Spanish are in

[phatdaddy]

spring is offically here, these guys started showing up middle of this week. caught 20 in about 45 minutes of trolling, but only these 5 were legal (12 inches) i am not a big fan on eating them, i will put them in the crab trap or turn them into a grouper later on. you guys up north hang on its on the way.....

http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/oo214/gls216/2009_03220001.jpg

[THEFERMANATOR]

I need to get out and get a few. I personally like to eat em myself, but that's just me. I IMEDIATELY put them on ice and filet em out as soon as possible. Cut them in half to remove the boney strip down them and get the blood strip out. Then soak em in salt water overnight in the fridge and fry em up in corn meal. My other half HATES gamet tasting fish. but LOVES to eat fried SPANISH MACKS.

[phatdaddy]

i will try the salt water trick, thanks

[labii]

Phat , how far south are you ?

[tsubaki]

And what's the water temp?
You got them from the Gulf or Atlantic?

[phatdaddy]

I'm on the northern gulf coast, 100 miles east of pensacola. water temp hit the magic 68.5*
pompano should be next @ 70*

[tsubaki]

Thanks, thought I'd track them up the coast.
Anyway I'll keep an eye out, thought we had several weeks before they get here.
Like FERM said, filleted and fried.

[Blue_Runner]

Fried is good. I like grilled too. It is less trouble than fried.
http://www.wellcraftv20.com/community/showthread.php?t=10133&highlight=spanish

[willy]

nice Phat looks like light tackle fun:clap:

[Blue_Runner]

Just think, we usually b!tch and gripe over illegal immigrants be all of a sudden we are happy to see the spanish show up.

:sun:

How far north do they go? A google search yielded some results for migration patterns on the east coast and said as far north as cape cod. I never hear any of the yanks on here talking about Spanish....its nornally us southern folk from NC on down to FL.

P.S. They'll be here by the 3rd week of April. About 1 - 2 weeks after I visit :nut:

[Steplift 72']

I need to get out and get a few. I personally like to eat em myself, but that's just me. I IMEDIATELY put them on ice and filet em out as soon as possible. Cut them in half to remove the boney strip down them and get the blood strip out. Then soak em in salt water overnight in the fridge and fry em up in corn meal. My other half HATES gamet tasting fish. but LOVES to eat fried SPANISH MACKS.

Sort of starting to look like the recipe section so I'll chime in. We love Spanish when prepared right. There are fish you can't go wrong with, Red Snapper is an example....but the limit is 2 so you have to get more creative with the lesser species......

I always fillet and strip out the bony part and bloody strip like THEFERMANATOR, then place them in a bowl of icy salty water till brought inside. We marinade them in Italian Dressing and grill them basted with garlic salt and butter.......

If they go into the freezer, they've already soaked in the salt water. When you take the fillets out to thaw, then put them in the refrigerator in a bowl of Italian Dressing and go from there.

Try this before they go in the crab trap, we use the carcass of filleted spec's and sand trouts for the crab traps. I've found that the fish with oily flesh like Spanish work best grilled. Hey, you Florida guys eat Smoked Mullet and we use those for Redfish bait........In fact we can trade a 12" Mullet for a 30" Redfish on most days.

[phatdaddy]

between you guys & vic, i guess i will revisit my spanish recipes. the taste is not that bad, but the texture of the meat is mushy to me, not flaky. maybe that is what the salt water does, tighten it up.
on the subject of mullet, i think this part of the gulf is the only ones to eat them. down south, tampa? on south they think we're crazy.
on redfish, i think the smaller , the better.

[tsubaki]

They showed up this week at Jacksonville.
Fernandina (just north of Jacksonville) is showing temps at 70 degrees.
We are still between 61 to 64, so it will be a little while.

[tsubaki]

phat, the Spanish are the easiest ones to fool with.
Fillet, leave the skin on, dip in the corn meal and fry when the grease is about to burn. DONE, MAN!
If they are mushy, they been in water too long or the grease wasen't hot enough or something.
Mullet is great till it is in the freezer, then the crab trap. Now smoked is a different story, mustard or tomato base, painted on just to dry the sauce into the meat! GOD it's been a coon's age since I've had that!
Oh yeah the bass, when they get over 16", they are crap.
12 to 14 inches taste best but the DNR put a stop to that!

[Steplift 72']

between you guys & vic, i guess i will revisit my spanish recipes. the taste is not that bad, but the texture of the meat is mushy to me, not flaky. maybe that is what the salt water does, tighten it up.
on the subject of mullet, i think this part of the gulf is the only ones to eat them. down south, tampa? on south they think we're crazy.
on redfish, i think the smaller , the better.
The only place I've ever seen mullet on the menu is the Florida Panhandle. They always told me the sand bottom over there makes the mullet more tasty. I know we don't eat them here, but there's a big local commercial fishery netting them each fall in the lower Calcasieu River. Makes me wonder where they're going and who's eating them.....not around here.

