Brad and Matty Matheson Go Noodling for Catfish Part 2

I'm Brad Leone.

I'm from New Jersey City,

and I, It's Alive! New Jersey City!

[Brad laughing]

I like fermentations and doin' pickles

and just vinegar in general. [Brad laughing]

It's Alive!

And I'm from New Jersey City [laughing].

I'm from New Jersey City.

Where's that? I'm from b'Hobokinse.

[Brad laughing]

Oh, oh should I say today on It's Alive?

Yup. Yeah.

Hey guys, today on It's Alive,

we're back down here for Part Two noodlin'.

Me and Matty Matherson.

We went out and caught the fish in part one.

Now we're gonna meet back up with Skipper.

Oh my goodness, it's gonna be a great day.

We're back here at Skipper's house.

Skipper. He's gonna show us

how to filet the catfish like we've never seen before.

Champion at this.

Yeah, you gotta get inspired.

I wanna do a little, a little fried tail.

[crowd sighing in awe]

I wanna make like a schnitzel sandwich.

[bell dings] To the fryer.

To the fryer!

[chuckling] To the fryer

[chuckles] Yeah, who says that? Who says that?

Where's your tail?

It's still in the water?

Son of a--

[cackling] I gotta go get it.

This is great!

I'm Brad Leone, and this is It's Alive!

[laughing]

[upbeat music]

[Matty] Oh my god, he's got a pig.

[Brad] Yeah, he's got a few things.

[Matty] Oh my god, he's got a pig.

Skipper brought us out noodlin'.

We had a great day in part one.

Oh that's such a, [beep] spider!

Nope, outta the hole.

[beep] Snakes! [laughing]

I don't like this.

[Brad] No, you gotta? Okay!

And now we're back, back at Skipper's house,

and, well you know, maybe you can show us how to,

how to break down one of these, these monsters.

Well, I could, and I can, and I will,

but you know, you being a chef

I thought maybe you were gonna show me something.

Yeah, but you're the expert on the catfish.

We're gonna cook.

I wanna see how you filet a fish.

You know, chefs love learning. Right.

And to see how you filet a catfish,

is something that is, like, immeasurable.

Oh yeah, I'm gonna do the dirty work,

but you gonna have to butter me up.

Okay, here we go. [thudding]

[Matty] Boom Bam!

Size of the tailgate.

Look at that.

Man, he's all the way across there.

You did well.

You did well! That's a beautiful fish.

Beautiful. So you cut

right down the back.

I love it. I love the technique.

This is why we asked you, Skip.

Yep. 'Cause you're a pro, bud.

You still butterin' me up.

Didn't wanna get no blood on ya, did ya fellas?

[Brad chuckling]

Right there. Look at that, huh.

Look at that slab right there.

Fwoh, like freakin' cod filet.

[Matty] I know, that's beautiful.

[Skipper] Now we got that piece right there,

we wanna take that down.

Just like yay. Beautiful.

And now we got a filet. Look at that, huh.

Now that red's gotta come off.

We'll wash it up, and we'll take that red off.

That red's not worth eatin' on a catfish.

Really? You take the red off, yeah.

[Brad] How come, it's a texture?

Taste like mud. So if people--

A lot of people feel that like,

catfish is, like, muddy right?

Yeah, but if they're dressed and fileted right,

they're really good eatin' fish.

I'm tellin' you right now there ain't nothing like a good,

old flathead for cookin'.

You had one of your-- So you prefer

a flatty over anything else?

I like the blues, but I love the flats.

Wow Right.

You got this down I'm really glad

you're showing us, Skipper.

Thank you.

Yeah been, I've done a few of these.

I bet you have.

All right, there's our, there's our flathead belly.

Oh, throw that right on the poncha.

There's some bone in there,

but you don't wanna waste that.

That's too good eatin' right there.

Yeah, that's the good stuff.

Look at that. Look at that.

Aw, look at that.

That's a catfish oyster.

[Skipper] Aw, I'm tellin' you.

That's some big ol' chuncks of meat, boys.

That's gonna be good.

I hope you guys do this up right, now.

Don't ya'll mess this up! [laughs]

Hey, this is southern style catfish.

