![]() ![]() Then, rather than sending down a minnow and squid strip (which they will hit sometimes) bait up with a two- to three-inch strip of oily fish like mackerel or bluefish (which they will hit a whole lot more). To catch sea robins (properly called gurnard), go to an area known to hold flounder. The fillets are also small in comparison to the fish’s size, so stick with keeping only the big ones. One downside: the tough skin makes for a difficult fillet job. In fact, they produce tasty nuggets that are quite similar to the meat of the flatfish they like to shadow. When someone reels one up, the general reactions is: “eeeeeew, look that those creepy-crawly legs.” What most anglers don’t realize, however, is that sea robins are not a mere nuisance. These oddballs show up in the Lower Bay and all along the coast, often in areas where flounder are found since they feed on similar critters in similar times and places. ![]() Note - Smooth puffers, as pictured below, are poisonous and should not be eaten - if you catch this variety, toss it right back over the side asap! DO NOT EAT smooth puffers! Photo by NOAA Sea robins have these weird little legs. Last summer good numbers of puffers showed up on the Choptank oyster reefs, the live bottom just north of Barren Island, and the live bottom near the Target Ship, so all should be a good bet right about now. Bottom rigs with number-eight or number-six hooks are best. So the trick to targeting them is to use extremely small hooks. Puffers have outrageously small mouths for their size (armed with a pair of buck teeth that will scallop out a chunk of your skin if you get too close). Added bonus: no matter how young or old an angler may be, when these guys start puffing up it’s hard not to grin and giggle. Puffers have rugged skin that’s tough to slice through, but once you remove the finger-sized fillets from either side of the back you’ll find that these “blow toads” have sweet white meat that’s delicious. He’ll grunt and snap at you, too, but don’t let this odd behavior deter you. ![]() Northern Puffer Fishĭrop a bottom rig baited with bloodworm around structure or live bottom for spot or croaker, and occasionally you’ll reel in a softball-sized critter who can puff up to become more like a volleyball. Inflate your spirits by fishing for puffer fish. In all cases, note that they like bright offerings that mimic silversides and bull minnow. Small spoons are also effective lizard baits. Bring along an ultralight set-up and fish a two- to three-inch twister tail on an eighth- or a quarter-ounce head (more or less a large crappie-sized offering). Lizard fish can be easily targeted simply by down-sizing those same lures you catch them on by accident, including soft plastics and plugs fished near bottom in grassy areas and around shallow oyster bars. You’ll need to find big ones or keep quite a few to make a meal because the fillets are long and skinny, just like the fish, and look out for the pin bones running through the middle at the fish’s aft end. That’s too bad, because they have a firm white meat a’ la flounder which fries up nicely. What of it? Photo by Photo by Diego Delso, CC BY-SA delso.photo Lizard FishĬommon from Point Lookout south and caught with some regularity when salinity levels are high up into the Middle Chesapeake zone, few anglers have ever dropped a lizardfish into the cooler. Okay, so lizard fish might not win any beauty contests. If you’re looking for a change of pace at the dinner table, consider keeping one of these zany critters the next time one leaps on your line. And in all of these cases, though most anglers toss them back as “trash fish” they are actually quite tasty. And while there’s a long list of Chesapeake Bay species we target with regularity - ranging from rockfish to redfish - there’s also a long list of crazy catches we make once in a blue moon that may be “incidental,” but are also downright exciting. One of the coolest things about Chesapeake Bay fishing is that you just never know what will bite.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |