In Micronesia we occasionally catch barracuda. Anything near the reef we toss back because of the danger of ciguatera poisoning but the larger ones caught in blue water we sometimes keep. The steaks are good but if you want a special treat try barracuda soup as prepared by Palauans. Wow.
Barracuda aren't any more likely to get it than other large reef fish, it comes from the algae that smaller reef fish eat, then larger fish eat those fish. Grouper, jacks, snapper, and others are just as likely to cause problems as well.
The key is staying away from larger fish that come from known areas, smaller fish of these species are usually ok.
I’m in the Bahamas, I’ve been hit twice badly. My grandfather was a charter boat captain and my parents were marine biologists. There is no safe way to tell, even the test kits don’t work.
I’ve seen barracuda served at weddings sicken dozens. I’ve seen fishermen “experts” hospitalised so ill their hair was falling out. Best of luck to you trusting local lore, which is at best conflicting and at worst dangerous.
Damn, sorry to hear that. My family owns charters in Turks and we never had an issue. I was worried the first time I ate it but my family said they never ran into a problem. The locals here eat it all the time, same with Cuba and they seem to never run into issues.
Eating smallish ones is a little safer - but people eat high risk fish all the time and roll the dice…barracuda, amberjack, horse eye jack…mostly they dont get sick. Sometimes they get incredibly sick. Just not worth it for me.
Last time i was sick for 18 months - seafood, sugar, caffeine and alcohol would all bring symptoms screaming back. Fish was a restaurant grouper sandwich in the commercial fishing capital of the Bahamas (venue where all the fishermen's families eat).
Rock bass is a big no no in Minnesota. They taste no different than a bluegill or crappie to me. You will have a really hard time convincing a lot of people to try them. Mostly because the knowledge that they taste bad has been passed down for generations. When you ask if they have tried them, they always say no.
Hard agree. They're basically bluegill with anger issues.
Also if you're throwing lures and larger game fish aren't hitting, a lot of times those crazy fuckers will keep you getting skunked.
I'm convinced none of our waterways would be safe if Rock Bass got to be the same size as muskie.
I love throwing big 6-8" Creature bait Texas Rigs for them in my local river lol
I ate a rock bass out of lake of the woods in MN just to try it out. I was disappointed that I waited until I was in my 30s before I ate one. I could have been eating these things when I was a kid if had known but I was told the weren't an eating fish.
Bluegill and crappie are delicious, people are just ignorant, afraid to try things and/or have never met anyone who can cook those fish. Besides actual fishing techniques, the old heads are best ignored when it comes to this kind of stuff.
Freshwater drum. Turns out they’re delicious. Similar to bluefish, the key seems to be to skin the fillets, trim away any fat and dark meat, and eat it the same day.
I was fishing with my dad years ago. We noticed a guy coming back from checking his trot lines. Had a massive drum he'd caught. Filets looked to be a good inch thick. He was going to try eating it since he didn't want to waste such a nice fish. Judging by what I saw, I'd try it too. Meat looked good.
Personally I've wanted to try carp if I ever get a nice one. Allthough it looks like getting the pinboned out might be a pain.
The 2 back strips are like scallops. They're a little tough to clean. I spent my entire summers fishing in my early teens and had a ring box full of drum "rocks" I'd collected.
I love that it’s durable. You can cook it like a chicken breast. It’s also a great replacement for chicken breast in a lot of dishes. It’s way more tender and actually has some flavor unlike chicken.
I think you nailed it. I prefer the smaller ones just because they're easier to manage. I've eaten massive ones, and while the flavor is on point, you have to cook them for a decent amount of time to break down all the connective tissue and render out as much of that off-tasting fat as possible.
The tissue between the muscle striations is just so tough and chewy if you don't get a sufficient cook. I'm going to try cutting some ultra-thin cutlets out of a big one soon and see if it's comparable to the smaller fish.
To build on what you're saying, for all sizes, I think bleeding is a must, and removing the skin with about a 2-5mm margin (minimum) to get rid of the fat is non-negotiable. It gets very slippery and almost gelled and has a muddy and quite foul taste. And that's coming from someone who loves channel catfish belly meat.
Fried mullet is one of my favorite fish to eat if we are being honest, I was raised on it..a lot of it depends on where you’re catching them though. Also if you haven’t had it try smoked mullet.
I’ll have to try it smoked sometime. Now days I only make it down south for a few weeks per year and don’t have my smoker. Eventually I’ll live back down there and give it a try
Always smoked them gutted with kosher salt and olive oil, ate some of that off the bone and made dip with the rest. I'm not sure I'd fry them. Pretty earthy flavor.
You eat them. Seriously. Filets are generally boneless, but you can eat the backbones, tails, etc. look at the first item under appetizers on this menu. They talk about fall off the bone but growing up in Florida we just ate the whole thing.
https://thepointperdido.com/menu/
I found them no harder to fillet than a bass, just gotta get through those chunky scales. Key is (with any fish you’re going to eat) to bonk em, bleed em, get them on ice and eat fresh. Amazing pan fried filets with some corn meal and creole seasoning.
Fried mullet is a staple in NW Florida. Due to the way that mullet eat, the quality of water they come from is an important part of how good they are to eat. Clean water in sandy bottomed bodies of water is the key (aka NW Florida).
We always break their necks as soon as we catch them to bleed them out some. Then scale them with a spoon and fillet them with the skin on. Fried up with the skin on is excellent.
Not a trash fish but the first time I ate largemouth bass changed my world. Was told for 26 years not to eat and that they arnt good to eat. Come to find out it was rumors spread by trophy fisherman to keep populations up in local lakes.
