BoatBanter.com - View Single Post

Hank

On 1/14/2014 10:35 PM, wrote:
On Tue, 14 Jan 2014 13:11:25 -0500, "F.O.A.D." wrote:

On 1/14/14, 12:17 PM, wrote:
On Tue, 14 Jan 2014 11:57:38 -0500, "F.O.A.D." wrote:

On 1/14/14, 11:50 AM, wrote:
On Tue, 14 Jan 2014 08:22:27 -0500, Hank wrote:

The tilapia I have tasted had an off taste to it. I can't really
describe it but I didn't like it. My neighbor cooked up some wild caught
tilapia for us and you could taste the difference (better). It helps,
too, that he's a pretty good cook.

You can usually catch Tilapia in just about any pond or road side
ditch around here. I am not sure the chemicals in a golf pond are any
better than what they have in Asian farm ponds. I guess they don't
have the anti-biotic load and that is a good thing.
I imagine the people are really worried about them taking over the
lakes.

Sort of like we've taken over the habitat from the woodland creatures,
eh?

The way humans behave towards each other in terms of war, avoidable
famine, spread of diseases, et cetera, I'm not convinced we are the
"higher species." I've seen more cooperation from the squirrels and
raccoons helping each other eat along our tree line than I see from humans.

Tilapia...cichlids...blech. I've pretty much given up eating "fresh
water" seafood, and I'm more picky these days about salt water seafood.
It's too bad because fish has always been one of my favorite "eats."

If you know anyone in Central Florida see if they will get you some
"Specks" (folks up north would call them Crappie). That is a plentiful
native fish in most Florida lakes and they are good pan fish.
In salt water, it is hard to beat a snook but you have to catch them.
It is illegal to buy and sell them.

Yes, I've caught both, and both are tasty. Up here, we buy fresh cod,
halibut, flounder, and salmon, the latter allegedly from Alaska.
Neither my wife nor I much like the taste of striped bass.

When I was a kid, I used to like to catch porgies. As a little kid, I'd
go out almost every morning with a retired printer from whom my parents
rented a cottage. He was a hell of a fisherman. I was too small to clean
the fish, so whatever I brought back, he'd clean while I watched, and
I'd give at least two mealsworth to my mom to cook up. We used sandworms
for bait. On the way back, we'd troll for stripers along a rocky
waterfront and sometimes get lucky.

One of my favorite fish in Florida was whiting, which we thought had a
fine delicate taste. Easy to catch, too. Our neighbor from across the
street, who was from the Philippines, would only take the heads, never
the filets. She made a soup of of them. It drove her husband nutso,
because the soup had the fish eyeballs floating in them, and the sight
of them made him queasy, or so he claimed. Also liked kingfish and
Spanish mack steaks, and all the flounder we caught under the boat docks
at the marinas in St. Augustine. Florida has terrific salt-water
fishing. Up here, in the Bay, it is in comparison mediocre.

When I was up there Rock Fish were still rare and protected.
The best catch was croakers or sea trout if you could get away from
the blue fish. (fishing below Tangier Island on the cliffs)
When we had a decent price on blue fish we would get some but I don't
want to eat them myself. Usually we would just run from them.

Bluefish take a bum rap. They're fun to catch, if you're careful. If you
handle them carefully and cook them properly, they make wonderful steaks
and fillets. More tasty than any of the common cold water whitefish.