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I don’t want to come off the wrong way, but I would like to know what in the world the Asian fella on the pier is going to with a big cooler full of bait fish. Do they eat em? Make chum for bigger fishing? I can’t figure it out. I gave one guy three gafftops....
I’ve been told they make soup with the small fish. And as for gafftops?…I’ll take em too. They taste just like freshwater cats. Hardheads on the other hand,…yuk.
There are certain ways to cook them... when I was growing up, my mom would put them in a smoking hot wok or skillet and basically char them. The sabiki brigade can be frustrating and confusing, but they're meat fishing and have ways to cook fish that is pretty damn good. I'm half Okinawan, fisherman's stew is/was a comfort food. It's all the parts of a fish that you can't sell with big knots of nori, tofu and bitter melon (when I was growing up it was watermelon rinds because we couldn't find bitter melon.) At athletic events in Japan, they don't eat popcorn, they usually sell cups of small dried fish.
I equate a lot of this to when I used to deer hunt, married to ex2, I'd harvest about 10-15 deer a year because there were family members that couldn't hunt but wanted venison.
http://www.gulfshorespierfishing.com...eat-fish-8656/
For almost every fish when someone says "you can't eat that", someone in a forum says "sure you can" and has a recipe -- even ladyfish, bonito, or rays. Your cooking skill and tastes are also an issue. Fish with toxins or contamination risks like ciguatera or mercury are obviously another story.
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Originally Posted by will46r
I have never heard the term sabiki brigade before. That’s kinda funny. They certainly do pretty good with them, I have never had any luck with a sabiki. I don’t know why, but I must be doing something wrong lol. That stew sounds pretty tasty if you ask me. I have a brother that is stationed on Okinawa with the USMC, and he loves it out there.
I have been reading through that thread. It’s interesting, but man some of that stuff I don’t know about. Like eating the shark suckers, that doesn’t sound healthy/appetizing at all.Quote:
Originally Posted by midwestexile
Gafftops are edible? That’s not a fish I would have considered eating.Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveH
Another question, one guy was using this big lure/jig thing, it looked like a big weight with metal rods coming out of it, and what looked like to me, white plastic bag on it. He was jigging it up and down. Any idea what that is?
That sounds like a hard body squid jig...
https://www.fishermanswarehouse.com/...8563eb36da.jpg
Yep that’s it. I didn’t realize there was squid off the pier?
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Originally Posted by ReelFishing
Octopus too. Those are realllllyyy fun to unhook
Squid are terrible to eat. May be poisonous. Bonita also. I strongly urge anyone that catches them to turn them over to me as soon as possible.
"The key to happiness is to avoid the things that make you unhappy."
Especially the predatory ones.
Is there a size limit on squid and octopus? I imagine it would be tough to measure a pissed off octopus.
I've had hardtails as sashimi/sushi. Same with Bonita. I thought it tasted good.
Only fish I can say I would never eat again is a hardhead, tried it once just for the hell of it and it tasted like eating fried fish that been dipped into a mud/blood batter. But, Gafftops taste great to me. Are they gonna hold toe-to-toe with some white meat flaky reef fish..probably not. But it's also hell of a lot easier to catch some Gafftop. I think just about every fish can be used in some sort of application (in terms of cooking). The ol saying always holds true..beauty is in the eye of the beholder! :D
Yes - I caught some in the Spring,last year, as I recall. I think that they gather under the lights at night. The ones I caught hit a sabiki rig and I also caught some on live shrimp.Quote:
Originally Posted by ReelFishing
Quote:
Originally Posted by ReelFishing
Remora are delicious! They're scavengers, but so are crabs, catfish, pinfish and many other creatures out in the gulf. Since I was a kid, I've heard people say, "those aren't any good to eat". I've learned to ask the question, "Have you ever tried them?" The answer is universally, "no". So I set, as my goal, eventually trying every kind of fish. I've never tried mature jack crevalle and maybe if I can find someone cleaning one at the cleaning station I can ask for the carcass so that I can cut a piece from it to try. I just don't want to kill a big fish for a small taste-test. And I haven't tried ladyfish, though I did fillet one that I ended up using for cut bait when I determined that there were no parts of the fish that didn't have bones when you fillet them in the conventional manner. I'll give the fishcakes thing a try, maybe this year. And I haven't tried bait. Sometime, I'll try herrring and "L-Ys", maybe when the big ones are experiencing the late summer die-off. Bonita, Guaguanche, squid, sailcats, hardtails, bluefish, stingray, pinfish, baby jacks, croakers and remoras - I've tried and enjoyed them all.