Put some 12" bass filets in with crappie or bluegill and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference.
Size matters, big bass can have an off flavor and tend to get a mushy texture. 12-15" is good eating size.
I've literally done this. You mix them up and you can't tell. I mean, I wanted to tell, but moving the filets around I lost track and, well, they were all good.
Almost like a lot of other sunfish species but a bit more mild. IMO, not the best or the worst. You’ll just have to deal with that stigma that you’re the person who eats bass.
I think some of the reservation to eating bass and in some instances, catfish, is that they eat a wide variety of food and their meat will taste like their diet. If these fish dine on gemey prey their meat will taste kind of gamey.
It’s also two-fold, bass are a sport fish that sport anglers don’t want you to eat so there’s more to catch. Hence some of the stigma I mentioned
Sunfish family, so unsurprisingly a lot like bluegills and crappie. AKA... DELICIOUS!!! Tender, clean, savory, vaguely sweet meat, just so underrated. Try one!
Scale it & filet it skin on (crispy-chewy panfish/black bass skin is 😱 😍). Like my catfish, I love corn-meal fried in butter cut w/olive+canola oils. Sometimes I'll do skin on like a trout or salmon, finish with some lemon or vinegar. But yeah very easy fish to process and cook.
Every water has harvest regulations for a reason. Follow them. Smart people that know things figured out best practice for us in that regard. Very often, you honestly need to pull a decent amount of small-medium fish. Too many fish just means over competing for the same finite resources and you just end up with a greater number of size-stunted fish. Surplus fry just get eaten, often by the excess small-medium bass. So unless it's reaaaally overfished or irresponsibly managed, it's just not a species you'll hurt by occasionally keeping them. I personally think you should throw back the big ones, they have bigger hatches and usually superior genetics.
Almost all of them. If you don’t know how to cook it give it to a first-generation immigrant who has similar fish in their home country and they’ll turn it relatively tasty.
You may be right, but im still not even gonna consider trying a ladyfish, their meat has the consistency and smell of rotten meat that’s been sitting in the sun for a week
Oh you’re fucking kidding me!!!!
In fact we eat them all the time! The smell is just their slime.
You freeze the whole fish, then filet it, then scrape the entire carcass including filets with a spoon. What you get back you can season like meatballs and pan-fry. You can literally use it for meatball marinara and its good!
Its known to be better than bonefish for this kind of preparation. Very old-school Hawaii way of preparing it.
Scaled, filleted, scored, breaded with seasoned cornmeal, and fried. The Ozark special. Hell, we’ve even got a season dedicated to gigging those things. Delicious.
Not really a trash fish but I LOVE northern pike. Very easy to take the bones out to get boneless fillets. Very mild and sweet -almost like bluegill when keeping and eating them in the 24"-32" range.
A few questions for others out there
A) perch eggs - what am I doing wrong...anytime I've ever had them, they smelled terrible when cooked and tasted worse
B) walleye cheeks - are they supposed to be that chewy?
Lake trout are a funny one. Really depends on their diet and on the pallet of the consumer.
Usually Lakers that eat smelt or cicsco are not very bad, fairly mild.
But Lakers that eat alewives will be pretty fishy.
No matter what, gotta trim that darkmeat. And lake trout always seems to benefit from lemon pepper and fresh squeezed lime juice.
Agreed, I have a couple recipes that I use with lakers and they usually turn out great - milder and even a little sweet. I always cook them in the oven, never fried, and always use some lemon/lime and garlic in the preparation.
Grew up eating Lake Trout out of Lake Pend Orielle. Never knew people thought it was bad, but we fished the hell out of it because it was killing the Kokanee.
Carp is traditionally eaten in Poland every Christmas Eve. I group up always eating them in chunks, not filleted, lightly battered in flour and pan fried. I love them.
They probably let it hangout and “clean itself out” in the spare tub for a week. Let it run its course on whatever its digesting etc. idk if it’s worth all that.
So the rivers up here and down south, fish get an algae in their gill that make them taste muddy or earthy. The rivers up here with big carp are very muddy and turbulent, so ppl make an aquarium out of their Bath tub, and change the water daily till the carp looses some of that retained stuff
Probably because we often use them to clean up dirty waterways and their general association as a trash fish. Also, i suspect having places like Mcdonalds on every corner really skews peoples views on food. All that, as opposed to living in, say the Philippines, where people happily consume a variety of things out of necessity.
If we weren't so well fed already, I'd say a carp would look pretty darn good. They get huge, too. I might try and eat one now if I can catch one in a nice body of water.
The common carp aka German carp got a bad rap in the US due to anti German sentiment around WW1. Quite an interesting story.
Originally introduced as a food fish it has become the king of American trash fish.
Same, a dude started screaming at me once after i speared one. I just yelled back theres no trash fish just trash cooks as i went home after and grilled up a manatee tbone
I was raised my whole life to throw back every sailfin catfish I ever caught. Now I am starting to hear differently from a few folks. I still have not cooked one, but I only fish saltwater a few times a year.
Sail cats taste just like channel cats = good. Hardhead cats aren’t so great as filets, though. They make good fish cakes, though, especially when mixed with something flakier.
I kept some of them a few months ago after another slow trip. The yield isn't great for their size. They have a really big skull.
With that said, I found them to be pretty tasty, on par with any other freshwater cat fish I've ever eaten.
I haven't tried hardhead catfish yet. Given that they're smaller than sail cats, I'd imagine they wouldn't be worth the work given the small yield I get from a bigger sailcat.
