I grew up on the Mississippi River. My Uncle had a cabin on an island and I spent many a weekend at his place. There was always a trot line or basket in the water and a live box of full of fish were cleaned regularly. Catfish was the most sought after and tastiest fish in the river, We ate Catfish, carp, buffalo, perch and even EEl---Yep it was good!!!! On my first trip to Florida we stayed in Venice, just south of Tampa Bay. I got some live shrimp and began fishing on the sandy flats and inlets and almost immediately began catching some "saltwater" catfish. I had nearly filled the basket with fish in the 2 to 3 pound range and I was headed back to the condo when A local asked. "What th' H$!! you gonna do with them hardheads??? They ain't no good!!!!" I couldn't believe that these silvery catfish with the pearl white underbellies were no good!!! How can that be? They were the cleanest, prettiest catfish I had EVER seen!!! I took them back to the fish cleaning station and began fileting them. They LOOKED like catfish, they SMELLED like catfish, they CLEANED like catfish and the filets LOOKED like catfish filets, by golly I'm gonna eat 'em. and I did. They were delicious, even BETTER than the Mississippi cats I grew up eat'n! I spent the rest of the week feasting on fresh catfish filets, fried, baked, roasted on a charcoal fire, any way you want 'em they were SUPERB!!!! Oh yeah, and I had a few beers just to wash 'em down. Check out this article.
http://www.foodandgrime.com/2009/11/saltwater-catfish-is-regarded-by-most.html P>S Did you know that at one time the whole world thought TOMATOS were pioson???
