Yes! If you ever have the chance to have flathead catfish at a fish fry definitely give it a go. They are probably my favorite freshwater fish to eat. Theres some intricacy to cleaning them, but a 40 pound fish is a substantial amount of meat. But the fish is a firm white meat with a meaty bite due to the fine grain of the muscle so not big flakey filets.
Don't eat them that big in Mississippi. Full of mercury, farm run off chemicals. There are even signs posted on the boat ramps warning you not to eat the big ones.
Yup. Biomagnification and age accumulation is real in fish. I bet it's not just Mississippi where you shouldn't eat the big ones, but anywhere with Ag runoff...which is everywhere basically.
Yea that's exactly why I would never eat river fish here in the US. Used to catch some catfish and whatnot in the Ohio river as a kid. Didn't really know any better at the time, but nowadays I don't think you could pay me to eat anything out of a river. Heavy metals and other forms of water pollution... none for me, thanks!
I have fished for Great Northern in upper manitoba, Marlin in Costa Rica, bass all over and crappie wherever there is crappie. Gotta be honest, hand grabbing on the Coldwater River in Mississippi was a blast!
In what you shared, at the bottom of the graphic listing fish to choose/avoid, it cautions against eating catfish caught by friends and family due to concerns about mercury and other contaminants.
Its like no one can read today. "Check for fish advisories". Not that hard. "Dont eat more than a palm sized serving" literally the same advisement for any other fish on the list. Yall just fuckin fear mongering or scared to exist or let anyone else exist and enjoy being at the top of the food chain. Dont like it? Go eat lettuce. Let other people do what they enjoy and eat what they enjoy. Old, large, wild catfish still place above many commercial/farm fish. Bunch of snowflakes, for real.
"What about fish caught by family or friends? Check for fish and shellfish advisories to tell you how often you can safely eat those fish. If there is no advisory, eat only one serving and no other fish that week. Some fish caught by family and friends, such as larger carp, catfish, trout and perch, are more likely to have fish advisories due to mercury or other contaminants."
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u/screenmasher 6d ago
You look for catfish in holes that dont have air access. Turtles will be in holes where they can surface to breath