When identifying
fish it is best to use the shape of the fish not the color.
The color of a fish changes with the color
of water and/or their surroundings.
These are fish you could catch here in Charlotte Harbor and
not all
of them are listed here yet.
This is not an official list or any thing but my opinion
about these fish. and When it comes
to taste well, this is my opinion.
The
C.B. means this fish is
commonly used as cut bait and is legal to cut up for bait,
Keep in mind that some edible fish are also used
as bait. If a fish has a size limit it can not be cut
into pieces.
Here
is how the tide effects the fishing
More general
fishing information
Black Drum
Good eating
The meat of a Black drum,
is as close to steak as a fish can get.
Small Back Drum are know as bearded Sheepshead, A favorite for F.W.C. because they look so similar but have different size limits
Sheepshead have teeth, Black drum a beard & no teeth.
Small Drum
also have stripes when young, which
fade as they get older.
Many people think once the stripes are gone/faded from the sides of a black
drum they are no longer good to eat.
I am not sure, But I do not keep any lager black drum from June to November
as that is when they are full of the parasites
Really big 30 pound or
more Black Drum, May have parasites.
which look like, little white worms. They are not harmful to humans and
do not
have any flavor, you can not taste them. Even uncooked they can not hurt you.
It is just a little disgusting. Just cut them out, being tuff
gets you a great tasting meal.
Blue Runner /
C.B.
Can be eaten if really
hungry
This is on of the fish that when smaller like the ones we
catch here in Charlotte Harbor are pretty good to eat.
a trick I use is not to leed them but put the fish on ice as soon as I take
the hook.
If it is alive when placed on ice the cold will draw out most of the
bad/fishy taste from the Blue and then I use a recipe
which has some spice to it like blacken and in my opinion you will enjoy
eating these smaller blue fish.
Blue Crabs
Charlotte Harbor is one of the last, best places for these angry Crabs
They are sold as food or as bait.
For bait uses click here
food value is excellent
you can eat the meat from the body & the claws
or cook them whole, or whole as a soft shell.
Stone Crabs are not really found in-side of Harbor or ICW ,
They live in the gulf of Mexico, We do have some cousins I guess you would
say which are found in the back waters
you may only take ONE claw from a Stone Crab
Blue Fish
Good eating if you are from the northeast. Not so good for the rest of us.
More about Bonita
Bonita /
C.B.
Little Tunny
No way, tastes like
a tin can
Maybe?
maybe not. Check out the More about Bonita button
up dated this 2014, There is a big interest in Bonita
as there are
So many if the gulf,
I have found ways to cook them click the
button
they are not my recipes, So if you like them click the links and you
may find more ways. I went to these sites and they were all good go to them
for your self & see.
Not often found this far north, But we have seen them caught
on the beaches of Gasparilla Island and
by stump Pass. Not a edible fish any way, But they are fast and pull
hard
Cat Fish
These saltwater Cat fish are the most dangerous fish
in Florida waters
for every Dollar spent on Shark bites $10,000.oo dollars are spent on
Catfish wounds
The dorsal & pectoral fins have a very hard spine / spike on them, this
sharp
serrated edged spike can easily pierce a leather work boot.
Never, ever, never kick a catfish !!! it will end up hanging from your foot
only to be surgically removed. Scary huh just be careful and you will be
fine.
the only time you will have a problem is when you lose respect for what
they can do.
Hard Head / C.B.
Poor eating “mud flavor”
Now having said that well it is not quite true.
hard head cats are much like Large Mouth bass,
as far as one will taste
great & the next will have a strange muddy flavor.
This is why I say they are poor eating
the meat is white and can be quite good,
then the next one is just lets say YUCK. weird huh well that's life.
Sail-cat “Gaff-top” / COB.
Good eating
The thing about salt water cat fish is they have Bards
not ordinary Barbs
barbs that will go
through a leather work boot!
NEVER KICK a Cat-Fish when trying to get one off the dock or pier!
To clean a Sail cat for
dinner you fillet them not skin them.
Start your cut just back of the ribs, then basically you fillet the tail
section.
These cats acn be pretty dry when cooking them, deep fry or any recipe which
marinates,
other than that pretty tasty fish.
Good meat, but possible they might have parasites like a Spotted trout or Black Drum.
Cobia
Really good eating
Cobia are one of the best fighting, good eating,
dumbest fish. I have ever fished for.
Cobia cruise the sand bar and the
surface
waters of Charlotte harbor looking for food.
They eat shrimp, fish, crabs,
they have many nicknames "Ling" the crab eater. as well
as many other, but this should give you a clue they like crabs.
the problem
with using crabs for bait the crab likes to hide,
when it hits the bottom,
so you will do much better with a crab under a
float.
Cobia can be caught on the bottom or at the surface.
Cobia like to relax in the shade on
those bright hot days, "who doesn't" think about it
if you are fishing the reef or anchored up somewhere where would a Cobia
find Shade to lay in ?
