Catfish and baked taters


 

LMichaels

TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
So last night was a grilled catfish and roasted potato night for the family on the Genesis 2000.
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BTW notice how smooth and glossy clean those grates are. Those are older Weber 3/8" 304 SS rod type grates from an old Summit 1st gen grill. They were cleaned in seconds using a simple high quality Libman wire brush followed up with an old towel that was soaked in water and another with some cooking oil on it (can't remember is Canola or Grape Seed). Either way the process took only about 30 seconds to clean and another 20 or so to wipe down with the oil cloth. The fish slid on the grates like teflon
 
It's a pretty easy fish to grill. It's pretty firm, mild and moderate to low fat content. Takes to different seasonings and non acidic marinades quite well along with various dry spice and seasoning rubs. I am actually quite partial to the Weber KC BBQ rub. I have a hard time actually making a better rub especially for the price. Sam's CLub sells a large jar of it for about $4.00. Very good on chicken, pork, salmon, catfish to name a few
 
Larry I've never done baked potatoes on the grill? Do you just throw them directly on the grates and bake them like in the oven?
 
Greg, typically I microwave them first until cooked than I take them and toss them with olive oil, salt, pepper and than put them on the grill to get the skins crispy. This gives me a nice creamy interior and crisp skin. BTW I don't use russets as I don't enjoy them. I use reds, or the golden variety
 
Thanks Larry (and Bill). I think I'll try both ways. Learn something new on this site all the time.

Fyi Larry I don't really like russets either. I like red and golden too. But my favorite is baked sweet potatoes.
 
My question is: Did you catch the catfish yourself?

Also, I second doing the bakers on the after priming them in the microwave.

I just caught this guy yesterday. I guess I could have filleted him out and cooked him up, but I hate to clean fish and I REALLY hate cleaning Northern Pike.

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Greg, the sweets play havoc with my blood sugar (I'm a really sweet guy LOL) and at least the regular taters I can cheat with a little once in a while.
Bruce I have not done it for a very long time. My father in law had a nice summer lake place near St Cloud MN on an excellent northern lake. I would make a simple rig. Large minnow hooked just under the dorsal fin with a VERY small weight just above the hook or on a 1/8oz jig. Hung that about a foot to 18" under a large bobber. I would toss that just where the weeds were about 2' under the surface. Suddenly you'd see that bobber move frantically and it was time to hang on. Boom you'd have a northern on there. Not real huge ones but nice "eaters". An old guy up there taught me taught me how to bone them to remove the Y bones. They were better eating than a walleye. Harder to clean but outstanding eating fish. I don't know if I could do it now though. It's been about 13 years since I last did it.
But that is one nice fish! And oh BTW I did catch the catfish (at the local fish counter in the grocery store) LOL
 
Larry, I fish for them basically the same way. A large bobber about the size of a baseball, about three feet down about a 3/8 oz sinker, then about a foot to a wire leader and a #2 hook on the end of that. Then like you use a 4-6" sucker for bait hooked just under and behind the dorsal fin.

I missed two other really good bites. One straightened the hood and one I just plain missed. It is exciting to see a bobber the size of a baseball go under and keep going.

Oh yah, I have caught hundreds of Northerns. I never keep them, but I had a buddy who loved them. He showed me a few times how to de-bone the Y bones, but that was years ago now as well and I can't remember any more either. It's all good though. I just enjoy catching them and releasing them.
 
Larry,
Those catfish sure looked good! (No invite again?!!!)

Down here we have what is called Okeechobee catfish. Some people (me!) love them, others don't. They are very small and are often served with only the head and guts removed so that you get otherwise a whole fish, fins still included. One fish is about like eating a large french fry, so you (at least I) need a basket of them!

Here is our local place of choice for them. Burt Reynolds used to drop in unannounced back in the day. It includes a picture of what they look like:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Locatio...923-The_Catfish_House-Hobe_Sound_Florida.html
 
Those sound like Bullheads which up north here are even better than catfish in my opinion. I just don't know of a good place to catch them where I live.
 
I've tried bullheads but I find the taste too "muddy" while since channel are not bottom or mud feeders they're cleaner tasting. I haven't caught a channel cat though since I was last out on the Fx River Chain O' Lakes. That place is suicidal now
 
I can catch all the 2-3 lb channel catfish I want during the summer in the Wisconsin River. They are about the best tasting Catfish IMO. But, if you can find bullheads in a clean lake or river, they are top of the line IMO.
We used to catch them in a lake in Winona, MN where I grew up. They were large (about a pound) and the lake was very clean. I don't know what happened, but I have since heard that you can no longer catch them. We used to go out at night in my boat and catch them one after another. We could catch 50 of them in a few hours. We would gut and head them and fry them up on a coleman stove in the front of the boat and eat them while we were fishing. Then, take the rest home and freeze them for another day. There used to be a lot of people that would slow or stop on the road along the lake and try to figure out what we were doing out there in the middle of the lake at 11pm at night with coleman lanters burning.
 
Yah, I miss those days.

Here is the one and only time I ever made the front page of a newspaper. I was out bullhead fishing on the lake and I guess a local news reporter took this photo. It was taken late in the day a little before dark.

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Larry that surprises me that sweet potatoes mess with your blood sugar. Sweet potatoes actually have a lower glycemic index vs regular. Not doubting you at all just surprised.
 
It is probably the high carbohydrate content in a potato. I was under the impression that Carbs are hard on a diabetic diet as well.
 

 

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