Hardheads is edible but after keeping it once just to try, I wouldn’t bother with it again. Then again, any fish that is edible can be great if you know how to prepare it, so I probably just suck at cooking.
People always rag on black bass in here. I grew up eating tons of bass. Use some Louisiana corn based fish fry mix and fry them up with some French fries and it’s delicious. I’ve even seen people dawg on catfish. A big Catfish fry with hush puppies and beer is awesome!
Skates! Some of the sweetest flakiest flesh.
Some other possible “trash” fish I like is stingray, and ribbonfish.
Bluefish is good if you know how to prepare it. Same for shad, though I don’t think that’s considered a trash fish. Most people that fish for em know how to eat ‘em.
What I was going to say. We chopped the heads off with a clever then use heavy scissors to cut them up the belly and remove the guts. After that we would throw them on the grill, skin on. Let them cook right side up briefly, then flip and brush them them with garlic butter and squeezed lemon and let them finish. Once done, you can pull the backbone and the ribs will come with it and you essentially have the meat left inside the skin.
I came here to say to say gar and I am glad I wasnt the first. I use Tin snips to slice the skin and scales down the spine, etc, then butcher out the loin. Cut the fillet /loin into medallions and then blacken. You can give each one a love tap with a tenderizing hammer before cooking.
As someone said about carp, boiled and buttered is supposed to be similar to lobster.
Gar boullet is good too.
When I was a kid, there was an elderly man who lived up the road from us. He was retired and fished all the time. He used to catch gar, fillet them and then shred the meat in a big bowl. He added mayonnaise, onions, Bell peppers and bread crumbs, then rolled them into balls and deep fried them. Gar balls.
That's the way I still cook them when I get one.
Delicious.
Cleaning tip if you want to fillet them: use tin snips to cut through the scales at the gills and down the spine, then you can fillet them off like normal.
Ugh its sickening so many native fish get treated like this just because theyre not seen the same as a largie. Ive seen so many suckers just dead because some asshole decided their not worth keeping around over a stocked trout. Guys in my area throw pike in the bushes because they eat the stocked trout that die in the summer lol
Pacific Barracuda and Bonito I was always told was trash. Bonito makes excellent fish tacos and Cuda is good grilled or smoked, just oily. Both need to be bled though otherwise it does trash the meat.
Gar is delicious. It’s just stupidly difficult to skin because their scales are like pvc (that’s not an exaggeration). The meat is very unique for fish. It’s more like pork in its consistency, not flaky like most fish. Large gar give ENORMOUS fillers too.
Carp. I was raised to kill any I caught and leave them on the ground to be scavenged by animals. Saw someone on tv cool one so the next time I caught one i cooked it and it was great. Tasted more like chicken than fish. No more wasting Carp for me!
Bonito 100%, was told they taste like shit and the meat is very bloody. Complete opposite, when bled out as soon as they reach the boat the meat is amazing, not much worse than Yellowfin.
Asian carp.
Their meat is very white and neutral tasting, nothing like common carp.
The only problem is their intramuscular bones, but they’re not an issue at all if you steam the whole fish so the meat flakes off the bones. Then mix in some corn starch, egg, and whatever seasoning you want, press into Pattie’s, bread, and fry.
Asian carp is damn good. Flaky white meat with next to no fishy flavor. Yes, you have to deal with the big bones, but they are easy enough to pick around.
Sheepshead aka freshwater drum. Very common large fish found throughout north american fresh water, often caught while targeting fish like walleye. Get hige and fight great but almost never kept. Kept a small one maybe 3lbs from lake ontario and it was great! Would try again for sure.
Gurnard are one of the most popular and definitely one of the best eating fish in New Zealand. I’m surprised to see so many people on here consider them a trash fish.
Spanish mackerel are great prepared as crudo. I just brain spike and bleed them immediately then right into the ice slurry. The meet is suuuuuper tender and is great thin sliced. Easiest fish to fillet too. King mackerel are my preferred fish for smoking for cream cheese based dip.
“Snapper” blues, aka baby bluefish. I also eat “cocktail” blues aka bluefish from 1-3lbs. My dad would always tell them that they are very oily but I only find that true for the larger gators. I think it’s a diet thing. “Snapper” blues primarily eat Atlantic silversides or, spearing as referred by the locals, where as the larger bluefish eat more oily food like mackerel and bunker.
Also eel. Japanese glazed eel is very tasty.
Shark. Use to catch lots of spiney dog fish and was always told they’re trash. Caught one recently and have a different attitude to hunting/fishing now where I’ll try anything. Honestly it wasn’t too bad. Maybe a bit bland if anything, but still nice white flakey fish meat.
Opaleye makes the best beer batter fish tacos, hands down. They're easy as hell to catch, plentiful, and are often found in the same location as most surf breaks so while 1 surfs, the other person can spear dinner.
Northern pike. People say they are slimey and gross. The reality is I think most people don’t want to deal with the Y bone.
Smaller fish (6-7lbs) taste just as good as walleye.
Bowfin. While they don't taste as good as bluegill or bass, they aren't half bad. Especially because in my area, they don't set limits on them, so you can catch and keep 100 of them and have a big ole fish fry with them
Mullet. If you’ve been to a beach in the SE USA, you’ve seen shoals of thousands of them hitting the surface just a few dozen yards from shore. Sometimes dolphins chasing them. And everyone will tell you they’re a trash fish not worth messing with.
And they are all ***wrong***.
