Ongoing UF Baseball Commentary

When you have reached the point in dressing them to cook that you have the two fillets—you’re looking at two gray pieces of meat kinda quarter moon shaped. Take your sharp knife and trim that off and discard. Your redfish will eat much better (if you were not already familiar with this)

 

Red Fish- is great!

 

Noted. I will check my next fillet!

 

Agree. Cut the vein out and almost all those fish listed above taste exactly the same. They all hang out in the same places and eat the same food. The meat is all very similar in consistency. Flounder is a little softer and more apt to fall apart in a pan, but still tastes about the same to me. We do prefer our drums (all varieties) at the lower end of the slot as opposed to the top, but I also prefer a younger animal in pretty much any meat I eat.

We had a fish fry just a few weeks back and served whiting, snook, flounder, redfish, black drum, and trout. I’d bet money you couldn’t tell me what was what with any sort of accuracy. Same thing a few months prior, minus snook, add sea bass and a few mangroves. In a pan, some may be easier to point out, flounder specifically, but if I prepared several of those species the same way, I doubt very seriously you could identify them by taste.

I use mullet for bait. Even the coonasses don’t eat mullet.

 

Snook is outstanding table fare!

 

I purposely separated two snook fillets to see if anyone could tell the difference at one of our fish frys. Nobody could tell the difference side by side. I have had it blackened and did not find it to really be different than any of the others i mentioned, but have not done a side by side that way. Maybe there’s some different way to prepare it that makes it taste way different, but the way I usually prepare fish, almost all those inshore species taste the same to me. Sheepshead avoid me. I have heard it’s better, it looks a little more pink, but I can’t comment on that specific species since I haven’t cooked it, and the only time I’ve had it was in a mix and matched fish fry, but nothing I ate there stood out from anything else.

 

We caught a lot of speckled trout, flounder, snook, sheephead, and pompano around the Skyway Bridge when I was stationed in Pinellas Park while I was on the FHP. It all was good eating. You had to be aware of the razor gills on snook and the sheephead had almost human looking teeth that could do you some damage. The pompano was a skin fish and for me grilled better than fried. Everything else you just couldn’t mess up if you knew anything about what you were doing.

 

My exact thinking. Said to myself . Had to be a squeeze play. it was not even another thought in my mind. And if it were being done by another team, that's what they would have done. But not us.

 

Snook- is outstanding -a fighter with limited catches off SW Florida- but just a great fish to fight and eating great- grilling simply prepped- Olive oil and blackened pepper seasoning-with medium high heat on grill pretty quick- and man - that is good.

 

Should you be fishing off-shore SW Florida waters-- there are bountiful classic fish to catch and eat. Only went out once with my brother and a buddy but man it was amazing. We stayed out overnight- and did pretty good - best were grouper, a range of snapper and mackerel - plus you see all kinds of marine life- dolphins, sea turtles, sharks, rays- it's stunning out there.
OK- back to Gators baseball.

 

Dude what’s this got to do with ongoing fish commentary????

 

We can go back to talking about UF baseball but therapy bills are going to go up.

 

Hmm ...

 

Maybe a subconscious reference to the season?

 

I neither fry not blacken fish when I cook them.

I can't imagine frying or blackening flounder. The flavor is much too delicate. All you would taste is fried batter or seasonings. Probably why nobody could tell the difference between the various fishes when they were all fried or blackened.

Agree on the teeth on sheepsheads. They eat barnacles! I have only caught them near barnacle encrusted pilings.

When I was a kid (maybe 12 years old) my dad and I ran into a run of spanish mackerel at this small fishing pier on Sanibel Island. Maybe near the lighthouse. We didn't even have to bait our hooks. They would bite on anything shiny. We gave away a lot of fish that day.