Yes, sir. This is crazy.

All right, now that one's done.

[glass Crashing]

Now, wash her off.

We're gonna get some fresh water runnin'

in this in a second, and this meat will clean up.

Oh, cool so you wanna give 'em a little rinse process.

Yeah. Oh wow, look already.

All right, here we go.

Let's process this.

Want me to hose off the board real quick?

Nah, I'm good, I'm good.

Just stand there and look pretty.

[Brad] Yes Sir.

There's nothing better than fileting a fish

on a piece of plywood, on the back of a Chevy,

in the middle of Oklahoma.

White meat. This is, like, it's crazy,

like, if you,

you guys could just go get one of these

everyday if you wanted.

Lot of stuff to eat around here.

Hogs, deer, catfish. Yeah.

Like, that's a lot of meat to go.

You guys could go get one of those in 15 minutes.

Yeah. You know?

[Brad] Almost looks like a salt water fish.

Yeah, Red River is salty.

Right it is a little

[Both] Brackish, yeah.

Not just from him peeing in it.

You know what I'm sayin'? [horn blares]

It comes across the salt plains.

Now, what ya' could do is take it over

and purge that out with fresh water.

Wash all the blood out of it, get it good and white.

Is it on?

Up down, up down!

Up down, there you go [laughs].

Keep goin', keep goin', keep goin', keep goin'.

Keep goin'!

Now just try, try leaving it up.

There you go, gotta be smarter than

the average water hydrant. Like siphoning gas.

[Brad] Yeah! [laughing]

I'm a country boy.

[Skipper] [laughs] Whoa,

he swallowed that hook, line, and sinker.

So now, we just broke down the fish with Skipper.

As we were cuttin' it,

you could see the meat was real red.

Now we're just rinsin' 'em with fresh water.

And ah, pretty much just cleaning

all the blood out the meat.

When you're eatin' fish and people say,

I don't like fish, it's fishy.

It's usually because they leave,

people leave the blood in it.

And the blood goes bad, not the meat.

[Skipper] Now, she's cleanin' up good guys.

[Brad] We're gonna do this other one.

[Skipper] You've been shown how, now,

now you're gonna clean this one.

[Brad laughing]

I wanna put some salt on them.

You jump into that fish, and I'll do this.

All right, cool. We gotta save time.

You do that. Yeah, let's do that!

All right, Skipper.

All right, you've seen this done once.

Once. I already forgot.

But hey, what I'm thinkin',

I wanna do somethin' a little different

with a piece of this fish, too.

I wanna cut, like, the tail.

Right here. Uh huh.

And keep it whole.

I wanna do, like, a fried, like a bone-in steak.

Like from the tail down? Yeah.

Or from the tail up? Tail down.

Okay, okay.

Then once you get through there,

you can pick that tail up

and, oh, that went right through there.

There you go, you hit the bone.

And then I'm thinkin' what?

Like, cause' we're gonna start hittin' guts here.

Yeah about-- Something like that?

At that angle, yeah.

No, no, whoa, whoa.

We probably need to skin that dude, though.

Oh, it would be easier with it

on the-- Yes.

... on the, ah that's a good idea, Skipper!

All right. Just gonna peel it off

with some pliers?

[Skipper] Yeah, let's see if we can get a hold of it

Slick. [grunts]

[Brad] They're slippery.

[Skipper] They are slicker than snot.

That's what I've been told. Yeah.

All right, nice job.

There's that.

Normally, we would hang these up on a pole or somethin',

back in the old day.

But normally, we just fillet em' right off the bone

like you would a crappie

or any other fish. Right.

But since you're wantin' to try this bone-in thing,

we're gonna have to do it. Ah, I think it'll be neat.

Are you gonna grill it?

No, we're gonna fry it.

You're gonna deep fry it. Pan fry.

Okay.

Now grab these pliers

[Brad] And just yank it?

And pull up from that direction.

Oh that. Look it there

All right, all right, that works.

Now, do you feel the difference

in the texture of this fish?

To the other one? What do your hands

feel like?

Little sloppy. Greasy, little greasy.

Little more fatty?

