Having been born and raised in Southeast Louisiana, I’ve witnessed the ebbs and flows of the fisheries along the coast and the inland marshes. I remember when Chef Paul Prudhomme came out with his Blackened Redfish recipe, which resulted in redfish numbers hitting an all-time low. I remember the hard freeze of ’89 that resulted in a massive fish kill. I can even remember when catching tarpon in Lake Pontchartrain was a thing. While all of those events are tucked way back in my memory, I’ve watched a new trend develop into the norm over the past decade — blue catfish on the cleaning table!
Since the flurry of openings of the Bonnet Carré Spillway in 2016, 2018 and twice in 2019, anglers have seen blue cat numbers in the Lake Pontchartrain Basin steadily increase. Today, it’s not uncommon for most speckled trout and redfish anglers to have a few Ziploc bags with the words “catfish” scribbled on the white label.
Jamey Cursi of Slidell is one of those anglers. Cursi fishes the bridges near his home on Lake Pontchartrain and said he’s cleaning between five to 10 blue cats every fish cleaning session.
“They are all over the Pontchartrain Basin right now and I’m even catching them in the ICW (Intracoastal Waterway),” he said.
Meat fishing
Cursi is a self-admitted meat fisherman. Growing up in the Northeast and being a charter captain under his father, Cursi spent a lot of time fishing for striped bass, tuna and other glory species. And while the sport of chasing these fish had its appeal, it wasn’t as satisfying as the feeling of a fully stocked freezer. Luckily for Cursi, he fit right in when he relocated to Louisiana in 2014. Cursi began fishing extensively out of Grand Isle and Port Fourchon, targeting rigs and reef species as well as speckled trout along the beaches.
After moving to Slidell in 2019, Cursi has been fishing more inshore species but hasn’t lost his “meat haul” mentality.
“I’m not a speckled trout elitist and take more of an opportunistic approach to fishing and enjoy catching all of the species that the lake and nearby waters give up,” he said. “I really like making mixed bag catches of trout, sheeps, puppy drum and even blue cats.”
Cursi brings a different perspective after his relocation to Louisiana in 2014.
“In many ways, Louisiana fishermen are spoiled and turn their noses up at some of these less glamorous species,” he said. “Fishermen in other states can only dream of catching the number of species we have here.”
The lake theory
While fishing theories come a dime a dozen here in Southeast Louisiana, there’s one that seems to carry the most weight when it comes to explaining why these catfish head out of the rivers and into the lake over the winter. As the cold weather sets in, the shad in the rivers becomes less available to the catfish. The fish then make their way out into the lake where there is another kind of plentiful food — rangia clams.
These small clams carpet the lake bottom and are easily snatched up by the catfish. Once the clam is inside the fish, their powerful stomach acids break down the membrane that holds the clam shut. Once the clam is opened the acid then goes to work on the meat. The catfish then simply pass the shell over time.
Blue cats and bull reds
With water temperatures in the 50s, February is prime time to box blue cats!
“I’m seeing more of them during the colder months,” Cursi said. “All the hardheads, croakers and pinfish have moved out, which gives the blue cats a chance to get to the bait.”
Cursi has been catching them as a bycatch to speckled trout using live shrimp on a drop-shot rig, but said he is interested in seeing what happens if he exclusively targets them. He’s made one trip already and has been pleased with the results.
“I’ve been experimenting lately fishing a dedicated catfish rod with cut bait on a Carolina rig or a fish finder rig,” he said. “I’m still experimenting with this and need to refine the tactics a bit more, but I have been catching some nice fish this way.”
On his latest trip, Cursi stumbled upon a realization that there are big redfish on the bottom of the Pontchartrain.
“There are a lot more bull reds in the lake than I realized and they love cut bait just as much as the blue cats,” he said. “A few nice cats and some bull reds are a nice way to round out a day’s catch.”
Don’t forget the belly flap
When cleaning blue cats, Cursi takes a different approach than fish with smaller bone structure like speckled trout.
“Catfish, especially larger ones, take a bit more finesse to clean,” he said. “I recommend using a knife with a short blade.”
Cursi begins his incision at the top of the back spine and works the knife down the top of the back along the spine.
“I carefully work the blade around the dorsal spine and glide it over the top of the rib cage until it’s even with the anus,” he said. “From that point forward, I push the blade through and take the rest of the fillet off in a few swipes, similar to a trout.”
When cleaning larger blue cats, Cursi makes sure he includes the belly flap.
“I think the biggest mistake that I see is failing to save the belly flap,” he said. “On smaller fish, it probably isn’t worth the effort, but on a fish that is 10-15 pounds, the belly flap is going to be quite large and well worth the extra effort it takes to remove.”
After removing the fillet, Cursi uses his fingers to feel where the ribs end along the underside of the fish.
“I ride the underside of the rib cage with the blade, down toward the anus,” he said. “Then I cut from the pec fins up towards the throat of the fish. Then I make a diamond-shaped series of cuts to remove the belly flap. Once it’s off, you will need to skin it twice, once to remove the actual skin and again to remove the stomach membrane from the other side.”
Fried blue cat
When preparing blue catfish, Cursi usually fries his fillets. For this, he recommends using fish that are under 20 inches.
“I think smaller fish are just a lot easier to handle and are a good balance between cleaning and yielding a worthwhile fillet,” he said.
After moving to Louisiana, Cursi picked up on a local recipe for battering the fillet.
“Until I moved to Louisiana, I never heard of dredging the fillets in mustard before breading them,” he said. “But I have to admit that it tastes better and is a lot easier than beating the eggs the way I grew up doing.”
Blackened blue cat
While Cursi fries fish under 20 inches, he goes a different route for larger fish.
“There is nothing wrong with larger fish, you just need to cut the fillets into smaller pieces to make sure they fry all the way through,” he said.
The reason is that the thicker fillets hold up better when turning in the pan. When cleaning fish to be blackened, Cursi splits the fillets down the lateral line and trims away all of the meat that isn’t pure white. This guarantees a cleaner-tasting fillet.
As the calendar turns from February to March, Lake Pontchartrain will continue to produce blue cats. But as the weather begins to warm in the spring, they will become less plentiful, and anglers will have the burden of weeding through hardheads to get to the blues. So take advantage of the hot blue cat bite while it lasts!
