Eating undesirable fish species... What's up with that?

[New Heritage Fishing]

Some varieties of fish skin are yummy to leave on...

[cvstrat]

Can you please stop using the word yummy

[SAMJOECAST]

Okay, thanks so much.

Because I'm still confused...

Is this correct?

Bonita, with an "A" = False Albacore/Little Tunny = all the same fish

Bonito, with an "O" = Striped Bonito or Atlantic Bonito (different species of Bonito)

I have heard that Little Tunny / Bonita are indeed junk fish, but Bonito are not.

Can anyone confirm this?

Thanks folks,

- Jacob

I will definitely tell you that the Atlantic Bonito is just like tuna, sushi, sashimi all good to go!!

[sepaik]

I will definitely tell you that the Atlantic Bonito is just like tuna, sushi, sashimi all good to go!!

[Katzgar]

properly prepared is the operable phrase here. Traditionally most fish is baked with butter and/or garlic and S and P but lets get some recipes going that are specific to a given specie please.

[jezratty]

you should check out the recipes section on this site http://boatlessfishing.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=29

[Katzgar]

cool beans, thanks

[New Heritage Fishing]

Sweet. I appreciate everyone's help and opinions.

[gruntking]

meng if its be fish i be eating pin fish lizard fish blue fish jack fish snapper fish snook fish grunt fish eyes be eating them all

[Username28]

meng if its be fish i be eating pin fish lizard fish blue fish jack fish snapper fish snook fish grunt fish eyes be eating them all

I was just going to say, dont you eat rabbitfish and lionfish and stuff?

[New Heritage Fishing]

I have no clue what a Rabbitfish is...

[fishnfool73]

Google is your friend. They are in the puffer family. Supposed to be great eating. I've never had one though

[SAMJOECAST]

Google is your friend. They are in the puffer family. Supposed to be great eating. I've never had one though

I also have not had the opportunity to eat a rabbitfish as i have not caught one yet, but the meat on them looks amazing!!! Can't wait to try

[jezratty]

i would take a fresh bonita over a bluefish any day
when i catch them they are immediately bled and put on ice.. i cut out the super dark meat down the middle and sear the rest... lil teryaki fresh minced garlic and saracchas to dip in... even served it at one of my parents parties before no complaints and it was all eaten.

[piper27]

Love bluefish fried with the skin on, tastes so much better than snook to me. My son thinks I'm loco.

[Username28]

I personally think snook is over rated and not much better then mangrove snapper. Give me fresh mutton anyday over snook.

[GO4EM]

I would rather eat my fishing boots....

[Ddc5268]

Bluefish is great for smoking. Any of the heavier more oily meat is great for smoking. I have smoked and eaten bluefish my whole life. I have eaten cichlids from canals before but they are probably not the cleanest fish. They tasted good though.

[lunkstar]

I caught a snakehead a few weeks back. SOB was in the private pond I fish feeding on tadpoles around 11:30 at night. I cast a plastic toad in front of the creepy bastard and he gobbled it up. When I brought him home I threw him on the counter top and cut its head off. Well, remember those tadpoles, they fell out of the effer's belly and flipped about the cutting board. My buddy and I nearly puked and he vowed never to eat the thing. I was still curious, the French eat frog legs right?

The meat was nice, firm and white without a fishy smell. The only downside was the all the bones in its spine, they needed to be trimmed out. The next morning I battered the filets up and threw them on the frying pan. The fish tasted absolutely delicious. The following week however my ass was preaching to the porcelain Gods. Not sure if it was from the fish or another "undesirable" restaurant by the name of La Granja. Now I just give all the snakeheads I catch to the housekeepers I work with, Spaghetti Monster knows there's plenty of snakeheads in Florida.

On an aside, just think of what these fish are feeding on; anything and everything that falls in the water including frogs, snakes, baby ducks, worms, bugs and other creepy crawlers. If you're down with that, eat up.

[ringonose]

I have caught and consumed bluefish in the Carolina's and they taste completely different than the blue's down here in south Florida. Same with Mahi, they're better here than overseas where they run through the Aegean. And the Blues that run in the Med and the Aegean are hands on the best fish I've ever eaten, because their diet is COMPLETELY different there than out here, and the water is so much colder so they're fattier and juicier.

Having said that, for those who don't want their fish to taste like fish (I"ll never get that by the way) they'll likely prefer snapper, snook etc. Having said that, when it comes to Jack's, well, yeah sure you can eat them and prepare them properly (anyone in the Caribbean would say right away that fried jacks and sharks and fish heads are great eating) but jack's take a lot of work, whereas a typical snapper is a simple fillet and cook various easy ways and you're done. There is a saying in my native country that translates "if my dad came out of the ocean I'd eat him too". In other words anything out of the sea is edible. My preference since trying various fish down here? Well I've learned that I can't really stand Pompano, snapper, snook and hogfish are great when breaded and frying but otherwise pretty average to me, bluefish and grunts are may favorite so far (grunts fried up after breading, and bluefish cooked many different ways, just love that fish), and most fresh water fish are better than all of the above (like Walleye, Lake Trout, Rainbow Trout, Pike, Perch, various panfish, fresh water catfish, etc). Freshwater fish are the perfect mix of fishiness and taste and texture and mmmm-mmm I'm getting hungry!

[BEOWULF]

So I tried for Permit yesterday using cut crabs for bait. I get a nice hit as soon as the rig hits bottom and fish on! It was pulling pretty hard, so I figured maybe a smallish Permit? Wrong. It was that pesky wabbit, the infamous rabbitfish. And so went my Permit hunt until I ran out of bait. But that last Rabbit was a "good one", around 7lbs, fat and meaty. I said, ok, what the hell, got nothing else to show for today, and I hear the meat is pretty good actually. So... here is the eating report:

I was a bit nervous given that I could end up in the hospital (or worse) if I didn't clean this thing right. So I started by cutting a piece far from the abdominal area where the toxin is found. The skin was so damn slimy that even a sharp knife had difficulty grabbing on to it. Not only that, but it was coming off the body with hardly any effort. Meanwhile the ugly-arse face on this thing was staring back at me, and lookin' uglier by the second. I was losing my appetite...

Ok, got past that without hurling. Actually, there was no excessive blood or nasty smell, and I now had a nice looking portion of white meat to taste test. Fried it up... well nothing special, it was pretty bland actually.

As it happens, the next day was garbage pickup, and I gave the remaining 6 1/2 lbs of wabbit a free ride to the dump. Hasta la vista Bugs. Never again!

[kblue]

lol...