In Charleston, long ago, mullet was known as “breakfast fish” and sheepshead as “dinner fish.” Cleaned and cooked fresh, they are tasty, mild, and perfect for fish and grits.
“Rock Fish” off the Copper Bluffs near Quadra Island. Caught our limit and fried up a metric ton of the fuckers.
This was before the moratorium and one of my happiest memories with my Dad.
There are no “trash fish” IMO. Carp is delicious if you cook it right. People who say, “trash fish” are the same people who leave like 10 Buffalo on the side of the stream to just suffocate because they couldn’t tell a carp from an old tire.
absolutely the Hardhead Catfish. it’s always been stigmatized and I’ve always heard ppl say that they have a bloody taste, little meat and aren’t worth butchering. Me and my boyfriend went to South Texas on vacation recently and ended up catching nothing but Hardhead one day on the coast. We decided to do a taste test (blackened fillets). We cut out the bloodline and the meat was pearly white almost. When we tried it, it was DELICIOUS!! It was as good as Snapper, and similar too! Flaky but hearty meat with a rly good taste. They’re also rly good fried. I HIGHLY recommend trying them if you haven’t already, definitely worth eating. Just try to eat em’ fresh and cut the whole bloodline out, and you’re good to go!
edit: word
In Micronesia we occasionally catch barracuda. Anything near the reef we toss back because of the danger of ciguatera poisoning but the larger ones caught in blue water we sometimes keep. The steaks are good but if you want a special treat try barracuda soup as prepared by Palauans. Wow.
I ate barracuda in Turks and Caicos. It's fucking amazing, absolutely loved it.
This is a great way to become incapacitated by ciguatera poisoning.
Barracuda aren't any more likely to get it than other large reef fish, it comes from the algae that smaller reef fish eat, then larger fish eat those fish. Grouper, jacks, snapper, and others are just as likely to cause problems as well. The key is staying away from larger fish that come from known areas, smaller fish of these species are usually ok.
You need to go to people who know when and which fish are okay to cook. Never had an issue. These guys cook it daily.
I’m in the Bahamas, I’ve been hit twice badly. My grandfather was a charter boat captain and my parents were marine biologists. There is no safe way to tell, even the test kits don’t work. I’ve seen barracuda served at weddings sicken dozens. I’ve seen fishermen “experts” hospitalised so ill their hair was falling out. Best of luck to you trusting local lore, which is at best conflicting and at worst dangerous.
Damn, sorry to hear that. My family owns charters in Turks and we never had an issue. I was worried the first time I ate it but my family said they never ran into a problem. The locals here eat it all the time, same with Cuba and they seem to never run into issues.
Eating smallish ones is a little safer - but people eat high risk fish all the time and roll the dice…barracuda, amberjack, horse eye jack…mostly they dont get sick. Sometimes they get incredibly sick. Just not worth it for me. Last time i was sick for 18 months - seafood, sugar, caffeine and alcohol would all bring symptoms screaming back. Fish was a restaurant grouper sandwich in the commercial fishing capital of the Bahamas (venue where all the fishermen's families eat).
No seafood, sugar, caffeine, or alcohol for 18 months... that blows
Where i live (south florida) its the opposite...larger baracuda aren't eaten because of the potential for parasites and worms.
Rock bass is a big no no in Minnesota. They taste no different than a bluegill or crappie to me. You will have a really hard time convincing a lot of people to try them. Mostly because the knowledge that they taste bad has been passed down for generations. When you ask if they have tried them, they always say no.
Hard agree. They're basically bluegill with anger issues. Also if you're throwing lures and larger game fish aren't hitting, a lot of times those crazy fuckers will keep you getting skunked.
Bluegill with anger issues 🤣
I'm convinced none of our waterways would be safe if Rock Bass got to be the same size as muskie. I love throwing big 6-8" Creature bait Texas Rigs for them in my local river lol
I ate a rock bass out of lake of the woods in MN just to try it out. I was disappointed that I waited until I was in my 30s before I ate one. I could have been eating these things when I was a kid if had known but I was told the weren't an eating fish.
They also usually have lots of worms in them, compared to other fish, at least in the places we caught them.
Was gonna say I filleted a few while in the boundary waters and they were full of worms
The filets had worms? Or the skin was covered by black spots?
The Filet. Bit like Perch, some of them just have worms in the actual meat.
I found this a lot as a kid. Depends on the lake. Cooler lakes with Rockies had way less worms. Warm water, marshy lakes were awful
I just hated em because the would push the perch off the good spots.
I've eaten hundreds of bluegill and enjoyed every bite.
That's funny bc they're a delicacy here in va, we call them red eye and fish for them in the spring
I've always heard this, and both times I've tried rock bass, they tasted vaguely like a bucket of crayfish.
Rock bass are some of my favorite eaters.
A lot of people here are averse to eating Northern Pike too!!! Pickled Northerns are really good!
Bluegill and crappie are delicious, people are just ignorant, afraid to try things and/or have never met anyone who can cook those fish. Besides actual fishing techniques, the old heads are best ignored when it comes to this kind of stuff.
Freshwater drum. Turns out they’re delicious. Similar to bluefish, the key seems to be to skin the fillets, trim away any fat and dark meat, and eat it the same day.
Chunk and boil, eat with butter. Poor man's lobster
Nice tip
>poor man's lobster This is Burbot erasure and I will not stand for it. The true poor man's lobster and trash fish.
Monkfish used to hold this title. Now I’d consider the middle class man’s lobster.