Yeah, he's a fattier fish than the flathead.

The texture, I liked it more, too.

Yeah.

Just feeling it, it's less fibery.

And now I'm just gonna try to cut through.

Watch them fingers and toes, boys and girls.

[sighs] I need, like, a hatchet.

[beeping]

Oh, there you go.

I got it now. There we go.

And that is gonna be very good and succulent,

is what you're telling me.

This is gonna be delicious.

Okay, now do we wanna fillet the other part off?

Just the regular way?

Yeah [giggles].

The non-Brad way.

All right, I'm gonna watch you do it.

Oh boy.

Because you have been to the

Skipper Bivins Fish-Skinninng school of Excellence.

Oh, you look like an old pro.

You're you're doin' good.

I'm gonna give you an A plus on that

[bell dings] All right.

Blue cat maximus, from the Red River.

[Brad] From the brackish waters

of the Red River in Oklahoma.

That's beautiful.

That's a very pretty piece of meat right there.

The texture is unbelievably different.

But the, but this, this all has to come off.

You would take that off?

I would definitely take that off.

[laughs] That would taste bad. All right.

That'd the number one reason

people don't like catfish,

is they leave that red on there.

In fact, I challenge you to cook that up and eat it.

[bass drum pounds]

[Matty] It tastes like dirt.

I'm gonna have to take your word for it, Skipper.

[Skipper] God, them old locusts,

they're singin' aren't they?

[Brad] They sure are.

They're singin' the fish song,

way down deep in Oklahoma

[peaceful music plays] in the brackish waters

of Red River lies a blue cat.

Very savory to the taste, bon appetite.

All right, is there anything else on there we can harvest?

Yeah, I reckon.

Alright there's a good piece right there.

You just didn't get your knife quite all the way in there.

If you had been paying attention

when I was showing you this.

I never was too good in school.

Now, look at that.

Hey, school ain't for everybody.

They got to where they wouldn't tell me

how many days I'd missed.

[Brad laughing]

I wonder if I was fishin'.

[Brad] I bet you were.

And, you know, it's cool you got your whole family into it,

and like, not only that,

but, like, you're catching food.

You know, like, when we go ahead and cook this,

we caught this fish, you know?

Absolutely. You know, there's something

to be said about that.

Yeah, you can go noodling a few times

and put up enough fish to last you the season.

Right, you can fill the freezer with these, yeah.

Biggest fish I've ever caught was in East Cash,

and he was 111 pounds.

111 pounds?

How high?

That's like, you hold him right here,

and he touches the ground.

Wow. His head was

36 inches around his head.

He was a foot between his eyes!

Blue cat? Blue cat.

And bad to the bone, buddy.

I'm takin' about woo! [laughing]

Put that smack daddy bite on you

and just shake for all the world.

Whoa, old Matty's was a little bit bigger than mine.

Mine was probably, like, 20 pounds.

His was what, pushing 40?

Nice that you noticed that.

I'm pretty sure yeah, he put a thumpin' on ya.

He put a whoopin' on ya Nah!

Why'd you let him do that?

You know, he's a guest on the show.

I want him to go home with a story, you know.

Tell his kids.

Yeah, but when you're settin'

around the campfire-- Daddy caught the big one.

Dude, he doubled you. Ah!

Yeah, I caught this 20 pounder.

And he's gonna be like, Oh man,

I caught one twice that big.

That's alright you know, my ego's fine.

But, you know, we both got one

and I think that's

the most important. That's the most

important part. You know, yeah.

Hey, and you did it with your bare hands.

You didn't have any hooks.

You didn't have any-- Yeah, I mean,

we basically put that fish in Matt's lap.

But you know,

it's fine, it's fine. Yeah, definitely.

We definitely put it in his lap.

[Skipper] You got her primed up?

Yeah I fell for it.

[Skipper laughing]

Yeah, turn it off.

And now, give me that pump start you were givin'.

[Brad laughs] Come on, come on

How's that workin' out?

What the hell are you doin'?

I think it's you, Skip.

Just lift it up!

[Brad laughs] You don't have to pump it!

This ain't 1920!

Come on!

