Eat your catches?

[ronaultmtd]

I have gotten to the point I don’t carry much on board Lady Luck- the rectangular hatch upgrade takes care of 99% of everything...stringer keeps fish alive until back at launch...in my truck I have the big cooler bag to ice them down headed home...will not eat a bluefish, so I don’t bleed them...love a small blue catfish for the table, smallest legal Striper is OK, but not my favorite..90% of my Stripers are C&R...as are most of the fish I catch...wife is not a big fan of fish, but will eat catfish, Redfish and speckled trout...

[mepps3]

Never thought of using Bluefish for poke! I love tuna that way!

I like to have some fish in the freezer, but depends on the season. In late winter I try to get a few limits of yellow perch. If that doesn't go so well, I focus on loading up on croaker in May-June(Make imitation crab cakes with boiled up croaker fillets). I don't keep much in summer unless I am lucky enough to get a snakehead. In the fall I try to get some white perch, rockfish or crappie. Fried fish sandwiches are my favorite. I also enjoy grilled bluefish. I only keep what I know can eat with my family as they enjoy eating fish. If I am catching a bunch, I will keep a few. If it seems like a slow day, I will release. If I already have enough in the freezer, I will release all.

Most of what I keep is from shore fishing and when I have a cooler. I usually knock the fish on the head and put on ice right away.

[Slobber Bob]

I was wondering what fish people catch to eat?

Just about everything, haha An old coworker of mine used to say "if you starve on the Eastern Shore, you're an idiot".

I'll catch stripers, blues, flounder, tog, sheepshead, kingfish, spot, croaker, specks, snakeheads, red drum, black drum, cobia, puffers, mullet, and silversides to name a few. I've even pan fried up little 4" peanut bunker before after scaling, gutting, and de-heading; tasted just fine. Plus, being on the coastal bays you can gather for yourself oysters, quahogs, razor clams, mussels, limpets, periwinkles, whelks, and blue and jonah crabs (I only keep the soft shell jonahs to eat - the others become tog bait). You can eat dang near anything from the sea if you want.

I picked up 6 whelks on my paddle back to the landing this past weekend. Boiled them for 5 minutes to remove them from the shell, remove guts, chop into quarters, food process into smaller bits, saute in olive oil and a touch of butter with squeezed lemon, salt, pepper, parsley, and a dash of crushed red pepper flakes. Add it to salad or pasta. Fabulous!

[john from md]

Now I see why you are called "Slobber Bob".

[kevinfry]

The family loves blue catfish and Rock.....but my favorite is croaker.
Love Croaker

Tried a lot, specks (good in butter), puppy drum(good but not better than croaker), bluefish(smoked is super delicious), perch(best in tacos), Spot(also good taco fodder)

[john from md]

I like Croaker too but we don't see them during the day around Annapolis too often these days. Not of any size anyway.

[mchottie]

5 years ago they were plentiful late in the season, the past few years they've been scarce.

[tmc3p]

I like croaker too. Hopefully they'll be back this year.

[Absolut]

I was told it's a must to bleed bluefish, but do people bleed rockfish too?

I bleed everything...makes a huge difference. Keep alive until you can cut the gills out, let bleed out, then get on ice immediately.

[Absolut]

Flounder, reds (smallest legal size), small blues, croaker: broiled or fried, on the half shell (look this cajun recipe up if you don't know what it is), fried, broiled or fried.

Cobia - is awesome.

Sheepshead is pretty good on the half shell.

Don't personally care for speck or black drum...in TX the trout are often fairly soft so I don't care for the consistency, and both are often full of worms. Up here may be totally different.

I'd only keep the smallest legal sized rockfish if we end up catching some.

I generally only keep what we can eat within a day, so 2 or 3 tops when we're in the mood to eat some.

[kevinfry]

Fried Catfish sandwich!

[Oldbayrunner]

Mainly the only time I eat fish I catch is when I got on a camping fishing trip otherwise it catch and release... This was a meal with Beer batter fried bluefish receipe I informed Moc about and he prepared this past weekend... BTW Moc, Jeff, Teddy and I caught, blues, reds, flounder, weakfish & specs down in Va Beach this past week. Also saw a cobia.