Trash Fish Dining
 

Pretty interesting read.

http://news.yahoo.com/dishing-trash-...132222305.html

Everybody talks bad about hard heads..... check out this poll and see how many people have actually eaten one...... http://www.thehulltruth.com/gulf-coa...d-catfish.html

People go by what others say, not on what they've tried.

Moved down here from north Texas...went fishing off the bank my first year and thought all catfish were the same. Kept some sail cats (didn't know the name then) I caught off the public pier down big lake road. Fried them up, not much different from channel cats. However, I won't eat them again. Don't eat much catfish anymore.

I would get laughed at when I first starting fishing. I would want to keep everything I caught..... I figured give it a shot and if it isn't good then start throwing them back.

Went to a buddies one night to have some beers and fry fish/shrimp. He told me he had some grand chenier catfish (don't care too much for it but will eat it). The pieces were small so it wasn't too bad, but it was enough to say I wont try that again...It tasted like a bait shack smells. Now as for drum/croaker I have ate drum like redfish it tasted the same, I've heard ALOT of good things about croaker but haven't convinced myself to try it yet as I'm very picky about my fish that ill eat. I've had people with big$ tell me they would rather a good size croaker than a speck.

I like some croaker

Hell yea! Bake that whole with some onions and bell peppers and you got yourself a meal padna!! Watch for the bones though.

I bet most 'trash fish' have less worms than a speckled trout:)

Trout have lotsa worms in the meat

Gafftops are about like channel catfish, and we'll work pretty hard to catch a mess of channel cats in the 4-7 lb range. When the gafftops are biting well, it's easy to put 8-12 of 'em in the cooler, so we don't throw them back. The two important keys in preparation is 1) Cool them quickly and let the slime wear off by sloshing around in a good ice/water mix 2) Cut out all the skin, red meat, and silvery stuff that sticks even after skinning.

Hardheads can also be ok, but the fillets are smaller so it is harder to really trim out all of the red meat and silvery tissue that skinning leaves behind. These are best fried and used in po-boys with enough horseradish, mustard, and tobasco to cover up the fishy taste.

it been posted before "maybe mathgeak" not sure but like 70 some +% of catfish you get at restrants are hardheads or sail cat........

I never eat fish that i dident catch and clean. Got sick one time on "fresh fish at a fry" and it had lots of bones in the few pices i got!!

Never again

Great point. From the moment it's caught, it's not wildlife anymore, it's food, and it needs to be taken care of as food, which means getting it on ice quickly and keeping plenty of ice in the cooler until it's cleaned. We buy 40 lbs of ice for a 100 qt ice chest, and we are careful to keep the ice on top of the fish and to dump a bag of ice out once there are plenty of fish to cover.

Care and clean facilities when cleaning fish are a must, followed by a quick trip into the zip lock bags and then into the freezer.

Cold, cold, cold. Clean, clean, clean. I'll even take a break when cleaning a mess of fish to help myself do a good job and resist the temptation to cut corners. We've watched a lot of folks clean fish at Calc Pt and a lot of guys are almost as careful as we are, but a lot of guys rush, leave fish sit in the sun, package fillets in ice bags and walmart bags, use knives of questionable cleanliness, etc.

The meat off a black drum is a pretty, clean white meat. Not bloody like a red. However, I typically won't keep black drum that are bull red sized, as they seem much more wormier than specks.

In fact, I remember a stink a couple months ago, Don Debuc even talked about it on WWL, about some restaurants passing off black drum as redfish. I've even heard accusations of the meat being passed off as crabmeat, due to its white, flakiness.

Croaker is awesome. Scale, gut, and fry them whole like bream.

The restaurant my younger brother works at passes black drum for redfish.

When I read this article, you were the first person I thought of. You always "talk" about how trash fish is just as good as any if prepared correctly.

I worked at L'auberge and spoke with one of the top chefs. He says they use black drum all the time because sometimes red fish is hard to get. He said there is absolutely no difference in taste. From my personal experience I believe thats true.

Had some drum at Parrains in Baton Rouge yesterday, it was fantastic. I keep black drum under 20"

You talked to Saute?


My family has never considered puppy drum to be a trash fish. If you keep smaller redfish to eat and throw back black drum of the same size you aint cookin with the oven on.

I have tried a black drum on the half shell like I do with reds, and I could tell a difference more in the texture than in the taste. I really didn't care for it like that. Now I have used it in a courtbouillion and it tasted awesome. The meat held together a lot better. I was able to cook the fish in the sauce longer giving the sauce a better flavor I found.