That is not the first time-- Oh, you don't

have to pump it. ... I've seen that happen.

[Brad] Oh I bet.

We had a fire fighter do that,

and we give him hell for 20 years.

These guys are tricksters out here, man.

Oh, lotta tricksters out here in Oklahoma.

I'll tell ya. They're messin' with us.

All right, I think these guys are gonna

fool around and cook some really big chunks of meat.

Now when we're cooking catfish,

we're gonna cook a piece about that size.

Right there, no bigger, no thicker

because if you do you're gonna get a piece

that doesn't taste very good.

K.I.S.S., Keep it simple stupid

or you will mess this fish up.

I can't wait to see what these boys do with it.

'Cause I got a feelin' it's gonna be hilarious.

[gentle upbeat music]

What are we doin' there?

Um, maybe we'll the cat--

The slaw in there?

We'll do the slaw maybe in here?

And this we'll do, we don't need.

Nah.

This is so free-balling.

Oh dude, big time

[laughs] This is like the most free-balling

thing we've ever done.

Huh? This is the most

we've prepped for anything ever.

[Matty laughing]

You guys are incredible, what?

So Bon Appetite Magazine is one of the most,

like, most precious, most accoladed,

one of the greatest food magazines of all time.

And then I was so excited to come and see

inside of the crew and, like,

what happens behind the scenes at Bon App.

And you know what?

It's the exact same as everywhere else.

It's a [beep] show.

We're in the middle of, like, a field--

Hey, this is quality programing.

And like, there's not thirty stylists.

You know, we've got--

No, no.

It's incredible look at this.

You know, you now how I like it, Mat.

I like it. Approachable.

You know, we're just,

we're hangin' out with Skipper.

We're not shooting a freaking food show.

This isn't Godzilla 4.

No [laughs].

There's no swaps

No, there's no swaps. That's not how we roll.

This is the real, look at this!

So yeah, Skipper showed us

how to break these bad boys down.

These big boys, these catfish.

And uh, now we're gonna,

now we're gonna celebrate 'em.

We're gonna cook em.

Oh my goodness.

Real simple, I know you, you're a sandwich guy.

I'm a sandwich guy. Who isn't?

I love a fried fish sandwich.

Yeah, it's delicious.

Nothing better than like, really good creamy coleslaw,

a fried piece of crispy, buttery, fatty white fish.

Yeah, yeah, keep talkin'.

That's it. [beeping]

I was picking Skipper's brain a bit.

Cornmeal seems to be the way to go.

[Matty] I'll make the cornmeal.

[Brad] Alright you make the dredge, bud.

[Matty] I'll make some dredge, a little paprika.

Little paprika, right?

Little paprika.

Oh, I'm seasonin' the cabbage as we go here.

Sweatin' on it?

Are you sweatin' on it Brad?

It's alive! [laughing]

Human sweat is fermentaish.

Little cayenne pepper.

I like it spicy.

Old Bay will be very nice.

A little pepper, oh this is picante.

I'm gonna stir this with some tongs.

Yeah, get in there. Bon Appetite,

you know just uh,

we're gonna do this with tongs here.

Then I'm gonna see how salty this is

cause' that Old Bay is pretty salty, actually.

And the garlic powder is a little, salty too.

Garlic powder?

Garlic powder.

There's sodium in it?

Is there no sodium?

There should be zero.

There's no ingredients.

That's salty.

I added zero salt to that.

That's salty. You're right,

it's the old bay.

Yeah Old Bay is so salty.

That's salty, and this,

this is already seasoned. [crosstalk muffles speech].

[blow lands] Ah ha!

[beeping]

Who's better? It's Alive!

Who's better than us bud?

What's the name of the show?

It's Alive!

[laughs] All right, cool.

I love yellin'. No.

Little hot Dukes or what?

Nothing better for mayonnaise than sitting

out at 100 degrees weather in the middle of Oklahoma.

It is literally a hundred degrees.

You need me to add some more mayo?

Let's add some more mayo.

Yeah, a little bit.

[dramatic music] Oh oh oh, no.

No? What is that?

This ain't Canadian coleslaw, pal.

