not good to eat

Are any of the fish caught bottom fishing or trolling offshore not good to eat? I see all kinds of fish being caught and hope to do so myself soon but I would not want to keep any I couldn’t eat. Thanks in advance for any responses.

Barracuda and sharks on my initial list.

Grady White 258 WA
“Just for the Halibut”

Most are pretty good. Especially the ones you cant keep right now. I would agree with Grady. Some of the small trash fish on the bottom that you wouldnt keep anyways.

2018 Sea Fox 226 Commander
Catching Chaos

Lets eat!
Im told that all Amberjack here have worms. Ive also heard that some folks eat them here but cut out the worms.Whats odd is on the gulf coast they eat them regularly. I don’t particularly care for them but I also don’t know why they would have worms here and not there.I think there’s quite a few restaurants along the coast called Amberjacks or AJs so somebody is eating them.
We kept a few grunts over the years and Im talking the ones with the rainbow face and they would do for a fish fry but not the best tasting . Same with ringed porgy.
We catch a few bonita which are a bloody mess. Good for bait or chum and the skin will stay on the hook all day. Never took one home for dinner but I wouldn’t think its very good. Ive heard mako and thrashers are good to eat but Ive never caught either.
Ill give you my list of what most rookies to intermediate fisherman like myself can expect to catch if you go enough. In the order of what I like Scamp, Gag, ARS, Mangrove, Wahoo, Trigger, BSB, BFT(must be fresh), Cobia, Mahi, Bliners. Just todays list and others would say Im crazy and quite frankly , on somedays all I want to eat is Cobia and others its BFT.
Anything fresh that you caught yourself that day is hard to beat.

36 ft Yellowfin Yamaha Trip 300
27 ft Seahunt Yamaha Twin 200

Nothing beats a fresh “little tunny”, sushi style right in the back of the boat. You can thank me later!

I went back and looked up Little tunny vs bonito and now Im more confused than ever. First, Im not sure which is which. Squigly lines vs straight? Sounds like one might be good to eat and the other cat food. Everything we’ve caught has been a bloody mess but so has BFT. Whatever we are catching does make good bait.

36 ft Yellowfin Yamaha Trip 300
27 ft Seahunt Yamaha Twin 200

quote:
Originally posted by tridogs

I went back and looked up Little tunny vs bonito and now Im more confused than ever. First, Im not sure which is which. Squigly lines vs straight? Sounds like one might be good to eat and the other cat food. Everything we’ve caught has been a bloody mess but so has BFT. Whatever we are catching does make good bait.

36 ft Yellowfin Yamaha Trip 300
27 ft Seahunt Yamaha Twin 200


We don't catch many bonito around here. What we catch is "false albacore" (aka "little tunny"). The SLANG term for those fish here is "bonita" or "bonito". But, it's incorrect. Atlantic Bonito are a completely different species (actually in the mackerel family).

Are little tunny still here now? Thanks

You can’t catch fish on a dry line

quote:
Originally posted by Grady Bunch

Barracuda and sharks on my initial list.

Grady White 258 WA
“Just for the Halibut”


Barracuda… :dizzy_face:

Shark of all legal varieties and size… Cut from Butt to gills right after catching Rake your knife along the back bone and put over board and dip a few times. Throw it in the Ice box. (have to have whole fish or else I’d say lop off the head as well). Fillet into chunks and fry or cut into steaks to put on grill. Very overlooked and delicious.

I’ll bet anyone that enjoys the taste of fish and says shark is nasty , I could change their mind.

Never take home a whole shark un-bled put on ice, it will ruin the experience of good meat.

Make sure you have the HMS Federal permit before keeping the sharks. As much trouble as we have with the sharp nose sharks cutting off our rigs, nothing wrong with eating a few and they are right tasty.

Pioneer 222 Sportfish
Yamaha 250

Get yourself this book. It’s a good one. Link is just to show ya, as you can probably get it cheaper.

https://www.ebay.com/i/123249300428?chn=ps

NN

on the shark subject… How many have ever eaten Mako?

I’ll put Mako over wahoo any day. Matter of fact, if given the choice I’d take Mako over Sword fish.

Before all the limit nonsense, I remember catching the nuisance little Black tips two at a time in June/July and filleting as caught to get a couple three or four Gallon bags of beautiful fillets to deep fry. opps sorry that’s inshore… [:I]

quote:
Originally posted by DoubleN

Get yourself this book. It’s a good one. Link is just to show ya, as you can probably get it cheaper.

https://www.ebay.com/i/123249300428?chn=ps

NN


If you have a smart phone, download the free App "Fish Rules". It gives the latest regulations and you can set the location by map if you want Atlantic Federal waters otherwise it will default to your location and show state water regulations while you are located inshore. It also gives commercial regs as well as food quality for each species. Great app when you are headed out to brush up on the latest regulations.

36 ft Yellowfin Yamaha Trip 300
27 ft Seahunt Yamaha Twin 200

Worst fish ive ever had was blue fish by a mile, not even close. Most reef fish taste the same just a little different texture. Some fish are over rated, tuna, grouper and cobia to name a few, yes they are good but not so much to make the big deal most people do. All coastal sharks taste the same blacktip, bonnet, sharpnose. The prep is key. Most people dont ice fish properly. A lot of people think they can cook… A good cook can make anything taste good, a bad cook can only get good stuff to taste good. Also filet skills help. If you cant fillet good than smaller fish and tough to fillet fish won’t yeild much or wont be worth the time. Ive filleted soldier fish squirrel fish and a few others that are about like filleting a pinecone made of razors. They tasted great but dont yeild much and could easily cut you up. Personally everytime i go offshore i look forward to a fresh fried snapper sandwich, also a big fan of most porgy(not red porgys) and bsb. Fresh Mahi Mahi is the best by far in my opinion. Everyone i serve it to says best fish ever.