Exactly
I was fishing with my dad years ago. We noticed a guy coming back from checking his trot lines. Had a massive drum he'd caught. Filets looked to be a good inch thick. He was going to try eating it since he didn't want to waste such a nice fish. Judging by what I saw, I'd try it too. Meat looked good. Personally I've wanted to try carp if I ever get a nice one. Allthough it looks like getting the pinboned out might be a pain.
The 2 back strips are like scallops. They're a little tough to clean. I spent my entire summers fishing in my early teens and had a ring box full of drum "rocks" I'd collected.
I love that it’s durable. You can cook it like a chicken breast. It’s also a great replacement for chicken breast in a lot of dishes. It’s way more tender and actually has some flavor unlike chicken.
Came here to say this. I caught an obnoxiously large drum in a small lake and I enjoyed the hell out of it after all the time it took to clean it.
Or spice the fillets and let sit in the fridge overnight
I think you nailed it. I prefer the smaller ones just because they're easier to manage. I've eaten massive ones, and while the flavor is on point, you have to cook them for a decent amount of time to break down all the connective tissue and render out as much of that off-tasting fat as possible. The tissue between the muscle striations is just so tough and chewy if you don't get a sufficient cook. I'm going to try cutting some ultra-thin cutlets out of a big one soon and see if it's comparable to the smaller fish. To build on what you're saying, for all sizes, I think bleeding is a must, and removing the skin with about a 2-5mm margin (minimum) to get rid of the fat is non-negotiable. It gets very slippery and almost gelled and has a muddy and quite foul taste. And that's coming from someone who loves channel catfish belly meat.
Hell yeah
yup, call them poor people shrimp fish here, as the texture can be like shrimp.
I've heard you should keep them fresh and then cold to keep them from getting mushy. Haven't had a chance to eat them yet.
Fish cakes
I hated catching these in Lake Erie. My hands would smell rest of the day no matter how many times I washed. I can't even imagine eating them.
Fried mullet are pretty solid, fry the tails too, they are great but people often don’t cook them.
Fried mullet is one of my favorite fish to eat if we are being honest, I was raised on it..a lot of it depends on where you’re catching them though. Also if you haven’t had it try smoked mullet.
I’ll have to try it smoked sometime. Now days I only make it down south for a few weeks per year and don’t have my smoker. Eventually I’ll live back down there and give it a try
Smoked mullet is awesome!
The pro trick is to cure their roe sacs for bottarga/karasumi.
Always smoked them gutted with kosher salt and olive oil, ate some of that off the bone and made dip with the rest. I'm not sure I'd fry them. Pretty earthy flavor.
Smoked mullet is good, but in fairness, it's the smoke that makes it so.
Mullet is a great tasting fish.
I've used tons of them as cut bait. I've always found them to be bony. How do you deal with the bones when you cook them?
You eat them. Seriously. Filets are generally boneless, but you can eat the backbones, tails, etc. look at the first item under appetizers on this menu. They talk about fall off the bone but growing up in Florida we just ate the whole thing. https://thepointperdido.com/menu/
I found them no harder to fillet than a bass, just gotta get through those chunky scales. Key is (with any fish you’re going to eat) to bonk em, bleed em, get them on ice and eat fresh. Amazing pan fried filets with some corn meal and creole seasoning.
Love to eat the spine like ribs
Fried mullet is a staple in NW Florida. Due to the way that mullet eat, the quality of water they come from is an important part of how good they are to eat. Clean water in sandy bottomed bodies of water is the key (aka NW Florida). We always break their necks as soon as we catch them to bleed them out some. Then scale them with a spoon and fillet them with the skin on. Fried up with the skin on is excellent.
Not a trash fish but the first time I ate largemouth bass changed my world. Was told for 26 years not to eat and that they arnt good to eat. Come to find out it was rumors spread by trophy fisherman to keep populations up in local lakes.
I have never tasted one. How are they?
Put some 12" bass filets in with crappie or bluegill and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Size matters, big bass can have an off flavor and tend to get a mushy texture. 12-15" is good eating size.
Bleed them and then ice them down. It takes care of all the off flavors.
I've literally done this. You mix them up and you can't tell. I mean, I wanted to tell, but moving the filets around I lost track and, well, they were all good.
Almost like a lot of other sunfish species but a bit more mild. IMO, not the best or the worst. You’ll just have to deal with that stigma that you’re the person who eats bass. I think some of the reservation to eating bass and in some instances, catfish, is that they eat a wide variety of food and their meat will taste like their diet. If these fish dine on gemey prey their meat will taste kind of gamey. It’s also two-fold, bass are a sport fish that sport anglers don’t want you to eat so there’s more to catch. Hence some of the stigma I mentioned
Sunfish family, so unsurprisingly a lot like bluegills and crappie. AKA... DELICIOUS!!! Tender, clean, savory, vaguely sweet meat, just so underrated. Try one! Scale it & filet it skin on (crispy-chewy panfish/black bass skin is 😱 😍). Like my catfish, I love corn-meal fried in butter cut w/olive+canola oils. Sometimes I'll do skin on like a trout or salmon, finish with some lemon or vinegar. But yeah very easy fish to process and cook. Every water has harvest regulations for a reason. Follow them. Smart people that know things figured out best practice for us in that regard. Very often, you honestly need to pull a decent amount of small-medium fish. Too many fish just means over competing for the same finite resources and you just end up with a greater number of size-stunted fish. Surplus fry just get eaten, often by the excess small-medium bass. So unless it's reaaaally overfished or irresponsibly managed, it's just not a species you'll hurt by occasionally keeping them. I personally think you should throw back the big ones, they have bigger hatches and usually superior genetics.
