On Mon, 20 Oct 2014 20:11:04 -0400, Tom Gardner
wrote:

On 10/20/2014 6:53 PM, Pete Keillor wrote:
Cool! What's the typical catch?

Pretty good in the cooler months, the only time it's worth it. Two to
six good fish per set. Of course, croakers, puppy drum, and sand
trout are good to me. I eat them all. Our best ever was one set of
only 100 yds, when we had Z's all over the place (fish on pull the
floats side to side), hauled it in, and had 10 total keeper specks,
flounder and reds. I sent Brenda for more ice chests, then the wind
died. Never got it out again that night. In the warmer months, you
may never get a bait past the T.R.'s (turd rasslers or hardhead
catfish).


I'll bet you have some good recipes! Croakers, Puppy Drum. Sand Trout,
Specks, Reds???

I keep it pretty simple. Drum and reds are filleted with hide and
scales left on, sprinkle with Tony Cachere's, salt, and pepper, grill
on gas or charcoal about 6-8 min. per side med low heat. Sand trout I
scale and fillet. The skin is too thin to skin reliably. Specks the
same, but they skin easily. Then fry. Croakers, whiting scale, gut,
and fry whole. Reds are also delicious skinned, cut into steaks, and
baked with sliced peppers, onions, and a little lemon in the oven
until they flake. For flounder, my favorite is scale whole fish,
score top side, drizzle with butter, lemon, and seasoning, then bake
in oven.

It's all good. I'll fillet gafftop, fry. Sheepshead are good too,
but it takes a large one to be worth it. Then I fillet them without
getting into the gut cavity. Just remove the fillet and skin. Those
armor plated *******s will make you bleed if at all possible.

Brenda also caught a nice blacktip shark in the surf. I gut 'em,
steak them with a 10" butcher knife, then cut the hide off in donuts
with a small fillet knife.

I've never eaten a hardhead or mullet. Haven't been that hungry. Or
piggy perch / pinfish. Mostly because they're too little to mess
with. I've always thought they'd be good, though, like bluegills in
size.

By the way, if you want to get a youngster hooked on fishing, get a
tiny hook, #10 treble or smaller snelled hook, and put on the smallest
gobbet of fresh dead shrimp you can manage, one split shot, then have
the kid daub around a dock. Guaranteed hookup in seconds on piggys.

One thing I don't appreciate is blackened redfish. Nasty overseasoned
way to ruin a magnificent fish.

Oh, two days later we caught two beautiful reds, one 25", one 26". I'm
looking forward to grilling those. I'll post a picture on the same
heading.

Pete