quickly killing the catfish

[Bowfin]

Did some fishing this weekend and caught a nice size channel cat. Got home, and after 30 minutes out of the water it was still wiggling, gulping, a grunting. i tried to explain to my three-year old it was dead (going to be), but he didn't buy it. I fillet the fish and it still struggled and gulped. So my son asks "Is he still alive?". So, what's the best way to humanely dispatch the fish so it's not struggling when I clean it? The bass I caught was good and dead by the time we got to the house, so it wasn't an issue.<br /><br />B

 

[jtexas]

Re: quickly killing the catfish

Bowfin, I usually put the fish on ice for the drive home - then you get a nice, firm, subject for filleting, not gasping for air. I hear freezing to death is a comfortable way to go. Interestingly, I have seen some movement in white bass after 2 hours on ice, and they seemed to revive a bit when I ran tapwater through their mouths. (I know that seems sadistic, but it was in the interest of science.)<br /><br />Otherwise I think severing the spinal cord is quick and painless. Cut all the way through from the lateral line to the top of the fish just aft of the gills. They say the guillotine was the most humane method of execution ever designed.<br /><br />I wouldn't recommend lethal injection on fish that I was planning to eat. <br /><br />My dad used to hammer an ice pick through the skull and that seemed to dispatch 'em pretty quickly.

 

[Bowfin]

Re: quickly killing the catfish

Not sure which is worse, filleting the fish alive or the ice pick and hammer. <br /><br />Bowfin

 

[karrick]

Re: quickly killing the catfish

Nail them to a board or to the nearest tree through the top of the head. Nailing them to a tree makes them easy to filet. That's how my dad showed me when I was that age.

 

[Parrott_head]

Re: quickly killing the catfish

For the big catfish we string them up by their lower jay from a tree branch. Then using a pair of skinning pliers we grab their tails and quickly slice them off about an inch above the fin.<br /><br />They bleed to death pretty quickly this way and are easier to clean, taste better too.

 

[NOSLEEP]

Re: quickly killing the catfish

Get in the water with them and drown e'm.

 

[cajun555]

Re: quickly killing the catfish

I've seen grandpa skin many a catfish while they were still alive and thats the way I do it. Guess it not a very good way to grt your clothes stripped of you while you still alive. <br /><br />I was working on a ice machine in a grocery store fish market and they would knock the fish senceless in the head with a mallet.

 

[FlyBoyMark]

Re: quickly killing the catfish

GUYS!...catfish are air breathers, that why they don't die rite away, they jus dehydrate, they also have gills but they are air breathers also. Thats why you bean the hell out of them before they spur ya if ya keep'em

 

[jsfinn]

Re: quickly killing the catfish

Give him a good clunk on the head and knock em out.<br /><br />I don't like to filet them when they are still moving, but sometimes it's easier than when they are ice cold.

 

[datawire]

Re: quickly killing the catfish

Originally posted by NOSLEEP:<br /> Get in the water with them and drown e'm.

ROFLMAO

 

[jtexas]

Re: quickly killing the catfish

Here's an idea: <br />Get a pair of jumper cables and a 12 volt battery....<br /><br />

 

[thekingrancher]

Re: quickly killing the catfish

if i'm staying at the lake and fishing i just would put them in a cooler of lake water and knock em out with a hammer or big stick when i'm ready to clean em. When i just go fishing i throw em on ice and by the time i get back they are hard as a brick

 

[karrick]

Re: quickly killing the catfish

I have found that if you put any fish on ice the filet A LOT easier. A good mess of blugill and crappie stuck in a cooler of ice for an hour or so will be easy cleaning

 

[skeezx01]

Re: quickly killing the catfish

bowfin<br />SKIN EM ALIVE ! i do, and my kid got used to it quickly. he's all grown up now and has a great job on the kill floor at the local processing plant......

 

[Bowfin]

Re: quickly killing the catfish

Originally posted by skeezx01:<br /> bowfin<br />SKIN EM ALIVE ! i do, and my kid got used to it quickly. he's all grown up now and has a great job on the kill floor at the local processing plant......

Jeez, thanks. I guess it's better than being the president of PITA and writing a book about the horrors of childhood fishing trips and appearing on Oprah. <br />After talking to my wife, i guess she was a bit traumatized too. Surprising since she asked me why I didn't whack off it's head and rip it's guts out when I was filleting it. Next time I'll throw the stringer in icewater for a while when I get home and maybe that'll euthanize them. My Dad and I always iced down our saltwater fish and they cleaned pretty easily. I'll also have a sharper fillet knife: zip, zip, done, flip, zip, zip, done.<br /><br />Bowfin

 

[skeezx01]

Re: quickly killing the catfish

bowfin<br /> just kidding about my boy he's only five. but seriously we do make an effort to keep the fish alive untill cleaning, sometimes the heads keep "talking" for quite a while after being disembodied. most of the fish we catch arn't filleted but cooked whole and eaten off the bone like corn on the cob. we only skin and gut. the skin comes of a live fish easier and it seems that if we have one that dies on the stringer it gets funky smelling in a hurry. maybe the family i came from is a little cold hearted when it comes to this, but thats the way it's always been. PETA can kiss my a$$,i know what tastes good. <br /><br />btw granddad used to leave the tails on too and deep fry the whole works, kinda like fish with the "chips" attached.<br /><br />skeez

 

[sergioy]

Re: quickly killing the catfish

I had the same thing happen to me with a bass. It was a nice 4 pound large mouth. It was in the live well for hrs. and spent almost two hrs. in non aerated water on the way home. But when I put that rascal on the counter to clean him out, he started wiggling right in front of my children. Talk about having to try and explain somethin weird to the kids. Course that thing was twitching even after it was nothin but a filet.<br /><br />I wonder if the fact that it came out of Harris Lake NC (nuclear plant) had anything to do with it???

 

[18rabbit]

Re: quickly killing the catfish

When the desire for fresh fish exceeds normal logic, divers sometimes find themselves spearfishing in waters also occupied by the large, white, carnivorous fish (a.k.a. fluffy) that resides at the top of the food chain. It is really important to immobilize a flopping fish asap … ‘les it becomes a ringing dinner bell for fluffy. I carry an all stainless steel knife with razor edges on both sides of the 3½-in blade. Simply slide the tip into the fish behind the head and sever the spine. It will go limp. Here’s a link for one but any similar knife will work.<br /><br /> http://www.divebooty.com/equipment_details.asp?pid=6530

 

[Bowfin]

Re: quickly killing the catfish

That's what I was looking for. My son, wife, and future fish dinners thank you. <br />That's why I prefer fishing waters where I'm the top of the food chain. No whities in fishing creek resivoir.<br /><br />B