I took some time today to smell the roses and they actually smelled like Golden Tilefish .
Ill explain , I get quite caught up [no pun intended] in my work and sometimes pass on opportunities that I mighta oughta took.
I was invited [ strongly suggested , thanks!] to go fishing with my partner on his vintage sportfisher and assemble a few guests that would appreciate the experience of the boat and meeting each other. At the last minute I was able to get 3 guys that I know , who had never spent time together nor had been on a big game fishing boat.
It was a longshot for trolling from the beginning with the water temps in the under mid seventy range but the weather was good , the water was fairly blue with a few flying fish showing and we gave it a good shot .
Nothing was happening on the surface , so we decided to fish for anything we could catch on the bottom , except of course for the endangered Red Snapper in federal waters. I mean , whats the point of even trying with the fish racing towards certain extinction .
After seeing miles of fish on the bottom machine which we are sure were not and could not have been Red Snappers [ or red groupers] , we dropped baits in a place we thought would be safe from accidentally harming one of these “California Condor” like fish .
As luck would have it we found Triggerfish, Beeliners , Porgies , and even met some trained Porpoises that loved to eat any fish you accidentally dropped overboard . Wasnt that a treat ! Ill bet they miss the snappers of years gone by ….
But to get back to the fishy roses , I reeled in something new to me as a result of our efforts to protect the downtrodden species , and of great importance to my cat’s ever growing “fishes, dad has brought to me that I’ve eaten from around the world” spreadsheet . I caught my first Golden Tile Fish today.
That made my day .
I will cook it with great care .
My cat was ecstatic with her portion and was proud of me for finding her a sustainable fish.
Marc
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Do I detect a soupçon of sarcasm?
Nice catch, although I bet you would have preferred an exciting hook-up to a big billfish.
I think you (and your cat) will find that the Golden Tile is a close second to a good grouper dinner, perhaps even on a par. When the season is open and the fish is available to the consumer it can be (or should be, anyway) a bargain, since the ex-vessel price is often as much as $2/lb less than grouper.
Also, you better get those triggers while you can. Gray Triggerfish is next on NMFS’s “hit list” and will no doubt become scarce and overfished as soon as they run enough “scientific models” to get one to come out the way they want it to.