Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Corrective stocking managing bullheads

Oh, so much to answer.

This goes back to the great bullhead roundup at Sunil's.

Sunil may have a better memory than me, but I believe we took out about 85 bullheads. We also took out a number of yellow perch.
Some of the bullheads and all of the perch were dinner that evening.

Sunil brought a bucket full of minnows. I think they were fatheads. I brought a bunch of worms from my worm pits. Some were the offspring of Texas Jumpers from DD1. The others were standard redworms. I'd say that we probably caught about an equal number of bullheads and perch on minnows vs. worms.

As Sunil mentioned above, it was very interesting that the bullhead guts were filled with filamentous algae.

During that roundup, I don't believe we wasted any fish. Although an unnamed WV bald-headed esquire did bully some of them with his boots.

They are very easy to clean and fillet. There are several different methods. Everybody has their "best method." My favorite is to use an electric knife, starting at the tail, and following the backbone through the ribs, to the back of the gills. After I get a pile of fillets, I use a regular fillet knife to cut out the rib cages and then I use that same knife to slip the skin off. It averages about a minute to do a 12-16 inch catfish with this method.

I soak all fillets in a salt brine to remove any blood left in the fillets. I don't have a magic formula for salt per the amount of water and the amount of fish in that water. But, probably about a tablespoon of Kosher salt per pound of fish, and enough water to cover the fillets. I let them soak at least two hours, and I mix the water and fillets several times.