As a fisherman, I barely know a mudcat from a siamese. I have had very good catfish to eat a few times, whatever the exact variety. 50 years ago my father, a hired hand, and I each caught one of a fish variety we found jumping a lot in a Mississippi river backwater. Cooked the things up, and they had a consistency about like mucus. Eeeewwwww. Later someone told us it sounded like they were what he called "sheepshead".