I agree. Black drum is indistinguishable from redfish of the same length if prepared correctly. Both drum and redfish tend to get firmer as they grow and once they are bulls, the texture is closer to chicken. But well trimmed, they remain good white meat. The older black drum often require a lot of trimming for reasons that are obvious to those who have ever cleaned a black drum.

My whole family is eagerly looking forward to drum parmesan for dinner tonight, amy my daughter has eagerly taken to both trimming and preparing drum in lots of great ways. "Golden nuggets" is a family standard since the day the term was coined because of such a strong resemblance to chicken nuggets for fried drum. Drum kabobs, blackened drum, grilled drum, or just cooked in a hot pan with butter and Tony's.

We don't even label the bags any more. No one can tell the difference between drum and redfish on the table, and the difference is clear from the other stuff in the freezer.

We never do the "half shell" thing with drum or redfish or any other species. The skin itself has some off flavors as does some tissue near the skin that often needs trimming.

I give to you the Bubba Gump of black drum!

If you order "Snapper" in any restaurant (not Red), you are eating Sheepshead. A lot of people consider them trash, but I love Sheepys.

Wasn't me. To me a red is a trash fish. It has a tangy taste. I do agree with small drum and croaker as good eating. I once feed all the guys at the SWLA fishing club Bonita. I told them it was smoked yellow fin. They said it was the best tuna they ever ate. You should of seen the look on their faces when I pulled a Bonita head out of an ice chest. Its amazing what a bucket of brine and ice can do in a few hours.

I will eat a sheepshead over a red and drum any day. Not all that hard to clean if you don't cut through the ribs just kind of go over them.

I keep it all except hard heads, gaff tops and big drum. I know enough people some one will take them and be glad to get it. We prefer to fry trout and bake Reds or Puppy Drum. Sheepshead are good fried too.

I'm actually frying drum tonight. We caught a bunch last night. They were feeding with the specks. Only kept 4 tho. Gonna have a bunch of people over for the fish fry and to watch the UFC fight. I'll keep the drum and trout seperate and not tell anybody what either platter is holding, then ask people which they like better, platter 'A' or platter "B'. Oughtta be a pretty good test

I personally like most fish I've ever eaten. I once pan seared some huge bluefish immediately when we returned from short rigging. They were excellent! I tried freezing some and thawed them for a fry.......not so good. I think most fish is good if it is never frozen.

I always thought bonito would be good eating, they are basically a tuna. I know the guys in Florida keep em, but they also keep king mackerel. I have eaten king mackerel and I just do not like em, we had a guy fish with us from New York and he let us keep his red snapper to let him catch and keep each of 'our' king mackerel:) Whatever floats your boat I guess

Had a guy I used to work with frying fish on the barge one day. When I asked him what it was he said "just eat it" turned out to be mullet. It wasn't to die for but it wasn't half bad.

I grilled a king once and it tasted fine.

i haven't ever been able to tell the difference b/w sailcat and channel or blue cat.... If the pickings are slim or we don't have fish in the box yet, I will keep a few sail cats.

tURNED OUT ABOUT 50/50. Some liked the drum better, some liked the trout. I liked em both

I didn't eat any, but the Vietnamese sand blasters we had on board for 6 weeks were catching and cooking hardtails and what we call "turd hustlers"....stunk up the galley.

Asked them if they were keeping them for bait, they said no no we eat. Jaw dropped for a moment.

Yea puppy drum 16-20max, some people don't know that not all drum will have worm problems. They act as a host to the parasite and it just depends on If the area they stick around has a high parasite content or not. Also have had trout with tons of worms. I've had sheepshead and it wasn't bad just tricky to clean. I catch enough trout (which I prefer, flounder is #1) to not need to keep other fish, but I do keep a supply of reds on the halfshell for the pit. I would rather eat a 12-14inch trout than a 3lber any day, I like my fish just thin enough to have a good crisp/fish ratio not too much fish. Now blackened speck that's another story!

I really can't see a difference from a 3 lb trout and 14" trout. They both great. 5 lb ones taste good too.

Its not a difference in meat I prefer just size...Some people like thick filets, I like mine somewhat "thin n crispy" if you know what I mean. Btw that palomar knot u recommended has been great, haven't broke off since.

When you are frying the fish.....the smaller [thinner] ones are the best. The 16" and larger are kind of thick for frying, but great size for broling.

Gotcha. Now I wanna go fry some trout.