
Step 1) make sure its dead..LOL
2) Use VERY SHARP Fillet knife and cut around the head just behind the skull but NOT all the way through, Just cut the skin, Then, cut down to dorsal fin and around it but NOT all the way to the tail.
3) Cut along the anal fin from tail to the two fins just ahead of the anal opening. Do this on both sides. What I do next is use the skinning pliers to hold the two fins previously mentioned and cut FULLY through making them tied to the anal fin and then I "zipper" the anal fin with the pliers from tail to belly,

4) Use skinning pliers to peel back both sides of skin all the way off.

5) SHARPEN FILLET KNIFE 5b) Fillet meat off body, Dont forget the belly meat.
6) Toss in a pot of cold salt water. Good amount of table salt in 5 qt pot will suffice. Let soak about 20-25 minutes.

As said before above here, If cooking right away, Rinse and cook. If freezing for later Rinse thoroughly and place in freezer bags. To help prevent freezer burn fill bags about 80% full with water to cover fish and leave expansion room. I prefer to Vacuum seal them with a "seal a meal" or equal machine. About 60 bucks at wallmart.
Everyone I have given catfish to prepared this way has asked me how I get the "fishy" Taste or greasy/muddy/blood taste out and make them so white, I tell them and move on. Heck, Even my 95 yr old grandma loves it cleaned this way.

You can improve the taste on any fish by soaking it in a solution of water, a dash of vinegar, and a tablespoon of salt for 1/2 hour. Don't soak any longer, the vinegar will start to pickle the fish. This trick will make carp taste like flounder!