Remora is the closest kin a cobia has.
Gafftops are edible?
Gafftop/Sailcats are fine.
Here's something about Remora:
https://www.gulfshorespierfishing.co...h%20big%20ones.
When I lived in Los Angeles I used to take my son to the beach on summer nights around the full moon. There was a small fish called a grunion that used to ride a wave up on the beach and wiggle his tail into the sand and release their eggs. They would then ride the next wave back out into the ocean. We would catch these fish with our hands while they were vertical sticking up in the air. They were about 6 to 8 inches long. Some nights when the word would get out there would be a lot of people on the beach filling their buckets with fish. We scaled them gutted them and cut off the heads. They were then rolled in a breading of flour corn meal and seasoning and quick fried whole. About 2 to 3 minutes and they were done. Kids really had a blast doing this.
Some people fired them hard and at the whole fish bones and all. I preferred to get them barely done and use a fork to separate the small filet off each side. With a cold beer I could do some damage to a pile of those little fish and they tasted great.
Smelt from the great lakes and elsewhere are the same. Whitebait (think rain minnows) are a European delicacy that are fried and served a lot like French fries. Anyone who has eaten head cheese, scrapple, or ponhoss has no room to look down on anything anyone else eats.
Or Taco Bell........Quote:
Originally Posted by midwestexile
Quote:
Originally Posted by midwestexile
lol I don’t eat any of that stuff. I have ate a bunch of crazy things though. If it tastes good to you, I say, have at it.
This could get weird….
Ever had ox tongue?
Ever had monkey, camel, or tarantula?Quote:
Originally Posted by ReelFishing
They were out of all those at Publix last time I shopped.Quote:
Originally Posted by will46r
I've had ceviche made from sea urchins - the gooey inside part, not the crunchy outside. I don't recommend it.
Ditto for raw sea cucumber, but I did love the little sundried, soy marinated, minnows.
I have seen sea urchins get ate, I never tried it. I’ll try just about anything once. I can’t do brains and testicles.Quote:
Originally Posted by frednic
My grandpa butchered as a side job. And brains and eggs were a regular for breakfast. I als like hothead cheese with a little pepper sauce. Pickled pig feet are good with a cold beer and we’re common at most southern beer joints in the old days. I grew up hearing that you could eat everything but the squeal when it came to hogs.
Speaking of eating minnows, I know some brothers that went fishing, with plenty of beer, one of them was eating sardines and the other brother kept slipping minnows from the bait bucket into the sardine can, then admitted the prank after many were consumed. The culinary experience wasn’t appreciated and the offending brother got knocked out on the bank.
I ate a pig’s eye once at a roast….beer was involved.
My wife lived in Korea for a few years before I met her and she ate fried chicken feet on occasion. It was a popular street food. The theater snacks were “fried squid pops” and “larva bugs”. She didn’t partake of the latter. Now she’s a vegetarian. Go figure.
Hog brains and eggs for breakfast on Christmas Day while growing up. They were very salty but tasty. BBQ goat when fox hunting with Grandpaw. Tried greek style pickled octopus one time but spit it over the rail when the preparer was not looking. Do like squid fried or grilled.
When our kids were in elementary school the wife took a fryer to the classroom in central Illinois and deep fried calamari for "bring your favorite food day". My unathletic children suddenly looked a lot tougher to their classmates. (Calamari was an occasional vacation restaurant treat, but the bullies did not have to know that.)