What is this, bud? [shouting]

Oh my god! Is that nice?

No!

Add a little pickle juice to the coleslaw?

Yeah hit me, hit me.

You know what's amazing?

This is hot.

[sizzling] This is incredible.

I just put my fingers in,

this is hot.

Oh my god. It's hot [laughs]

It's not warm. No, it's hot.

Oh. [chuckling]

Oh! [laughs]

What about the onion?

I want some, like, some raw onion in there, do you think?

Yeah. Or do we

put that in secondary?

Like, as a level, like, on the sandwich?

I say a level, or do you want to put it in?

Let's put it in. Let's put it in!

Let's make it one stop shop.

Let's make the coleslaw one stop shop.

What would Skipper do?

What would Skipper do?

I doubt he would do any of this.

[Brad laughing]

This is gonna be fantastic. Yeah.

Fried up catfish that we just noodled.

Dude, we're noodlers.

We're officially noodlers.

We're official, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I reckon.

The trick is you gotta preheat the mayonnaise.

See when you heat it, it's what you're doin' is--

[Matty] It's bringin' out the mustard.

You're bringin' out the flavors.

I wanna do a follow up video, like, tomorrow,

when we all have diarrhea on the plane.

[squeaking]

[bells jingling]

Yeah!

That's it bud, that's the stuff.

[Matty] Okay, let's give that a mixy.

[Brad] See Skipper, Skipper's gonna be so proud.

Skipper, we're making this for you, baby!

[Brad laughing]

Mm! [smacking lips]

More acid.

You're a wild man. [laughs]

All right. Mm!

Let me pop this is the fridge.

It's only 98 down there.

I'm gonna go rinse my hands real quick.

That is good. That's good, right?

[yelling distorts speech]

That means I have to clean this up

cause' there's no one here. [crickets chirping]

All right, I'm gonna add a little oil here,

And we're not gonna do, like, big deep, deep fry.

I think we treat it like a schnitzel.

Schnitz-fry?

Yeah, like a,

like a shallow fry, yeah. Little incher?

You got it, bub. Okay!

Hey, let's go, fire marshall.

Whoa boy, jet engine!

This [beep] whole lawn is gonna catch on fire.

Dude ,[laughs] this is so gnarly.

We're just cooking it on the driest patch

on the farm, though. Possible.

[Brad] Oh that's beautiful huh?

Look at the color.

[Matty] Yeah, buddy.

Okay.

Hey, you're schnitzel man

I'm schnitzel man.

I'm gonna go.

Come on.

[dramatic music]

Nope, okay, good talk.

[coughs] Not quite yet, huh, bub? No way!

Is there room for another big boy?

Yeah, buddy.

[Director] Brad, step out of the light.

I am the light.

That's all right, you know.

My ego's fine.

We want it to get crisped up on the outside, you know?

Form, like, a nice little crispy shell.

Inside will be the nice fried catfish.

Juicy on the inside, a little crispy on the outside.

Yeah? Yeah!

Just flip it now, oh look at that!

Look at that!

Yeah, buddy!

Okay I'm gonna get the bun ready, 'kay?

[Brad] This fish has gotta be done.

Yeah, a hundred percent.

Yeah, buddy!

Just a little bit more Old Bay on top.

While it's hot you wanna just, you know,

the hot crispy, all the bread crumbs

or all the cornmeal's crispy.

[electronic beeping] Little extra bay, woo!

Hot mayo, fly it in.

How we doin', Skip?

Hey, awesome man.

You guys know what in the popcorn Sam Hill you're doin'?

[Brad laughing] What?

Before you try that-- Okay.

You dab a little bit of that on it right there.

Okay. That's my world famous

tarter sauce right there.

Be careful!

It's dangerous!

If you get some of that on your forehead,

your tongue'll beat your brains out tryin' get to it, dude.

I'm excited about this.

[peaceful fanfare plays]

Now you try that, and you tell us.

There ain't nothin' wrong with that.

Nope. Except you ain't got

enough of em' cooked, yet. [laughing]

Big old boy like him and me,

we can eat to lot by ourselves.

You ain't gonna get none!

That's incredible. It's okay.

