Thread: Which are DO NOT EAT fish?

Jacks are fine. They have a texture more like pork, but taste like a fish.
While there are "better tasting" fish, if you catch one, why not keep it and cook it up?

I thought the jack I caught last year was fine, I'd plan on keeping any I catch this year as well.

If you want to get fancy, run the meat from an average jack through a food processor with a large onion, a large bell pepper, some celery, and a pack of bacon. Patty it up for great burgers, or form it in meatballs, roll them in a little bread crumb, pan fry them, and serve them over rice with the juice that collects in the skillet. We target jacks a few times a year for these recipes, they are both crazy good.

I looked for parasitic worms in the several remora that I caught last year. There were none apparent, though I didn't check the vertebral column. I'm careful not to puncture the internal organs, particulary the stomach, as I fillet my catch - regardless of the species. I suspect that the idea that they have parasities is speculation, based on their status as scavengers. However, scavenging has nothing to do with whether or not intramuscular parasites (like spaghetti worms) invade a host. Large speckled trout often have them, for instance, and they consume live prey, almost exclusively.

Originally Posted by eym_sirius

I looked for parasitic worms in the several remora that I caught last year. There were none apparent, though I didn't check the vertebral column. I'm careful not to puncture the internal organs, particulary the stomach, as I fillet my catch - regardless of the species. I suspect that the idea that they have parasities is speculation, based on their status as scavengers. However, scavenging has nothing to do with whether or not intramuscular parasites (like spaghetti worms) invade a host. Large speckled trout often have them, for instance, and they consume live prey, almost exclusively.

It is certainly possible that the ones you cleaned didn't have any, but I have definitely seen worms in them, along with amberjack, wahoo, trout, spanish, and many others. However as VG said, they are not a danger to people. If I see a big cluster of them I'll discard that piece of meat but I'm sure I have eaten many of them without ever noticing. Sounds gross, but honestly what is the huge difference between a shrimp and a cockroach?

Correct. There is no rhyme nor reason. Many will have them and some won't. All it takes is the fish to eat one small fish infected with a tapeworm nymph, and they'll have them.

Not every small fish has nymphs and not every large fish is infected with the larvae.

And ANY species, including those fine eating ones we all love can be crawling with them.

Some fish are just more prone than others due to frequenting areas where infected smaller fish are commonly consumed.

I ended up cleaning three big bull reds over the course of the past three days one of which almost 20# and never saw the first worm. Really tasty fish. Not brim or crappie, but good fish. Was hoping to catch one more this morning to take home, but instead of reds it was a school of jacks that came through this morning.

Yeap, I cleaned a Crevalle Jack today for making our canned dogfood, and someone asked about the worms. Confident that there would be some, I flipped over the fillets to show them worms, and to my surprise, there weren't any. Lol

Originally Posted by Pierless

It is certainly possible that the ones you cleaned didn't have any, but I have definitely seen worms in them, along with amberjack, wahoo, trout, spanish, and many others. However as VG said, they are not a danger to people. If I see a big cluster of them I'll discard that piece of meat but I'm sure I have eaten many of them without ever noticing. Sounds gross, but honestly what is the huge difference between a shrimp and a cockroach?

About $6.99 a pound!

This year, I'm going to try:

Cigar minnows, scaled sardines, Jack Crevalle, and bonito..

I'll continue to keep large remoras, large pinfish, large hardtails, etc. Especially when I can't fill the box with pomps, whiting, specks, flounder, spanish, kings, reds, or black drum!

For seasoning, I like to use a little garlic powder and "SlapYaMomma" spice. Good stuff!