freshly harvested Clarias gariepinus and Oreochromis niloticus were purchased from vendors in Ogbomoso, Oyo State, Nigeria; and were divided into two parts. One part was used to determine the proximate composition and microbial analysis of the fresh fish while the other part was dried using a smoking kiln and was used for the same analysis. Fresh O. niloticus showed the highest total bacterial count of 1.8 x 107 cfu g-1 and dried C. gariepinus showed the lowest total bacterial count of 2.0 x 104 cfu g-1. Bacterial pathogens were also isolated from fresh and dried samples and the isolates were characterized and identified as Pseudomonas fluorescens, Pseudomonas chlororaphis, Pseudomonas putida, Proteus vulgaris, Pseudomonas mirabilis and Enterobacter aerogenes. The antibiotic susceptibility profile of the isolates was determined and 41.7% were sensitive to clinically relevant antibiotic disc while 58.3% were only resistant to antibiotics. The proximate analysis showed that dried C. gariepinus had higher fat content (11.02%) and also had the highest protein content (42.88%). Fresh O. niloticus had the highest moisture content (71.11%) whereas dried O. niloticus had the highest crude fiber and ash content (4.79 and 20.02%), respectively. The fresh fish samples had less percentage of crude fibre which is responsible for its faster digestibility when compared with that of the dried fish samples.