Salt water Catfish?

A friend of mine and I just came back from Gulf Shore fishing in Lousiana, it was great, caught alot of nice size Croaker, we (him and I) being from the Ozark, we rarely get a chance to go Salt water fishing due to the drive from point A to point B.

What astonished us both were the different abundant of fish species we caught, they weren't large but fairly nice size ones compare to fresh water species.

Angel fish, sheepshead and never in my life I would think it is even a possibility, but hope that I can get an answer from here and see what other opinions, knowledge and will to share info is out there, but my friend hook on to a nice size Catfish, well it definately look and act like a catfish, is there some kind of Salt water catfish?...I have always thought Catfish was a fresh water specie, but we caught a few of them as it got darker in the later in the day.

Well I'm still amazed by it, but I never knew catfish live in salt water as well.

I think the fish you talk about is call a Gaftsail, it looks like a catfish, but I'm not sure if I would eat it, just the idea of eating a catfish from the sea doesn't sound right

We have plenty of them here in the coastal water ways of Texas, some prefer to call them Sea Cats, Gaffy's as some of the more common or nicknames for them, But they can be a nuisance when fishing for a specific targets of fish, these fish you can eat as well, but with them being to slimmy and alot of bones some prefer to just throw them back into the water or use them as cut baits for sharks and other species, I never ate them but I know people that swear they taste just like fresh water cats, but thier sharp pin dorsal and side fins can cause alot of pain if you get poked by it, due to the bacteria they carry. but the bigger seacats are alot fo fun to catch if you are just looking to hook into a fish, night time fishing for them is also exciting if you are just after them.