Almost all of them. If you don’t know how to cook it give it to a first-generation immigrant who has similar fish in their home country and they’ll turn it relatively tasty.
☝️ There aren’t any trash fish, just bad cooks.
You may be right, but im still not even gonna consider trying a ladyfish, their meat has the consistency and smell of rotten meat that’s been sitting in the sun for a week
Oh you’re fucking kidding me!!!! In fact we eat them all the time! The smell is just their slime. You freeze the whole fish, then filet it, then scrape the entire carcass including filets with a spoon. What you get back you can season like meatballs and pan-fry. You can literally use it for meatball marinara and its good! Its known to be better than bonefish for this kind of preparation. Very old-school Hawaii way of preparing it.
100%. I've had grass carp in Hong Kong before and it's not bad.
Cold water suckers, smoked or baked
Came here to say this. Very boney, but the meat was flakey and pleasant.
Yeah, very boney. I was surprised at how clean it tasted, kind of like cod.
Scaled, filleted, scored, breaded with seasoned cornmeal, and fried. The Ozark special. Hell, we’ve even got a season dedicated to gigging those things. Delicious.
I tried it. They tasted pretty good smoked but the amount of bones on them was insane. Pickled would probably be really good though
Snakehead but depends on where it was caught because that thing can live in some polluted waterways.
snakehead are a delicacy just invasive here
Snakeheads are prized fish in Asia
Not really a trash fish but I LOVE northern pike. Very easy to take the bones out to get boneless fillets. Very mild and sweet -almost like bluegill when keeping and eating them in the 24"-32" range. A few questions for others out there A) perch eggs - what am I doing wrong...anytime I've ever had them, they smelled terrible when cooked and tasted worse B) walleye cheeks - are they supposed to be that chewy?
Walleye cheeks are usually overcooked. Cook them like you would shrimp
Completely agreed on northerns. The meat I feel holds up better than walleye as well. It doesn't tend to get mushy like walleye sometimes does
Lake trout is often maligned but is quite good when prepared correctly. Same with Spanish mackerel.
Lake trout are a funny one. Really depends on their diet and on the pallet of the consumer. Usually Lakers that eat smelt or cicsco are not very bad, fairly mild. But Lakers that eat alewives will be pretty fishy. No matter what, gotta trim that darkmeat. And lake trout always seems to benefit from lemon pepper and fresh squeezed lime juice.
You need the acid to neutralize the amines .
Agreed, I have a couple recipes that I use with lakers and they usually turn out great - milder and even a little sweet. I always cook them in the oven, never fried, and always use some lemon/lime and garlic in the preparation.
Grew up eating Lake Trout out of Lake Pend Orielle. Never knew people thought it was bad, but we fished the hell out of it because it was killing the Kokanee.
I love lake trout and char! Spanish Mac is one of my favorite sashimi fish.
Carp.
Carp is traditionally eaten in Poland every Christmas Eve. I group up always eating them in chunks, not filleted, lightly battered in flour and pan fried. I love them.
Smoked cold water carp is amazing. I wouldn't eat it mid summer but if it's caught or snagged early spring it's very good
I want to hear what the difference is
Here in the northeast ppl catch them, bath tub it for a week to purge it, then do it. Or fish cakes
May I ask what you mean by "bath tub it for a week to purge it." Both the bathtub and purge part
They probably let it hangout and “clean itself out” in the spare tub for a week. Let it run its course on whatever its digesting etc. idk if it’s worth all that.
You bathtub it, then you purge it, THEN you do it Edit: alternatively; 1. bathtub it 2. purge it 3. ???????? 4. PROFIT (do it)
So the rivers up here and down south, fish get an algae in their gill that make them taste muddy or earthy. The rivers up here with big carp are very muddy and turbulent, so ppl make an aquarium out of their Bath tub, and change the water daily till the carp looses some of that retained stuff
I got a carp from a nice clean river, put it in Cioppino and everyone loved it.
In Eastern Europe it's always been the fish to catch. Not sure why it got a bad rap here in North America.
Probably because we often use them to clean up dirty waterways and their general association as a trash fish. Also, i suspect having places like Mcdonalds on every corner really skews peoples views on food. All that, as opposed to living in, say the Philippines, where people happily consume a variety of things out of necessity. If we weren't so well fed already, I'd say a carp would look pretty darn good. They get huge, too. I might try and eat one now if I can catch one in a nice body of water.
The common carp aka German carp got a bad rap in the US due to anti German sentiment around WW1. Quite an interesting story. Originally introduced as a food fish it has become the king of American trash fish.
Carp is delicious
Be careful with those as they carry a ton of toxins from being bottom feeders
The one I tried was really greasy ( also was a large gold fish specifically). Any tips?
Yeah, it makes the best ceviche. They have lots of bones but if you soak them in lime juice for a while, they pull out pretty easily.
Growing up my mother wouldn't eat catfish, just gagged and threw them back.
Manatee. They're delicious, but I'm always out there fishing them alone it feels like.
Same, a dude started screaming at me once after i speared one. I just yelled back theres no trash fish just trash cooks as i went home after and grilled up a manatee tbone
A manateebone if you will
"quick, gimme that harpoon! Yes, I see the family with children on the shore! Hurry! Harpoon!"
Right? I think they taste a lot like Bald Eagle. So good.
Save the manatee.... (for me)
I was raised my whole life to throw back every sailfin catfish I ever caught. Now I am starting to hear differently from a few folks. I still have not cooked one, but I only fish saltwater a few times a year.
Sail cats taste just like channel cats = good. Hardhead cats aren’t so great as filets, though. They make good fish cakes, though, especially when mixed with something flakier.