[phatdaddy]

strange how locale makes different fish rank different on the food chain. up north they love bluefish, down here, grind em up for chum. i agree with you though, i think the different fish taste according to their food supply.

being from louisiana, you probably fish for sac-o-let(sp?) & gas-pa-goo(sp?). i worked in N.O. for 6 months and the locals went fishing for them every chance they had.

[Steplift 72']

strange how locale makes different fish rank different on the food chain. up north they love bluefish, down here, grind em up for chum. i agree with you though, i think the different fish taste according to their food supply.

being from louisiana, you probably fish for sac-o-let(sp?) & gas-pa-goo(sp?). i worked in N.O. for 6 months and the locals went fishing for them every chance they had.

Sac-a-lait YES. That's a local name for White Perch, it doesn't get much better than that.

Gas-per-goo NO. That's a freshwater drum found in the ugliest, nastiest water like drainage canals.

[phatdaddy]

i believe white perch in north florida is crappie or if you are north of I-10 "croppie" or east of the Suwanee river "speckled perch".

if people in La can't find a way to make it taste good, it must really be a nasty fish. i loved working over there. never had a bad meal anywhere. and usually the worst looking the place was on the outside, the better the food.

also worked in ocean springs ms, only place i ever saw anyone put french dressing on pizza.........

[Steplift 72']

i believe white perch in north florida is crappie or if you are north of I-10 "croppie" or east of the Suwanee river "speckled perch".

if people in La can't find a way to make it taste good, it must really be a nasty fish. i loved working over there. never had a bad meal anywhere. and usually the worst looking the place was on the outside, the better the food.

also worked in ocean springs ms, only place i ever saw anyone put french dressing on pizza.........

No fishing this weekend! It's been blowing 20 - 30 for days now. Guess I shouldn't complain with the beating that tornadoes have given the folks 200 miles north across the US.

Down around New Orleans, if you don't see a little rotten wood or peeling paint, the restaurant probably isn't worth stopping. Another tip to pass them by is if they have to advertise on the interstate.

[spareparts]

BR, Charlestonfishing.com has reports of tehm showing up around here

[Blue_Runner]

Spare, I can confirm those reports. We went down Friday night for a short weekend to fish out of Murrell's inlet sc. It was RUFF but we fished until 1 pm on Saturday catching about 7 or 8 spanish and 5 blues. Sunday it was RUFFER so we hit the surfside pier while the girls hit the beach next to the pier. No spanish were being caught off the pier but it was only because no one was trying for them. I sent out a gold hook rig and caught several blues before finally catching a small spanish @12.5 inches. It was slow so I gave up the jigging and opted for fresh shrimp on the bottom and caught a couple whiting. My buddy Chad had a nice hit on his shrimp which turned out to be a 2.5 lb weakie which was the talk of the pier. It was nice to be on "solid ground" during a blow and still get to fish. I cut my saltwater teeth on the planks and this was the first time in quite a while fishing from the pier. Fried about 20 fish last night consisting of bluefish, spanish, whiting and the summer trout not too bad for SNOTTY weather fishing! I've done worse!

[charlie_the_tuna]

nice Phat looks like light tackle fun:clap:


sh!t willy, i was just thinking the same thing. a little 4 or 6 pound spinning outfit and you got yourself a fun afternoon.
i wish we got them up here.

[phatdaddy]

ct, your right, a lot of fun on light tackle. a lot of guys will anchor up on a flat where it drops off to 6 to 8 ft and throw out chopped up minnows to get em started, then fly fish for them. they are pretty toothy so a good leader or small wire helps.

[Blue_Runner]

They sure are fun on a light rod. I used to jig the homemade sabiki rigs on the pier with coffe straws over multiple long shank gold hooks in the spring. I caught 5 keepers (12+ in.) at one time once and multiple 3 bangers. You had to reel fast or the sharks would have a nice lunch.

[randlemanboater]

We went out Saturday out of Shalotte Inlet, NC after seeing and hearing reports of the Spanish jumping in the boat, there was one charter that had 70 of em the week before.

We got 2.

All the chatter on the VHF was how they were killing them the day before but no one was getting any the day we went.....just my luck.

[Blue_Runner]

Spanish are wacky in that the tide, sunlight and weather (& bait) play a big role in where they will be. The best you can do is try and it sounds like you must have done something right since you got a couple. When we fried them everybody liked the blues better any way. I like my Spanish grilled the same day caught.

Did you put some spoons on planers? I use a #2 and adjust the running depth by adding/taking up line. You don't have to let much line out to get your spoon down 20 + feet with a #2. A lot of people say to run a #1 but honestly I rarely catch them on a #1. One problem with a #2 is a small spanish sometimes aren't heavy enough to trip it and you end up pulling him around for a half hour hooked in the bottom lip with his jaw wide open. His belly fills with water and he drowns. When you finally pull him in he is DOA and water pours out of his mouth. So sad for the poor fishy LOL.