re: Skinning Catfish over 25lbs

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I would pay someone in my area $20 a trip to let me go net or catch some bullheads from one of those muddy little ponds. I have a homemade 100 gallon outdoor livewell under my carport, so believe me I would make one $20 trip last me half the season

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Man if you were in my area I'd let you have at two of my ponds before I drain them. My son caught some little bullheads and turned them loose in one of my ponds. They have now completely decimated two ponds. If I throw dog food out into the ponds they come up by the hundreds if not thousands. I'd try to fish them out but there are so many little ones you can pick up a rock and there are more inch long ones than you can count.

Figure I'll drain them for a season and let them dry out before repairing the damn.

OP here’s a good tip my uncle does. He takes filets off the bigger blues and puts them in the freezer. Waits about 45 min and checks them. You want the filets to not be hard, but barely able to bend them. He has a deli slicer and cuts the filets paper thin like at a restaurant and they fry up like the small ones. Just cut that blood line out like others stated. If you don’t have a slicer you can do it with a sharp filet knife just take your time and you can cut out enough that way for a fry. You’ll notice the difference once you eat them.

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I had a stock pond dry up during the last big drought. Stayed dry for a year and a half. Damn mud cat where back in it 6 months later..

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You serious man! Where did they come from in the first place? Could they have gotten there because of a steam or run off? My ponds are fed by springs so the only reason I have a problem is my son thought he was doing the family a favor stocking baby catfish from the lake.

If I drain the ponds and let them refill I will be pissed if there are still black bullhead in them. They once had lot of other species... now its just bullhead and a few sunfish.