quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
PAsig asked what we used to catch them. I mentioned the 1/0 circle hook, but I really think that's too small as it doesn't unhook easily.

Growing up bay fishing in Texas, I and pretty much everyone I knew who bay fished with natural bait used Mustad 5/0 Kahle/wide-gap hooks.

I later switched to circle hooks, and my favorites are Owner Mutu Light.

I occasionally had a Mustad Kahle hook bend open on a big fish. I had a few Gamakatsu and VMC hooks break. I've never had a problem with Owner.

I usually used 5/0 Owner Mutu Light hooks bay fishing, but sometimes switched to 3/0 or 1/0 if all we could find were small fish and my kids just wanted to catch anything.

Size 4 or 6 Owner Mutu Light hooks with Gulp corn under a cork are also a great setup to get little kids who don't know how to fish to pull buckets of perch out of a lake.

quote:

Originally posted by maladat:

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
PAsig asked what we used to catch them. I mentioned the 1/0 circle hook, but I really think that's too small as it doesn't unhook easily.

Growing up bay fishing in Texas, I and pretty much everyone I knew who bay fished with natural bait used Mustad 5/0 Kahle/wide-gap hooks.

I later switched to circle hooks, and my favorites are Owner Mutu Light.

I occasionally had a Mustad Kahle hook bend open on a big fish. I had a few Gamakatsu and VMC hooks break. I've never had a problem with Owner.

I usually used 5/0 Owner Mutu Light hooks bay fishing, but sometimes switched to 3/0 or 1/0 if all we could find were small fish and my kids just wanted to catch anything.

With shrimp, I'll use #2, #1, or 1/0 hooks. I'd use the 1/0s if they were big shrimp only. You'll kill your shrimp with bigger hooks, and inhibit them from moving. They'll still catch big fish.

With live baitfish, I'd go up in size. For big croakers as bait, I might go to a 4/0 or 5/0, but for smaller baits, 1/0, 2/0 or 3/0.

For cut or dead bait, you'll go up to 4/0 to even 6/0. They help with hooksets, and a dead bait isn't swimming, obviously.

What kind of hooks? The Mustad Kahle hooks use really skinny wire for their size, and as many 5/0 and 3/0 hooks I had open up, I can't imagine bay fishing with #2s.

I’m sure they could swim better with smaller hooks, but I never had a problem with shrimp dying on 5/0 Mustad Kahle hooks.

I may be misremembering on the circle hooks and may have used the 1/0 or 3/0 hooks with shrimp, but one of the selling points of the Mutu Light hooks is that they are much lighter wire than most circle hooks, which tend to look like they're designed for catching dinosaurs or something.

I live in your town and I have caught those same fish all over Charlotte Harbor.

My dad called them sail cats 30 years ago so that's what I have called them ever since.

They get pretty big. Bigger than the average saltwater cat fish.

Are there any restaurants that specialize in that variety?

flashguy

quote:

Originally posted by flashguy:
Are there any restaurants that specialize in that variety?

flashguy

Sail cats are certainly edible, but most people fishing in those waters are not fishing for them, and prefer trout, reds, and flounder and if they are present, snook or snapper. So many don't keep and eat sail cats, and I've never heard there is a commercial fishery for them. Catfish served in restaurants are almost always farm-raised freshwater fish.

It's not impossible, but I agree it's not very likely.

Recreational fisherman almost universally dismiss saltwater cats as "trash fish" and try to avoid them at all costs and never keep them. This is partly because they don't put up as exciting a fight as trout and redfish. The other reason is because if you keep them, their slime gets EVERYWHERE and is a royal pain to clean.

On the commercial side, it wouldn't be impossible, because there's been a food movement lately to serve "bycatch" and less desirable fish in restaurants (kind of an eco-conservation, waste reduction thing).

However, at least in Texas, that wouldn't make it any more likely to see gafftops on a menu - in Texas, it is illegal to sell most of the desirable inshore fish species if they are wild-caught. Any trout or redfish you see on a menu at a restaurant in Texas is either farmed or from somewhere else. (This is true of land animals, too - e.g., it is illegal to sell native white tailed deer, deer on the menu in restaurants are almost always farmed axis deer.)

While it isn't illegal to sell wild-caught gafftops, there isn't really a legal inshore commercial fishery for gafftops to be a bycatch of.

^^^^^ Just wondered, since someone had commented that they were tasty. I think most catfish served in Texass restaurants come from farms in Mississippi.

flashguy

Cownose Stingray:

Notice the line securing our bait bucket?

And today’s edition of “What the Heck Did He Pull Out of the Water Now?":



I thought redfish, but there were no spots and it seems too dark.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: trapper189,

Whiting/kingfish?

Croaker?

Puppy Drum?

quote:

Originally posted by chbibc:
Whiting/kingfish?

Looking at some pictures on the internet, I think that’s exactly what it is. Thank you!

There are sometimes redfish without spots, but it does not look like a redfish or croaker to me. The whole shape of the fish, the shape of the head, and the shape of the fins are wrong.

I think chbibc’s suggestion of one of the kingfish species (not king mackerel, also frequently called “kingfish”) is spot on.

The barbel is a big clue. I only guessed redfish because it’s the only fish I know we have around here that was even close. I can’t wait to get up North in Michigan this summer. Not once has he caught a fish up there that I didn’t know what it was. I’m just gonna sit there with my Zebco 33 casting a Texas rigged purple worm and the toughest question will be is it a smallmouth or a largemouth. No slime, no toxic spikes, no blood letting teeth.