Brad, tell us what you think.

Best catfish sandwich I ever had.

You guys are just that good, you're just that good.

You catch em', you cook em', you clean em'.

You guys could fit in right here in Cotton County.

Tryin' like hell.

But I tell you man, we couldn't have done it

without you, Skip.

Catfish has such a bad rap.

Everyone says its muddy.

It's not-- It's not muddy.

Zero mud. That is, like,

one of the greatest fishes I've ever had.

And that's the thing.

You just gotta get fresh fish.

And once again, you gotta know your Skippers.

You gotta know your fisherman. You gotta know your--

You gotta know your fisherfolk.

You gotta know everybody.

Woo!

[Brad] Look at that, man.

It's hot.

Look at that Look at the color on that.

Yeah, wow, hot!

That was a piece of the one that you caught, the flathead.

Yeah. That was a piece

of the belly.

You see how it's got those real,

like, fingery lines on it? Yeah.

So there's a little bit of connective tissue in there

that you're gonna chew on a little bit.

But the flavor, super clean.

[Matty] I like that it's got some chew.

[Brad] Yeah, right.

It's also had zero time.

I think this would be a lot better, actually,

if we dried it out. Tomorrow?

Salted it, let it sit 24 hours.

Sure, this thing was, like, full rigor mortis.

[Matty] Do you want to try this tail out?

[Brad] Yeah let's get the tail.

[Matty] What do you think?

Is it fallin' off the bone?

[Brad] Hot.

Is it hot? Hot.

Very different. Very different.

This was the blue cat. No stringiness.

I like the, I like the blue cats.

That is fantastic.

All right, clear the sandwiches.

It's all about the tail.

That's awesome. That's awesome.

Skip! Skipper!

Skipper! Skipper!

Here, this is a part of the tail, a little hot.

This is way better.

You guys got a lot of seasoning on it.

Just a little salt, bud.

Got a lot of seasoning on it.

Too much?

No, that's perfect. No, that's good, Skip.

Skip, we'll get--

You gotta open up your palate.

I'm tellin' you right now, you boys did a pretty good job,

for your first time out and all.

[Matty] For the first time!

Here's to you.

Oh, look at him Yeah!

Animal!

Get you a drop.

Here, here, here, right back at you.

Okay. Right back at you.

You gotta take a little glug, yeah.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Animal. Okay.

[Brad laughing]

He's doing Chili Willies!

He's doin' Chili Willies. [laughing]

So we're doin' an outro.

Brad! Okay.

Outro. Outro.

Outro.

Man, I uh, hold on. [laughs]

So moral of the story here, folks,

get to know people like Skipper and Matty.

Get in the water, try noodlin'.

Break out of your comfort zone

'cause that's what we're all about.

Break out of your comfort zone.

[Brad] [laughs] Like Matty!

Like me, working with Brad.

Break out of your comfort zone.

This was not comfortable for me.

Sticking my feet in a hole inside of a creek

You loved it! I loved it, okay.

Let's go feed the crew, huh?

Okay, let's get the crew going.

Appreciate it, yeah.

I'm comin' back, man.

We're gonna get-- Thank you so much.

We're gonna get the state record next time.

[men chattering]

Like I wanna hold it like this.

We'll get you a biggun.

I'm talkin' about old blue cat, woo!

[Brad laughing]

Put that smack daddy bite on you!

Thank you again, man.

Awesome job guys. Yeah.

Smack daddy bite. Bon Appetite.

Bon Appetite.

[laughing]

Guys, tell us what you want to see me and Brad do next!

Yeah, we did the noodling.

Took a year, but we pulled through, man.

We're men of our word, okay.

Also, let us know in the comments below

where we should go next, next year, all right.

Where do you want us to go?

Is it Antarctica?

I don't know.

I wanna go to Antarctica.

Is it halibut fishing in Alaska?

I don't know.

Is it skydiving for pigeons?

Is that a thing?

[blows raspberry]

Matty, gettin' warm?

[Matty] Naw, I'm good,

I'm a very comfortable temperature right now, actually.

[hammer crashing] Holy Christ almighty,

Bivins!

[mellow music]