Willard Bay 09/23/23

[holycrepes]

Went out with some family to Willard Bay on Saturday morning. We started the day at around 7:45 a.m. at the North Marina fishing docks but moved to the South Marina at around 10 a.m. after only getting nibbled on worms and hot dogs. upon moving to the South Marina my brother-in-law caught his PB channel catfish at 24 inches and 4.5 lbs. We were fishing in the channel next to the boat ramp. Besides the one catfish we caught two tiny bluegills (I was still excited because I had never caught one), and two small perch. We wouldn't have kept the perch if they hadn't completely swallowed our hooks. The area we were fishing had tons of snags and I think we lost a combined 4 or 5 hooks. We had a couple of fish we lost because they got themselves wrapped in the snags. It was a hectic day overall but we got the one good catfish. I soaked the fillets in milk overnight since I heard that removes some of the muddy flavor. I then used the fillets to make catfish po boys on freshly baked hoagie rolls for Sunday dinner, which were delicious (second picture below). 

Now onto some questions. I tried to bleed the catfish immediately and get it on ice as soon as it was out of the water. The top quarter of each of the fillets still had an orangish tint to it. I was told that comes from not bleeding it well enough. When fishing for kokanee and other smaller fish I have learned to just cut the gills and they bleed out on their own. Is there more than that I need to do for catfish?