Favourite Fish



taniwha

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Jun 11, 2009
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Who here fishes?

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This is my favourite fish, Kingfish, pound for pound, supposed the best fighting fish in the world. This one was a couple of years ago out at White Island, and was a 24 kg fish, I was left a bit broken after battling this freight train.
They are voracious predators, just poetry in motion, and are tough opponents. They do get quite a bit bigger than this specimen, but it's still a damn good one.
Last Easter we were holidaying on a shallow harbour, there was a small jetty, lots of baitfish, a lots of Kahawai (Sea Trout) and a good few of these hungry buggers about.
It was brilliant to watch them chase the smaller fish, and even better to try and catch them. First night I had a small fish out as live bait, and a reasonable size Kingfish nailed it, we had a bit of a tussle and he got the better of me.
Two nights later, I had a bigger fish out as a live bait, but having no joy with the Kingfish. My wife was fishing for Kahawai. She and another guy both hooked Kahawai at the same time, he got his in, it was about 35 cm in length. She didn't, the hooked Kahawai was taken by a Kingfish! Suddenly all hell broke loose for her. With only 20lb line on she had to play the fish carefully, and she'd never had anything like this before.
There was a good 20 minute battle with the fish peeling line off, my wife reeling it back in, her screaming at me that her back hurt. Then screaming at me that there was no way she wanted me to take over. More line going out, her reeling it back in, more line going out, rod bent over...
All she wanted to do was see the fish, get it in and release it. I wanted it for dinner!
Eventually she tired the fish out, and got it up to the wharf. It was at that point that I realised that I'd left the gaff back at the house, and needed Plan B to get the fish out of the water. It was a reasonable size around 12 kgs would be my guess, and certainly legal size (over 75cm in length), so I decided that I would try and grab the gill plate and haul it out.
So, with that in mind, I wrapped my right hand with a rag, lay on the jetty, took hold of the trace (also 20lbs) and moved my other hand towards it's gill plate. I could see the hook in the corner of it's mouth, my left hand was about 10 cm was getting hold of the fish, I just needed to turn the fish slightly. I lifted with the trace, and the trace snapped.
The fish rolled over and swam off.
I was promptly kicked and called some names that aren't fit for family consumption.
However, within a couple of minutes, my wife was happy that she'd fought the fish, had seen it, looked it in the eye, and it had won.
Me, I was crestfallen. However the adrenaline was still surging.

A bonus is that these guys are damn good eating and I'm going out on the briney tomorrow to have another crack at them.

So, what's your favourite fish?
 
I live in Ontario Canada and not close to any salt water but that souunds like fun. I will list my favorite too eat and catch. Walleye are a great eating fish with an average around 2lbs but very nice white meat, not much of a fighter though. Smallmouth Bass are considered by some as the best fighter pound for pound in freshwater but still size wise 5lbs is considered trophy in my area. Muskie taste like they sound but are an amazing fighter, full out of water jumps, deep dives, they do everything. My favorite fish to catch though is LakeTrout, great eating with bright orange flesh, good fight and relatively easy to catch if you know where to go. Cheers
 
I usually fish at least twice a week from spring to autumn. I love fishing. Mostly freshwater, on a lake (reservoir). Once or twice I'll ice fish there during the winter.

My fish of choice is a freshwater 'szczupak' (in Polish), I think it's called pickerel ? The *******'s got some sharp teeth, and will snap a line with the quickness, but it's delicious.

My salt water pick would be a striper (or striped bass), and I get those from a small canal off of rocks behind a junkyard or off my boat. Quick story, I keep most of my fish, if they are big enough to not waste my time gutting and cooking. The legal size in MASS on a striper is 28 inches, which is big, but try catching a 22-24 incher, which is big, and throwing it back in. I used to keep them, until..... Couple of Mexican guys got caught at that same canal by enviromental police, and had 5 stripers all under limit. I think it was something like a total of 15 inches missing. They got fined $100 PER INCH! Now that's one expensive dinner...
 
I like to fish. Freshwater exclusively for me.
But would rather eat it though. Favorite is Basa, followed closely by Swordfish.
Used to fish often in my pre and early teens during the summer. Just don't have the time or opportunity nowadays...
 
I'm with you pound for pound nothing beats a kingfish.

