I am not a Catfish Fisherman!

10canyon53

Fillet the catfish but leave the skin attached at the tail.  Then flip the fillet over and detach the fillet from the skin as if you were cutting another fillet.  Be careful not to cut the skin or you will be skinning it the hard way.  I learned that method watching a deckhand on a fishing boat clean fish with scales without scaling them first.  Works on catfish too, but takes a little practice.

DanChamberlain

That's the way I fillet all my fish. 

tennmike

I clean catfish a little different. I use a knife with a short curved blade to cut a line from side to side behind head. Then take my HEAVY DUTY skinning pliers and cut off all three barbs, then grab the cut skin behind the head and peel the skin off. It comes off fast. Then switch to fillet knife and fillet. It's fast, and you don't have to worry about cutting through the skin. I cut off the ribs and belly fat, the belly fat has any  bad elements the catfish has picked up, like lead, mercury, or radioactive elements. And just because there aren't any nuclear plants close doesn't mean there isn't some radioactivity in the water.

About skinning pliers; those stamped pieces of junk are worthless. Buy a good forged skinning pliers.

Edit to add: I skin ALL fish I catch, too. Makes filleting them easier and faster, for me.

Linefinder

I always did mine the same as TennMike. I converted a heavy duty threaded eye bolt into a threaded hook and screwed it into a large red oak at about head level.This allowed me me to use my weight plus gravity to pull off the skin,I got pretty good at it when on a roll could clean 10 cats in 20 minutes. I rarely filleted them, though.
Mike

Johnny reb

A 8'penny nail through the top of the head into a tree a and then a small slit on the back and with a pair of pliers pull the skin right off. Takes less than a minute