Favorite fish for hunting/eating

[fjpatrum]

I've seen a bunch of people shooting hogfish, which I've never heard of before, and it got me thinking. What are your favorite fish to hunt and eat? For example, what is hogfish like as far as taste? I know I like grouper, but don't think I've ever eaten amber jack before. Red snapper is good and rockfish is awesome but do people spear rockfish?

For the sake of argument, let's keep it to the smaller fish since there's no way I'm going to be going after any 70 pounders or anything for quite a while (if ever).

Obviously this will be location dependent, but there have to be some consistent favorites, right?

 

[faster7581]

either mahi or AJ for me.

 

[MM Diver]

Hogfish is big in South Florida. Never heard of it until I moved here. It is very good grilled, white meat.

 

[kneptoon]

Hogfish, definitely my favorite

 

[gmanstan]

Rockfish is great, the family seems to love Ling Cod too !!

 

[HonuDiver1059]

Make that two for Rock Fish, Ling cod Cabazon are also great table fare but more difficult to fillet.

Rockfish is great, the family seems to love Ling Cod too !!

 

[DennisW]

I know people that will trade Lobster for Hogfish. I personally like Hogfish more than almost anything else. Although I also like Wahoo a whole lot. Never shot a Whahoo, though.

 

[Hank49]

Hogfish to me is one of those fish that doesn't taste "fishy". Americans as whole seem to prefer this type of fish. Unless you're Asian American.

It's hard for me to gauge which fish I like the most because my wife cooks them differently. It's funny though.....we go out 25 miles to hunt for big snapper or grouper and come home with nice fish. Then my Filipino buddy was here and we went to our supply canal here at the farm and hook and lined about 20 small mangrove snapper. Fry them almost crisp and eat the with a vinegar/garlic dip and garlic rice. mmmmmmmmm

Yellow jack, mutton snapper, cero mackerel...nice. I eat cero as sahimi. My wife calls me "john crow" which is a Belizean term for buzzard.

 

[Wookie]

Up your way, monkfish would be on my stringer. Very difficult to kill, and if they get their teeth on you, you will be very unhappy. Best way to spear them is down, pinning the mouth shut. Be ready for a wild ride if you don't stone it. The meat is like lobster in both taste and consistency. Down our way hogfish is king. It is a flakey white meat with very little flavor of its own. Not very oily, so it isn't high in Omega-3s, but still a very nice fish grilled with olive oil and lemon butter. In the gulf American Red Snapper is the fish to go for. They are making an awesome comeback and I don't think the recreational guys can hurt the population. I stay away from grouper of any species. While good eating, there are only a few left, and I don't think it's right to take the babies. Everyone has a different opinion on the subject, and black grouper are one of the most targeted game fish in the keys.

 

[RickyF]

Tautog, flounder and spadefish here in Virginia.