IF you could CLOSELY compare the fats and other "baddies" involved in either frying PROPERLY with canola oil OR grilling with butter and olive oil, there would be VERY little difference.
I'm not scientifical enough to be able to do that, but I AM rich enough to bet TWO AMERICAN DOLLARS I'm right.
The biggest problem some folks have with frying catfish is coating them HEAVILY with stuff like an egg batter. I don't do that. I simply roll my catfish strips in Self-Rising Yellow Corn Meal, then get the canoloa oil up to almost exactly 325°F, drop the well-thawed or fresh strips in, wait for the oil to come back up to 275°F, and take the fish out. NO HEAVY GREASY FISH!
Welll! You can take the woman out of Massachusetts but you can't take ALL of the Massachusetts out of the woman. You can even teach her how to say "PARK THE CAR" but some things are just ingrained, maybe it's genetic. Ya know what I mean?