The flathead is revered for its incredible fighting strength. I have caught a lot of catfish and the flathead, by a large margin, is the hardest fighter! Where a blue cat likes to shake its head and roll all around, a flathead just pulls and pulls! Everytime I hook into a flathead it ends up being a much smaller fish than I guessed it would be based on the fight!
The reason for this hard fighting ability is pretty clear when you hold one. They are pure muscle! The entire fish feels firm and muscular unlike the softer, fattier feeling blue cat. Cleaning my first one this year I was surprised at the thickness of the filets that came off the fish! The filets were more like steaks than your typical, thin fish filets!
Flathead, also known by the unappetizing name “mud cat”, are relatively common in Lake Wylie but less common than the ubiquitous blue cat. Most people have caught dozens of blue cats and channel cats to each flathead. That likely has to do with where people prefer to fish and what bait they are using (and to a lesser extent the gear they are using).
Flathead catfish prefer muddier, snaggier waters than the blue catfish. While fishing an underwater flat is generally a good strategy for blues, it is not the go to method for flatheads. Likewise, blue cats tend to bite on cut bait, while flatheads prefer live. That isn’t to say you will never catch a flathead on a flat using cut bait. You will, it just won’t happen a lot.
Now, the real reason you are here, the taste! Recently I caught a smallish flathead while fishing the Catawba river with my son. I don’t eat trophy sized fish and I had been wanting to try flathead so catching this small one was an opportunity I could not pass up! I quickly cut the filets off the fish (I avoided the belly meat since contaminants tend to build up in the fattier meats) and tossed them into a salt bath.
Visually, the filets were not as white as blue cat but ridiculously thick! This was a pretty ugly cleaning job since I was using the wrong knife, in a gravel parking lot, as the sun was going below the horizon, but even still I got several nice filets. Soaking them in saltwater to pull out the blood and some of the mud color, I then rinsed and dried the filets. Half got breaded in crushed spicy sweet Doritos and the other half was cooked with just garlic salt to test the flavor.
Both varieties came out excellent! I baked the breaded parts at 350 degrees. The garlic salted pieces got pan seared in a well seasoned cast iron and tossed into the oven (still in the pan) to cook through. The meat was pleasantly mild with no trace of fishy or oiliness. Texture was soft but definitely not mushy. Very similar to blue catfish and quite delicious!
All in all, I will definitely eat some more flathead in the future! Now, I should note, I caught mine in relatively clear water. One caught in muddy water may have more muddy flavors but that could likely be combated with a longer saltwater soak. I would place it in the same realm as blue cat flavor wise and much better than the white bullhead catfish I have eaten from the broad river.
A video of this adventure can be found by clicking this link!
Comments