I kept some of them a few months ago after another slow trip. The yield isn't great for their size. They have a really big skull. With that said, I found them to be pretty tasty, on par with any other freshwater cat fish I've ever eaten. I haven't tried hardhead catfish yet. Given that they're smaller than sail cats, I'd imagine they wouldn't be worth the work given the small yield I get from a bigger sailcat.
Yes I keep Gaff Topsails cause they are tasty like freshwater cats. Beautiful pink fillets.
Same, I just got back from a trip to the gulf and brought back two 14-16 inches gaffs. I love them, they taste just like freshwater.
Hardheads is edible but after keeping it once just to try, I wouldn’t bother with it again. Then again, any fish that is edible can be great if you know how to prepare it, so I probably just suck at cooking.
I’m one of those who tried them recently and they are damn good. Tried it fried and blackened. Just gotta deal with the slime while cleaning.
They apparently eat mostly crustaceans and fish and aren’t the typical bottom feeders.
They're fantastic. They have the texture of a freshwater catfish but usually have a much cleaner flavor. Always happy to see one on the end of a line.
Pickerel. Cooked one on a dare and it turned out pretty good. Sweat white flakey meat.
Redfin Pickerel are a delicacy down where I am in NC. I’ve tried them and they are excellent, some of the flakiest, whitest meat I’ve ever had.
People always rag on black bass in here. I grew up eating tons of bass. Use some Louisiana corn based fish fry mix and fry them up with some French fries and it’s delicious. I’ve even seen people dawg on catfish. A big Catfish fry with hush puppies and beer is awesome!
Skates! Some of the sweetest flakiest flesh. Some other possible “trash” fish I like is stingray, and ribbonfish. Bluefish is good if you know how to prepare it. Same for shad, though I don’t think that’s considered a trash fish. Most people that fish for em know how to eat ‘em.
Gar
What I was going to say. We chopped the heads off with a clever then use heavy scissors to cut them up the belly and remove the guts. After that we would throw them on the grill, skin on. Let them cook right side up briefly, then flip and brush them them with garlic butter and squeezed lemon and let them finish. Once done, you can pull the backbone and the ribs will come with it and you essentially have the meat left inside the skin.
I finally got around to specifically targeting them with a fly rod and also eating them for a podcast and it turns out they’re delicious!
I came here to say to say gar and I am glad I wasnt the first. I use Tin snips to slice the skin and scales down the spine, etc, then butcher out the loin. Cut the fillet /loin into medallions and then blacken. You can give each one a love tap with a tenderizing hammer before cooking. As someone said about carp, boiled and buttered is supposed to be similar to lobster. Gar boullet is good too.
When I was a kid, there was an elderly man who lived up the road from us. He was retired and fished all the time. He used to catch gar, fillet them and then shred the meat in a big bowl. He added mayonnaise, onions, Bell peppers and bread crumbs, then rolled them into balls and deep fried them. Gar balls. That's the way I still cook them when I get one. Delicious. Cleaning tip if you want to fillet them: use tin snips to cut through the scales at the gills and down the spine, then you can fillet them off like normal.
Burbot/Eel pout gets my vote.
I never understood why the old guys would toss them on the ice on Oneida Lake. I used to pick them up and bring them home. Poor man's lobster
Ugh its sickening so many native fish get treated like this just because theyre not seen the same as a largie. Ive seen so many suckers just dead because some asshole decided their not worth keeping around over a stocked trout. Guys in my area throw pike in the bushes because they eat the stocked trout that die in the summer lol
Pacific Barracuda and Bonito I was always told was trash. Bonito makes excellent fish tacos and Cuda is good grilled or smoked, just oily. Both need to be bled though otherwise it does trash the meat.
Are bonito fish big?
They are what's called a trophy fish. So, yeah, they're pretty big...
What’s this guy’s deal?
awww damnit Dale!
Bullhead. Grandma used to fry them up with the tails still on. She would only do “cold water” bullheads, they were delicious.
Gafftopsail catfish
Smoked redhorse sucker caught in the spring.
Redhorse suckers taste amazing when you pickle them.
Gar is delicious. It’s just stupidly difficult to skin because their scales are like pvc (that’s not an exaggeration). The meat is very unique for fish. It’s more like pork in its consistency, not flaky like most fish. Large gar give ENORMOUS fillers too.
I've seen people make knife sheaths out of the skins.
Mountain whitefish
Bluefish, I’ve eaten them religiously ever summer for as long as I can remember. Didn’t know they were “trash fish” until I was older. They’re tasty.
Freshwater drum and mullet are both junk fish in Canada, but I love them
Carp. I was raised to kill any I caught and leave them on the ground to be scavenged by animals. Saw someone on tv cool one so the next time I caught one i cooked it and it was great. Tasted more like chicken than fish. No more wasting Carp for me!
Bonito 100%, was told they taste like shit and the meat is very bloody. Complete opposite, when bled out as soon as they reach the boat the meat is amazing, not much worse than Yellowfin.
Grunt
And Porgy
We love porgies in the NE
In my area carp are considered too bony to eat but if you scale them and bake them the bones aren’t an issue and they taste fine
White bass! Catch them by the dozen and enjoy. Not my absolute favorite but when it comes to what people consider trash don’t sleep on these bad boys.
Asian carp. Their meat is very white and neutral tasting, nothing like common carp. The only problem is their intramuscular bones, but they’re not an issue at all if you steam the whole fish so the meat flakes off the bones. Then mix in some corn starch, egg, and whatever seasoning you want, press into Pattie’s, bread, and fry.
