Me neither until yesterday. My son has caught five of them off our dock starting yesterday.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: trapper189,

How is the flavor?

Lived in the Florida Panhandle almost 50 years.

Ate a mess of Sail Cats!

Batter and fried, blackened, smoked, baked with lemon/onion/butter. They are good.

White/flakey and not as "earthy" as fresh water kittyfish.

Caught many a "topcat" on our vacations on Sanibel Island. I can't remember if it was them or the other regular salt water cat that would leave a layer of slime over the line.

Yup, eaten plenty of sail cats when I was a kid.

Chunk em, batter, and fry em.

Gafftops are delicious.

Gafftops and hardheads both slime the line and everything else they touch, but gafftops get a lot bigger and even at the same size have a lot more meat than hardheads.

Oh yeah they slime the line. We normally catch freshwater catfish in our canal, but there hasn’t been a ton of rain so the canal is saltier than normal. The stingrays have been mating in the cove/canal. We are 20 miles by water from the Gulf.

I swear every time he puts a line in the water he reels in something I’ve never seen before. The last thing he caught today was a cownose stingray.

Picture?

What do you guys mean by "slime the line"?

What kind of rig/bait do you use to catch them? I love fried catfish!

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:

The last thing he caught today was a cownose stingray.

Those things are fun to catch, was fishing off a dock back in 2012 in the Chesapeake, near Annapolis and the rod nearly went off the dock and I grabbed it just in time. Fought that thing to the dock for a good 30-40 minutes, at one point got him close to the dock then he said "screw you, I'm not done yet!" and took off like a rocket. My reel was going REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE and I thought I'd run out of line! Finally got him back in to see how big; a good 36-40 inches wingspan, then I cut him loose.

Basically all fish have some kind of mucous coating over their scales.

On most fish is it very thin and almost not noticeable.

On saltwater catfish, it is like the entire fish has been dipped in really sticky snot. 6” to a foot of your fishing line will be covered in catfish snot after you catch one, and if you keep them and stick them in a cooler or fish box everything in it will get covered in catfish snot, too.

They’ll eat pretty much any natural bait, dead shrimp work fine.

quote:

Originally posted by mr kablammo:
Picture?

Not of the stingray. It was low tide and I was laying on the dock trying took figure out how to get it of the hook. His mainline is 15lb braid and I wasn’t sure it would hold. We use 30lb leader, but I didn’t want to wrap it around my bare hands. Just using a 1/0 circle hook and shrimp. There’s not a lot of current, so no need for any weight.

Here’s today’s catch so far:



You can see a little slime on the leader in the first picture. That one wasn’t so bad. A couple of the ones yesterday slimed a good foot of the leader about a 1/4” thick.

Tell him to be careful with the catfish, their fins have big barbs that can give you a really painful stab.

The best way to handle fish is a lip gripper. The best one is the Boga Grip, but they are very expensive (the price is justified, they really are the best, but still).



There are knockoffs in the $20-30 range that are OK.

With a lip grip and a pair of pliers or a hookout, you can deal with fish much more easily without having to get your hands on them and without using a net, which can damage them if you are doing catch and release.

While I mostly use pliers, hookouts are pretty great. They also make a shorter one than the one pictured below. Circle hooks are usually good about hooking the lip and not deep in the mouth or throat, but nothing beats a hookout for a deep hook.

Caught many, never ate one.

We caught a lot of them when we lived in the Tampa Bay area. Some of them are pretty big and great for getting kids interested in fishing.
Many locals don't like them and throw them back because they are so slimy, and their spines are toxic and will hurt you if you don't know how to handle them. They are good to eat if you remove the blood lines from the fillets. I would usually marinate them in Zesty Italian before grilling

Thanks for the suggestions.

We have have a fish lip gripper thing, but it's lost in the blackhole, AKA his bedroom. We need to find that. The catfish aren't so bad because I can grab their lower jaw with my thumb under its tongue. It's all the other fish down here with their teeth.

We have a dehooker, but it only works if the fish is hooked in the lip. The long pliers like dehooker is on the list the next time we go to Fishin' Franks. He reopened in a new location.

Momma already had dinner going, so we threw them back. It's good to know we can eat them. Apparently, the stingray has some good meat as well and are legal to keep.

PAsig asked what we used to catch them. I mentioned the 1/0 circle hook, but I really think that's too small as it doesn't unhook easily.

quote:

Originally posted by RichardC:

What kind of rig/bait do you use to catch them?

The rig/bait you're using to try for redfish, seatrout, mangrove snapper or snook works just fine.

Yup, just keep your bait or lure nearer to the bottom. Of course, in shallow water, it is exactly the same.

They are fun to catch, and when they get to a few pounds will give you a tussle.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: jhe888,

quote:

Originally posted by HayesGreener:
W I would usually marinate them in Zesty Italian before grilling

I tried that with squirrel once. Bleahhhh!

I grew up down in the Fort Myers Beach area and have lived in TampaBay since I came here in '79 for Law School. So, yes, I've seen and eaten a lot of the big cats and find them to be delicious.
But I still favor Mangrove Snapper, Redfish and, of course, Snook. But, if I ain't caught one of these, one of the big cats, or two, will make a nice meal.

Bob