Blue Fish

How many of you eat Blue Fish? I am amazed how many people talk bad on blue fish. We keep just about every one we catch. We always cut the red meat out and as far as I'm concerned it's good eating. Obviously there are other fish that taste much better. We really like spanish and trout but we don't pass up a good mess of blue fish to take home and eat on. Maybe my taste buds are off or maybe the majority don't prepare it well. I don't know what do you say?
Also you NC guys what's going on with the population that they dropped the limit to 4? If everyone hates the stuff so bad why is the population crashing? We just spent a couple days at hatteras fishing, was pretty much terrible for 4 days but did manage to land a 33 inch Blue which is by far our biggest and probably the biggest I've ever seen of the surf.

I’ll be honest, I’ve never tried them. Everyone just always said throw’em back, ain’t fit to eat. It’s not like you find them on a menu anywhere around here or South of here.

Broiled blue fish is delicious.

See that “broiled” word just isn’t used down here. It’s either fried or blackened. If it doesn’t eat that way then it’s thrown back or used for bait.

The sports here want to catch striped bass, to them bluefish is a trash fish, a trash fish that is readily caught, fights like crazy, and get pretty big.

While blues aren't top notch fare they're not bad, it's a soft flesh and they need to be iced quickly, the smaller ones are good to eat , cut out the dark meat and the bigger ones are fine, and they all make a great smoked product...

But they still get a bad rap from the elitest bassholes

I'll eat'm every chance I get. As long as they are fresh. Blue's dont freeze well.
I fillet,,skin and cut out all red meat.
They are not here yet. With this Nor-easter.They wont show till the water warms up some.

Fresh Bluefish is great. I grew up eating them. On our rare trip to the coast we look for them.

The small ones up to 20 inches are great. Gutted and grilled they get a crunchy skin, crispy I guess. I ate a lot of them when I was a kid. And back in the '50 a ten pounder would be photoed and put in the news paper, the were monsters then.......jk

My experience has been that as they move up the coast the party boats use chum to attract them and they are just full of that stuff. I find\ them not good to eat, but the small "snapper" blues are far better to eat.I don't care for stripers or mackeral either, Those big blues fun to catch. For eating like haddock the best, also blow fish.

We bleed them before putting them on ice. We vacuum seal and freeze they seem to hold up good but if the seal breaks they do burn quick. Soak it in milk and eggs, then bread and fry. Can't say I pass up much fish wise the worst fish I've ever had was arrow tooth flounder, won't ever buy that again

Blues are a good cut bait but that`s all their good for to me.Much better fish to eat.They are fun to catch.

What are yall talkin about I guess I don't know. Blue cats? I eat them. I also eat white bass and everyone tells me they aren't any good

Lol

Nothing in the world wrong with fresh caught and properly handled blue fish. Fried is my preference. But I would not hit a dead mule in the butt with frozen ones. Nothing but mush when thawed out.

Salt water fish.

Thanks Choo- I can't remember eating them but I am only 50 so I hate to shed all my baby fat just yet LOL. I am far from a picky eater. If a plate of fish isn't perfect I just add more salt, pepper, and butter and if its really bad a bunch of tarter sauce and I eat it anyway.

Brine in pickling spice and smoke the fillets. Few fish take smoke as well as bluefish.

Seen a landlubber once" Try" to pick up a blue for a picture once. Like I see fresh water bass fisherman do.

The doctors at the Hospital saved his finger.

Learned real young that just about everything in salt water has teeth. Blues are salt water piranhas.

Blues are good eating when fresh. Blue left overs from cleaning make very very good fish oil.

mac

X2

Yellow eyed demons ! I hate those fish with a passion . I fish for striped bass and fluke (summer flounder) and the blues have a nasty habit of chopping off your bait and lures . It costs money and time to re rig . Many times a soft plastic lure with a teaser rigged above it is a fantastic combo for both fluke and striped bass . If blues are around you can count on them destroying that rig immediately . You re rig and wait for them to move on . Then you fish for a while and they come back and you do it all over again . PITA . I don't know anyone who likes the taste of blues . Even handled properly ( bleed them immediately ,gut and put in an ice/saltwater slurry as soon as they are off the hook) they taste like crap compared to other saltwater fish (IMO) . Having said all that they are a hard fighting fish . When friends and relatives come down from upstate to fish and you can't find stripers , blues save the day . They will talk about how hard they fight and how much fun they had for years to come . I may be looking at it the wrong way but they have caused me too much aggravation to like them . As far as eating them , small (8 inch or so) gut head and scale , fry in butter salt pepper pretty good . Small , what are called cocktail blues are good filleted,coated with crushed pork rinds that have been seasoned properly and fried in butter are pretty good . Medium sized blues smoked are good . They do not freeze well at all and they have to be eaten fresh . They have been in here for a week or more and you can't get away from them . They made my last fluke trip aggravating .

I'd rather eat yellow fin.....

Pretty good fish cakes w/out the red meat.

They can eat through a pack of rubber baits in no time flat for sure. So maybe the time factor plays into the fact I like blue fish. If I only have a couple days to put meat in the cooler then blues are an easy go most of the time. I'm sure if I got to fish salt water more then 5-10 days a year then I may be a little more picky. One thing we do that I think plays into better success with us freezing is we towl dry all the fillets before we put them in the vacuum bags so there isn't a lot of ice formation.

i love them. best part is most people go ewe and throw them to me. they also make great sushi.

Small ones fry well.

Fish cakes are good too! Pan sear , shred the fillets, and use them in a good crab cake recipe.

Smoke the big ones, the oil really keeps them moist.

Blue fish aren’t trash fish, if treated properly. Ice quickly and eat them fresh.

John

They are good if you eat them the same day you catch them. The large blues are not as good, but they sustained me in my college years in the late 60s. We had Fall runs of blues from 15-22 lbs back then.

They are good if you eat them the same day you catch them. The large blues are not as good, but they sustained me in my college years in the late 60s. We had Fall runs of blues from 15-22 lbs back then.

Commercial fisherman saw the price drop to $.02/lb once.

Heads make great snapping turtle bait.

Wannabe beat me to it: Salt water peranna. The little ones are called snappers the bigger ones in the 10-15lb
range are called choppers there’s a reason for that. The fool that tried to thumb lip a blue fish that is a kodack moment LoL.
I still say the “broiled “ blue fish I had somewhere up there in New England at a fancy diner that looked like a humongous air stream and had a bunch of well dressed people inside, was freaking AWESOME!

A stinky old sneaker is good smoked. So is bluefish.