Exactly. Take your pic and release that old coot. Completely inedible and unmountable. Let it live.
They are perfectly edible at that size, I know for a fact.
1963 South Louisiana, Lafourche Parish, Cut Off,Louisiana.
We caught a 60 pound yellow tail catfish. It was caught back in the black bayous that were not muddy. We dressed the catfish steaks out and they were delectable with not a hint of muddy flavor.
The flavor of the fish is dependent on where you catch it. This same catfish if caught in a muddy river would have tasted a bit muddy but would have still been good eating.
ps
The swamps of South Louisiana are a paradise for a teenager that loves to hunt and fish if he has a mentor that will explain to him how the swamp works. There is little danger there if you know the swamp. If you do not understand the swamp it might kill you. Know where cottonmouths live and hunt and leave them alone as the same for alligators. Actually you can walk by a sunning alligator with safety. If you are in the water you might be consider prey and that is not good. If near an alligator nest beware, mama alligator might kill you.
My dear mentor Alsye Melacon took me under his wing when I was but 11 years old. We did the swamp on foot and by pirogue which is a dugout canoe. For a kid it was magic, frogs,fish, alligators etc. We brought them home and ate them. Alyse also knew what mushrooms were good and bad. We fried them along with whatever else we took from the swamp. I was never confident to pick my own mushrooms. The wrong ones will kill you. I was 11 and Alyse was 50 and not dead from mushrooms. I trusted his judgement.
I miss those magic times of my youth. The swamp is a beautiful mistress but a deadly mistress. One must not violate her rules least you come to harm.