Breambuster+9M=Catfish

[jgp12000]

I forgot & left my favorite breambuster on the dock 3 days ago baited with a minnow. Next day it was gone,today I saw it floaing in the middle of the pond.I keep a snaggin hook on my 9M catfish pole & reeled it in ,Voila,a catfish.!

[steelfish]

cool story and great catch

[Midway Tommy]

You're one lucky guy, you best go to the casino!  That is one ugly catfish! WTH kind is it? 

[MarkT]

Your rig floats?

[JasonGotaProblem]

That's the part I was trying to figure out. I don't see anything buoyant. Unless it's hollow, sealed, and full of helium.

Is that the ming yang reel?

[jgp12000]

This Catfish is what I call a mudcat,or black bullhead.They eat better than they look.Lately though I just release in our creek.Weren't stocked but neither were bowfin .The bream buster is telescopic so it is hollow with a foam handle.The cat combo has a Penn 9M on a uglystik catfish rod.

[jtwill98]

I was going to say it looked like the bullheads that I use to catch on Chautauqua Lake shore-line in western NY as a youth. We would head out to the lake's pier in Lakewood, NY after dark with a Coleman gas lantern and caught them with nightcrawlers. I'm guessing, they tend to feed after dark.

They're good eating but their head is 1/3 to 1/2 the length of the fish, so the fillets are small.

If you think they are ugly, have a look at the mudpuppies that we occasionally caught.  I always thought they were poisonous.

https://www.vtherpatlas.org/herp-species-in-vermont/necturus-maculosus/

[Gfish]

We even had the Mud puppies(also called water-dogs)in Calif. Good bait for big LMBass. The Bomber lure co. had the color scheme down perfectly.

[steelfish]

They eat better than they look.

I dont eat anything from our semi-local fresh water reservious / canals / rivers, any fish from freshwater taste like mud to me, my nearest fresh water river is hrs away while the Sea of Cortez is 10 minutes away from my house  and even spotted bay bass dont taste like mud (although, I have at least 10 years releasing every spotted baybass I caught)

[jgp12000]

some folks love channel catfish & IMO they taste the most like mud,soaking in salt water overnight makes them better.I have never caught a flathead but hear they get better the bigger they get? My all time favorites are crappie & flounder.Chain Restaurant here "Culver's" has walleye sometimes,it has a strong taste to me but maybe just their version?

Side note: In Destin the locals go flounder gigging at night,I never tried it though. 

[Swami805]

I went flounder gigging once   It was fun cruising in a Jon boat with spotlights in a bayou. Flounder tasted muddy to me though, not great

[JasonGotaProblem]

Well yeah if you poke a hole in a fish that's laying on the bottom you done went and put mud in the meat yourself...

Never thought a flounder caught on hook n line tasted anything but mild and flaky. Find somewhere with fast moving water and drag a shrimp across the bottom.

[jgp12000]

Sidenote:mullet is usually caught with a net & there is a mullet festival in destin every year good stuff not like fish market.They come up a local river here to spawn my buddies catchem with bream busters small piece of worm on the sandbars,they wade out waist deep beer cooler on sand bar wear em out

[quang tran]

While living in Illinois Channel catfish doesn't taste good even on natural lake that water very clear . When moved to Texas the channel cat taste good ,no mud ,weed smell at all . the different is Texas reservoir mostly have bottom all sand and water is running while most Midwest lake always have weed ,it die out in winter and year after year built up a thick layer of mud in bottom . I hear about Mullet season in Florida ,I guess that different mullet in Texas that nobody eat

[JasonGotaProblem]

I think it's the same mullet, but to be clear the mullet run in FL isn't about catching mullet. It's about catching the redfish etc. that are pursuing them during mullet mating season.

Some people swear by them. Others, less so. They're an oily fish, and I can't figure how a vegetarian fish that eats stuff off the bottom could taste anything but muddy.