Thread: Pier fish taste rankings!

Originally Posted by Blindbat

Well I've had Flounder and love it. We eat a lot of crappie and shell cracker up here in. Huntsville. I'm looking forward to trying Pompano, it seems everyone likes it. Me and my boy have caught a lot of flounder from the beach. Can't wait til the end of March were coming down and fishing the pier with pier#r one day.

What did you catch your beach flounder on and what time of year?

I'm assuming everyone who is ranking remora low has never eaten one.

Originally Posted by chillinfish

What did you catch your beach flounder on and what time of year?

Gulp Alive 3" pearl white shrimp on a 3/8 oz. red jig head. Just fish it slow like a worm on bottom. Carolina rig works too. We were there in early October. It's usually good in April-May but the Sept-Oct is the best. We have change our summer vacation to early spring and fall because we can go to the beach twice for not much more because of the offseason rates and the fishing is good.

I can't understand those that say the kings aren't good eating. grilled mackerel steaks are hard to beat.

Originally Posted by Pierless

I'm assuming everyone who is ranking remora low has never eaten one.

You made me a beliver

Originally Posted by Blindbat

Ok I'm reading online about Kings and Spanish not being the best table fare. So, what fish are the favorite that are caught from the pier purely for eating? Someone please get it started and give us your top 5 and worst 3! Thanks in advance

Anyone who says Spanish and kings aren't the best table fare, just needs to learn how to cook them. Spanish are fantastic grilled, broiled or fried. And small Spanish macs make great sushi.
Kings are best grilled or broiled. Try a miso based marinade.
Check out the recipes section.
That said, it’s hard for me to pick a favorite, I like most fish I catch off the pier, they all are a little different. Here's some other fish I have eaten with notes:
Spadefish: Bake the small ones whole (head and all) just scale, gut and season with some salt & pepper. Large ones are best filleted, then bake or fry.
Croakers, whiting and ground mullet. Hard to beat: scale & gut then bake whole. Scale and fry whole. Fillet and fry. Anyway you cook them, they are great.
Sheepshead: Bake the small ones whole (head and all) just scale, gut and season with some salt & pepper. Large ones are best filleted, then grill, broil, bake or fry.
Slot Reds and Puppy Drum. I like to take a big fillet and poach in a mixture of soy sauce, dashi stock, sake, sugar and ginger. Smaller ones are great fried. Grill the big ones “on the half shell” with some Tony’s Seasoning.
Jack Crevalle: Has a texture like pork. I cut the meat into chunks and used it in gumbo, chowder and fish curry.
Flounder: 1 million ways to cook it, hard to mess this one up.
Bluefish and big Hardtails: Fillet them, cut out all the red meat and then fry them up. A little stronger than other fish, but then should fish taste like fish???

1.whiting 2.white trout 3.flounder 4.speckeled trout 5.cobia

and slot red almost breaks the list lol

i think bluefish are good if you bleed them when you catch em and cook them right

Top 5 Pompano, Flounder, Whiting, Spade, Sheephead. Although I'm sure Cobia are good, I'v just never caught one. Most fish are good if you clean and cook them right. I cant say that about Ladyfish I tried to cook one, it was nasty.