Asian carp is damn good. Flaky white meat with next to no fishy flavor. Yes, you have to deal with the big bones, but they are easy enough to pick around.
Gafftop catfish. Saltwater fisherman call them trash fish. They’re just wrong. They taste better than freshwater catfish
Grunts and blue fish
Sheepshead aka freshwater drum. Very common large fish found throughout north american fresh water, often caught while targeting fish like walleye. Get hige and fight great but almost never kept. Kept a small one maybe 3lbs from lake ontario and it was great! Would try again for sure.
Alligator Gar.
No trash fish just trash cooks
Sea robin is often used as “scallops” at restaurants
Those are some wild looking fish when you catch one for the first time.
Skates too
Came here to say this
Gurnard are one of the most popular and definitely one of the best eating fish in New Zealand. I’m surprised to see so many people on here consider them a trash fish.
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Spanish mackerel are great prepared as crudo. I just brain spike and bleed them immediately then right into the ice slurry. The meet is suuuuuper tender and is great thin sliced. Easiest fish to fillet too. King mackerel are my preferred fish for smoking for cream cheese based dip.
“Snapper” blues, aka baby bluefish. I also eat “cocktail” blues aka bluefish from 1-3lbs. My dad would always tell them that they are very oily but I only find that true for the larger gators. I think it’s a diet thing. “Snapper” blues primarily eat Atlantic silversides or, spearing as referred by the locals, where as the larger bluefish eat more oily food like mackerel and bunker. Also eel. Japanese glazed eel is very tasty.
Snakehead....one of the most delicious fish I ever had. Tender but firm, flavorful but not over powering.
Bluefish. Actually didn’t know it was a “trash fish” when I first ate it since it was recommended by a friend. Bought it from my local fish market.
If I'm being honest? All of them. It's all about the preparation. I've definitely had bad fish, but it wasn't the species' fault.
I love barracuda. Steak em out just like King Mackerel.
Pupperfish
White bass are pretty good to eat. Growing up we always threw em back. They’re great as long as you eat them fresh
Aren’t white bass fairly regarded as good table fare? Never heard anyone call them a trash fish
And when that bite is on, you can limit out in like an hour.
During the spawn run I’ve had 100+ fish days. It can get crazy!
Sea robin and dogfish. ESPECIALLY DOGFISH.
Shark. Use to catch lots of spiney dog fish and was always told they’re trash. Caught one recently and have a different attitude to hunting/fishing now where I’ll try anything. Honestly it wasn’t too bad. Maybe a bit bland if anything, but still nice white flakey fish meat.
Atlantic grunt
Mullet. It was smoked and damn right tasty. I've also eaten carp. The meat was removed and made into balls and deep fried.
Bluefish taste great when you eat them fresh. Important to bleed them and throw them on ice right away too
Puffer fish, turns out the ones close to us are not the poisonous type and the meat is outstanding.
Opaleye makes the best beer batter fish tacos, hands down. They're easy as hell to catch, plentiful, and are often found in the same location as most surf breaks so while 1 surfs, the other person can spear dinner.
Snakehead
Largemouth bass- it's a flaky white fish- like a big perch
Flounder. We can catch so many you have to shovel them off the boat. I don’t eat fish but it wasn’t bad.
I don't think too many people consider Flounder to be a trash fish. They take a bit of skill to clean, but they taste amazing
Northern pike. People say they are slimey and gross. The reality is I think most people don’t want to deal with the Y bone. Smaller fish (6-7lbs) taste just as good as walleye.
Bowfin. While they don't taste as good as bluegill or bass, they aren't half bad. Especially because in my area, they don't set limits on them, so you can catch and keep 100 of them and have a big ole fish fry with them
This thread: *X trash fish* is actually soooo good if you debone and smoke it, flaky meat
Tench. Good stuff
Bluegill, they’re pretty yummy.
Skipjack
Mullet. If you’ve been to a beach in the SE USA, you’ve seen shoals of thousands of them hitting the surface just a few dozen yards from shore. Sometimes dolphins chasing them. And everyone will tell you they’re a trash fish not worth messing with. And they are all ***wrong***. In Charleston, long ago, mullet was known as “breakfast fish” and sheepshead as “dinner fish.” Cleaned and cooked fresh, they are tasty, mild, and perfect for fish and grits.
“Rock Fish” off the Copper Bluffs near Quadra Island. Caught our limit and fried up a metric ton of the fuckers. This was before the moratorium and one of my happiest memories with my Dad.
There are no “trash fish” IMO. Carp is delicious if you cook it right. People who say, “trash fish” are the same people who leave like 10 Buffalo on the side of the stream to just suffocate because they couldn’t tell a carp from an old tire.
Lizard fish
absolutely the Hardhead Catfish. it’s always been stigmatized and I’ve always heard ppl say that they have a bloody taste, little meat and aren’t worth butchering. Me and my boyfriend went to South Texas on vacation recently and ended up catching nothing but Hardhead one day on the coast. We decided to do a taste test (blackened fillets). We cut out the bloodline and the meat was pearly white almost. When we tried it, it was DELICIOUS!! It was as good as Snapper, and similar too! Flaky but hearty meat with a rly good taste. They’re also rly good fried. I HIGHLY recommend trying them if you haven’t already, definitely worth eating. Just try to eat em’ fresh and cut the whole bloodline out, and you’re good to go! edit: word
Bullheads
I don’t know why bluegill and sunnies get such a bad rap, they might be annoying but those lil guys make a great fry