Tightening the belt...

Not really a LA report. but it's the closest thing to an upper gulf coast section that is here.

Went out of MS this past weekend. I haven't been out in a couple of months. The freezer has long been empty of seafood delights and I was in no mood to be too particular about what I pulled the trigger on.

With the recent closures of AJ, ARS, etc., the hit list is quickly narrowing. I went out with the intentions of getting mangroves and sheephead to fill the freezer, but they were not cooperating.

After several failed attempts at various locations, with only 1 small mangrove and 1 decent sheephead (and of course seeing hundreds of decent red snapper), I was dropped on a rig with some cleaner water and hopes of finding some better fish.

I ran into one of the bigger cudas I have seen since I moved to the Gulf Coast. I watched as he swam off, with no intentions of pulling the trigger. As I turned to get a glimpse of my surrounding before surfacing, I was caught off guard by another inquisitive cuda that managed to sneak up on me from behind. I hate these fish for that very reason! They sneak up from behind and scare the crap out of me when I turn only to find them 2-3' from my face!

As I flinched, he made his way out, but at a leisurely pace. I thought to myself, what the hell?; and pulled off a perfectly placed shot and stopped him dead. Not a big fish by the standards around here, but my biggest, at 35lbs.

I have been told by many that they are not fit for consumption, but at this point, I was desparate. I broiled a couple of pieces tonight. I was pleasantly surprised! It was not the best fish I have ever eaten, by a stretch, but it was certainly not horrible, at least to the degree that people have made it out to be. Actually, it was rather bland. Not much taste at all, except for the seasonings that I put on it. The texture was nice. Very firm and tight grained. I like fish this way. I don't like mushy.

I took all the appropriate measures to maintain the best quality of the fish, gilled, gutted, scaled, removing the kidney and icing immediatley upon getting the fish aboard the boat; and removing all of the red meat when processing, once ashore. One might be surprised at how much this improves the quality of a lot of the so-called "inedibles".

I will definately take them in the future, when times are lean, as now.

Thanks for the new section Dan!

Unfortunately, I don't have any "glory" pics of fish from MS. My current avatar is the best picture I have from our local waters. I have some friends with some great pictures, but I would of course, have to get their permission.

As for going for a joyride, I have leaned the hard way, that stoning a big fish while freediving on the rigs around here is definitely in one's favor. The water is friggen deep around here, and if you don't get a good handle on the fish, like RIGHT NOW he's going deep only to tear off, or the line is going to have to be cut.

Floatlines are asking for trouble in the rigs. Reel guns are the way to go and one had better know WTF is going on or one of three things is going to happen: the fish will be lost, the gun will be lost or the diver will be lost!

Here you go Dan.

Not the biggest cobe in the world, but it was my first, it's a good picture and it was taken in MS:D

Definitely going to make ceviche with it! I am also planning to try out a few different methods. I kept the collars, ribs, and lower tail section to put in the smoker. I will try deep fry as well.

I forgot to mention that I also took a spade fish on this trip, just to give a try.