Hawaiibassfishing Forum

OK, its not huge by no means, but it is the largest catfish I've caught to date. 8.5# is what my cheap Walmart scales read. Quite fun getting him in. He made that reel sing like Kamehameha Schools Song Contest! It was good fun getting him in! Just thought I'd share.

Nice!!!!!!!!! How do you cook those things?

114 views and finally the first response!

I just fillet them, batter them in corn meal and deep fry them along with some hush puppies and ice cold beer!

Nice cat!

Congrats on the nice cat ........oops! I mean catch! LOL Looks well & healthy!

very nice i havent seen one that big in some time.used to night fish all the time biggest i ever caught was a 10lb cat.have seen pics of much bigger ones,guess it just shows the decline of our fishery.wont eat them myself but have heard the best eating size is 2-3lb ones,guess the bigger the more age affects the meat? i dunno.

I've heard that the larger ones aren't great for eating also. I'll do my own comparison and find out for myself. I've eaten a few catfish from the north fork. No problems.

Since you fish for catfish, I was wondering if you catch any puntat? Just curious.

Even though I don't know what a puntat is, I can say no, only catfish. I love catching bass but I mainly fish near the end of the north fork and all that is biting these last few months is cat (and an occasional carp). During the summer/fall the bass come up the north fork.

Puntat is the Chinese catfish. It used to be common in the lake when I was younger. Not sure about nowadays. It doesn't grow very big, and it is usually yellowish brown with the dorsal fin spanning the back two thirds of the body. There are some in Nuuanu Reservoir too.

OK, gotcha. I caught several last summer, but haven't caught one during the winter or this spring yet. I caught one that I believe would rival or even break the State record. I threw him back not knowing the State Record was 2.5 lbs.

I heard that puntat are excellent eating. They do not seem to be common anymore.

And such a short time later, here is the catfish that my wife hooked Easter Sunday evening. An even 8 lbs.! She reeled and reeled. I tightened up the drag twice and she reeled until she got tired! I helped her her get it out of the water. I was more excited about it than she was!

"Behind every great fisherman there is a women to put him in his place."

Glenn Ikemoto

While I was stuck at work on Easter, you and your wife were out fishing and catching big catfish....My life sucks! Good job on the 2 big cats!