working through 100 lbs of cod

A skate is a ray. On the eastern seaboard of the US, Fishermen don't see a lot of use for them. the have sharp teeth and can bite through monofiliment. then you lose your rig.
They can also bite, then dive into the mud, makig it nearly impossbile to pull them up.
When we would pull them up, they normally became "free bait". slice them up, a free substitute for squid.

Commerical fisheries use skate meat for those little fish sticks and mystery seafood lumps you get in restaurants. If you get a dish called "Seafood chowder" or "Seafood casserole" it's likely to have skate and whatever else that has been ground up, pressed and turned into little "tater-tots of the sea".

A long time ago, we fished off of a bridge, near the ocean, usually for flounder or sea bass. We would fish the tides, sometimes in the evening into darkness, depending on the tides.
One time, this guy shows up on the bridge, with a bow, fitted with a fishing reel. He also had a spotlite. His buddy would search with the spolite, when they saw the shape of a skate, he would fire his rig into the water, and pulled up a few skates. I was about 14, in awe of this guy with his bow, skewering his prey.
To this day I wish we had asked him what the hell he did with the skates?

Maybe he needed some bait?
 
Thanks SkunkWerx for the chatter. They sell the wings (half of of the fish minus the body cavity and head) here for 1.99 a pound. I found it tastes a little like crab meat. It's a fairly loose meat.
 
Here in Maryland skate is also cut up with a cookie cutter like tool and sold as Chesapeake Bay scallops. Pieses of skate wing rolled in egg and flour and fried up does taste like scallops.
 
I was told the same thing by an old hand, years ago.
It's not at the top of my list, but floured and fried it aint bad.
Sea Robins are considered a trash fish around here...
I liked them bbq'd until I found out what they were :eek:
 
Yup, that's them.
Green eyed bait stealing boogers that, like catfish, talk back at ya.
The spines on the dorsal and 'wings' are sharp and some folks have allergic reactions to getting poked.
They also grab your hand when you unhook them.
The good news is that you can lip-lock them like a largemouth bass...no teeth.
Fillets, cut in half lengthwise make excellent fluke (summer flounder) bait.

When I first started dating my wife I arrived just as they were taking fish off the bbq.
Nice Italian family...I had to eat.
It was good, but I almost lost it when I found out what I was eating.
Haven't had 'em since :D
 
Ebbtide said:
The fishery has been beat to hell.
And everyone one blames someone else.
Click to expand...

The tragedy of the commons. There's no reward for not taking as much as you feasible can. The solutions involve treating terra aqua just like terra firma and investing in aquaculture. Planting fish and slopping lobsters can be the chores of the next decade. Aquarium/seafood places can customers with facts and food in a more palatable manner than a petting zoo/restaurant.
 
Aquaculture isn't the cure all.
Just look at all the issues with the Wild Atlantic Salmon vs Aquaculture Salmon.
Managing the resource before it is too late would help.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top