Can you eat smoothound?

[stavey]

hey nickh, you say your new to sea angling, have you been coarse fishing before now, or some other branch of angling, or never done any sort of fishing? dont worry about one smoothound eat it if its still up to being eaten,its not your fault as most people who come in to sea angling think eating your catch is the main reason for it. its just the lack of education by those who promote sea angling through magazines etc that are to blame mate not you...

[stavey]

Oooops sorry certain magazines, no not you norm san excluded.........

[Leon Roskilly]

Nick,

 

Sorry if you feel that I might have been a bit short with you.

 

I had every intention of getting down to Folkestone this morning to see if there are any mackerel around, and perhaps some sport to be had with bass, before this weather breaks.

 

But I've managed to get stuck behind this screen for most of the morning, writing letters and answering emails with regard to this plan to get people to eat tope (there should be a small piece in the Times on Saturday, or maybe Sunday).

 

Many years ago, I was fortunate enough to boat a very large sting-ray (it might even had been a UK record at the time). We cut it up and put it in plastic bags, only to be dug into the garden when we realised what it was on our return home.

 

And there have been other fish that I now deeply regret not having returned to the sea where they belong.

 

None of us is born with knowledge, and some of the things we learn along the way are quite surprising.

 

No need to beat yourself up about what has been done, you're wiser now and what happens tomorrow is more important than what has happened in the past.

 

Tight Lines - leon

 

ps I'm still gonna be really pi**ed off with myself for having missed such a glorious fishing day today.

[Norm B]

stavey:

Oooops sorry certain magazines, no not you norm san excluded.........

:cool: Thanks for that. I get lots of letters and e-mails criticising the pictures of dead fish we print. If an anglers catches a good fish and it's caught legally and fairly and it's a good picture, I'll print it, and may even award a prize if it's good enough. I do prefere non-edible fish to be photographed at the waters edge and returned alive but I'm not going to deny any angler his/her moment of fame by refusing to print a picture of a dead fish, (although I'd prefer it to go back if not for the table.)Also, what one man won't eat, another will, and it's not just fish. I've eaten some strange but tasty things in my trips around the globe. We should all try to treat each other fairly and be understanding, I eat bass but other anglers don't, I eat conger, but others don't, so I don't criticise anglers who eat mullet, one of my favourite fish, live and let live.

[sam-cox]

it tasts like sh*t, but you can eat it.

see my post recipe for sting rays and mullet, it also works for hounds.

[Socksy Squirrel]

Hi there,

 

I think I should point out that mullet does not taste that bad. It depends on how it is cooked.

Restaurants have a habit of passing it off as sea bass and you would be surprised what a good sauce and a £10.50 a portion price tag can do to a fish's flavour.

I will try anything once as long as it it is not critically endangered or illegal and it looks like it is worth eating.

One angler taking a few fish of any species makes absolutely no difference in the scheme of things.

Tens of thousands of tons of bycatch and 'inedible' species are thrown overboard or mashed up for pet food, animal feed, fertiliser etc.

Greater sandeels are quite nice to eat and I will often have some if I have too many for bait at the end of the day.

However the vast bulk of the sandeel catch ends up as pig feed.

A fairly nice and naturally sourced food is processed and fed to intensively reared pigs. The animals are killed and processed into bacon, part of which is ground up and injected with water and polyphosphates, covered in breadcrumbs and then fed to our children.

Those whom the gods would destroy...

 

Rant over

[Leon Roskilly]

Socksy Squirrel:

One angler taking a few fish of any species makes absolutely no difference in the scheme of things.

Where the NMC have tagged mullet, a surprising number are recaptured in the same locality more than once.

 

Mullet are a fish that takes 10 years to reach 3lb, the weight at which they first spawn (in cold UK waters).

 

7lb fish are double that age.

 

So, it seems pretty evident that if you have your heart set on catching large mullet, you need to fish at locations where other anglers do not take mullet for the pot.

 

One reason why many mullet fanatics are overly secretive about locations and methods.

 

Where mullet are regularly carried away in plastic bags, the chance of catching an exceptional fish is almost zero.

 

But in relatively 'undiscovered' locations the chances are pretty reasonable.

 

I'd say it makes a big difference, for some species whether hundreds of 'one anglers' take fish.

 

There is an interesting table that shows the tonnage of fish removed from the waters of the South West by anglers on page 48 of the report at IIF Report.

 

For mullet it's 22 tonne!

 

Tight Lines - leon

[sam-cox]

MAFF as it was, didnt bother counting the bass anglers caught. They were bundled in with the natural mortallity rate as it was thought the numbers were so small.

I always thought this was rubish as what Leon said about 100 1 anglers all taking a few fish each.

[chesters1]

i think everythings edible but some dont taste as good as others ,smoking improves the bad and curry sauce improves the worst.

if you can get a fillet of it its edible

 

[ 24. June 2005, 10:42 PM: Message edited by: chesters1 ]

[Guest jay_con]

Croc dundee said " you can eat it but it tastes like

s***"