New
#181
I also used to fish a lot when younger. Catfish were my favorite. Bass were too much work; you had to chase after them and entice them to bite. Catfish, on the other hand, would come to you if you had the right bait that day—the big ones preferred live bait—and were waiting in the right place. Cats were easy to clean. I kept the fish alive (easy to do with cats) until I cleaned them. Gutting and skinning was way too much work so I just filleted the flesh off the bones, flipped the flesh skin side down, then sliced the flesh off the skin. I used paper towels blot up any blood from the fillets—rinsing them kills flavor—then soaked them overnight in a shallow pan or saucer full of whole milk to kill any wild taste. The next morning, I blotted the fillets dry and either wrapped and froze them or saved them for cooking later that day. I either fried them after dipping them in onion ring batter or breaded them with Shake & Bake chicken coating (the fish coating was horrible) and broiled them in the oven.