I've fished north of New Guinea and caught spanish mackeral, dog tooth tuna, red bass, barracuda, yellowfin tuna, sharks but kingfish still reign supreme.

They never give up. No matter how tired they are they will never roll over. They are dirty fighters. I'm impressed your missus caught one from the jetty. I've never landed one where they can wrap around structure.

Nothing gets the adrenalin going than a soft bite and wind in with a decent kingie still not knowing he is hooked. When he does all hell breaks loose, with the reel screaming.

Man, you've got me all excited. I better go for a bike ride and slow down.
 
A friend of mine and I used to fish during the wee hours of the night at the Cape Cod Canal, from midnight to around 5 a.m., we didn't catch a lot, but they were good times.

My favorite fish to eat are haddock and cod.
 
We're pretty avid fish fans. We usually adopt whatever fish is common where we're living--down here it's been a lot of Redfish, Amberjack, and catfish.

While stationed up in DC, it was Maryland Rockfish.

But in terms of long-time favs, it's probably a toss up between salmon and seared tuna.
 
Swordfish, wild caught catfish, but I am really partial to fresh caught shrimp!Technically not a fish but still seafood.
 
We eat a lot of sea food, at least 3 times a week for evening meals. Its hard to go past - Blue Eye, Atlantic Salmon and Flathead. All sea food is awesome.

My favorite is easily Salmon Sashimi, I have it for lunch 2-3 times per week.
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steve said:
All sea food is awesome.

That I totally agree with.

Here's another short fish story, if you don't mind.

Apart from catching stripers and pickrels, I also catch some eel's once in a while (both fresh and salt). Slimy sucker's, so I put on a sock on my hand to grab them. Anyways, I made my own smoke processor. In my uncle's backyard, I dug out a 5 foot long ditch, about 1 foot wide and 1/2 foot deep. On one end I made a deeper wider whole, and on the other I took a metal oil barrel (clean) and cut out the bottom of it. I covered the middle of the ditch with plywood, placed a metal crossover on top of barrel, hung all the fish from it on a string (1/2 way in the barrel), and covered the barrel with a thick wet cloth. On the other end of my trench I made a log fire.

I kept the fire going for 6 hours. The best smoked fish ever !! My ideal choices were mackerel's and eels. Delicious, but I always had at least 10-15 fish, or it wouldn't be worth the 6 hours.

Sorry for this long winded post, just figured I could share... :)
 
Scott2468 said:
Nothing gets the adrenalin going than a soft bite and wind in with a decent kingie still not knowing he is hooked. When he does all hell breaks loose, with the reel screaming.

Ain't that the truth!

The wharf that the Domestic Tyrant caught her one off it is a great spot because it lays up into very shallow water, and the harbour has a pretty clean bottom, so it's about as close to ideal as possible. As you say, if they get a sniff of the rocks, pilings or anything to run through and bust you off, it's game over.


Here's my 24 kg one that I posted about originally, but somehow was too much of a muppet to get the image to display.
 
How are catfish? I never had any interest in them until lately, when a good friend of mine insists that they are delicious, and fun to catch. I guess we are going after them, I just wondered what anybody else thought of them.
I personally would rather eat halibut than any fish.
All I've caught have been trout, some of them are delicious, much like salmon.
 
Great fish!! You tend to find catfish fried a lot, but it's a very light, flaky white fish that does very well blackened, which is my favorite way to have it!
 
Well, if we catch any, I'll try them. I wish I hadn't read the state advisory that says to eat no more than 4 ounces a month because of PBC contamination where we plan to fish. Scheesh!
 
waldowales said:
How are catfish? I never had any interest in them until lately, when a good friend of mine insists that they are delicious, and fun to catch. I guess we are going after them, I just wondered what anybody else thought of them.
I personally would rather eat halibut than any fish.
All I've caught have been trout, some of them are delicious, much like salmon.
Wild caught catfish are good. I don't really like the taste of farm raised catfish......too strong. When I was younger we used to scuba dive in a local river and spear them. They are like a rabbit, they staystill for several seconds when you shine your dive light on them, just enough time to get a good clean shot.

You risk PCB's with any bottom feeder. Fortunately the ODNR has recently lifted the advisory that they had in effect on our area rivers for 25+ years. Bon Appetit!