That's right under your boat !
yes many times I have had my lines way out from the boat
looking for Cobia
only to notice one sticking his nose right out from underneath my boat.
It will make you crazy when you are outsmarted by a
fish this dumb. Happens every day.
Oh yeah when you are fighting a Cobia you will notice make a hard run way
off into the distance,
then settle in to fight you,
from about 30 feet away you gain a little it will move away a little,
madding.
I put this up as we do have a lot of Clams and Oysters.
I would not eat the ones from here, un-less there has been no rain and no
Red Tide
for at least 4 months.
American Eel
Common name
- American Eel (pencil eel, yellow eel,
black eel, silver eel, Boston eel,
Atlantic eel or common eel)
This eel is very common to Charlotte Harbor, alto few
are landed.
It is the most common "rock" or "snag" in the Harbor.
What I mean by that is when an ell takes a bait
they will turn and go down
into their hole "burrow" and when you pull it is
stuck on the bottom. and the upper harbor there are few if any rocks or
snags,
when you snag bottom in the Open harbor,
chances are you hooked a eel.
Flounder
Great eating
Goliath Grouper (can not)
"Jew Fish” endangered ( keep )
Round Tail
Goliath's can get to 600 pounds
The tail tells the difference between the Gag and the
Goliath
Fish change color to match their surroundings.
So the colors
on these fish might be very similar.
Jew Fish is believed to have gotten it's name from the
white almost
Blue meat of the fillets, like looks and tastes so good
it's "kosher"
If or
when they become legal to keep it is one of the best eating fish
even when they are 400 pounds or more.
Goliath
grouper can be found in most all canals and even in the peace
and Myakka rivers, fish in excess of 150 pound
are caught or hooked
inside of Charlotte Harbor.
Gag Grouper
Great eating
The flat tail edge of the Gags tail helps I.d.
This tasty fish
regularly comes into Charlotte Harbor
The reef off Alligator creek or the Cape haze reef
will often produce keeper size Gag.
Red Grouper
I have to say one
of my Favorite eating fish.
Found mostly in the gulf sometimes you can catch them in the Harbor
but it is rare to catch a keeper in the Shallow waters of the Harbor
Live bait or dead. even jigs work when trying to get them to bite.
A true Game fish of Florida waters.
Grunt
very good eating
easy to fillet,
My Dad's favorite.
Green backs
Hard
scaled sardine,
is very hardy in a live well,
but is difficult to keep
in commercial tanks
they do not like changes in the levels
of salt, ph or temperatures, making then almost impossible to sell in bait shops.
This is one bait better caught when you go.
This is the fish originally called
white
bait, or salt-water shiner,
Now many fish have been lumped into the name
of white Bait.
Jack Crevalle / C.B.
Ok eating, best smoked
Jacks are also known
locally as Charlotte Harbor yellow fin tuna, amber jack, pompano,
of course this is a little silly but we hear all the time I
caught a tuna in the canal, It is too disappointing
to them to tell them what it really is. So we try to
suggest they look it up here. Sorry guys no tuna in the canals.
Jacks are
one of the best fighters in the world pound for pound
They are battlers, Anything is good
bait for Jacks, you just have to get it in front of them
Jacks are often mistaken for tuna or
pompano by new comers, They are in most of the canals
and shallow and deep waters of the Harbor.
Lady Fish / C.B.
Edible, must be
starving
First cousin to the Tarpon
Pound for pound one of the
best fighters, Jumping, thrashing
Crapping all over you and the boat.
What more fun could you Have.
side note is that most of us have eaten lady fish at one time or another
"Fish Stix" yes many fish stick are made from them. the oil from
these
fish are used and the rest is sold for animal
feed.
Lizard Fish,
Some-times you will catch these in Charlotte
Harbor.
Lizard fish are often caught in the Gulf when trolling spoons,
They hit lures sometimes as big as they are.
This Lizard fish is about 12 inches long which is good size for them.
I am not sure if you can eat them. I do know they make great Grouper bait.
They have a triangle shaped head, and a mouth full of teeth.
Lizard fish are not poisonous that I know of.
a fairly common catch in our area.
The Mackerels
King Mackerel
Good eating
Rarely found in the Harbor, but fish don't know the rules so every
once in a
while they come into the Harbor.
Kings like 68 to 72 degree water and pass by here in the spring and fall as
they migrate,
The slower the water changes temperature the slower they move north or south.
They can be caught with live bait, or with lures,
most often they are a fish you would troll lures behind the boat, to catch.
Mackerel Recipe More about Spanish Mackerel
Spanish mackerel
Good, better smoked
The most prevalent Mackerel in the Harbor
Lots of conflicting, about how good eating these fish are.
One person says
great the next says lousy, keep a couple and see hat you
think, great fish for blacken or heavy spice recipes.
Mullet / C.B.
Great eating.
One thing they are not vegetarians,
They eat bugs, worms, fish, shrimp, alga, plant or animal,
they eat every thing. The kicker is that they have a gizzard
just like a chicken, which adds to their nick names
like chicken of the sea. When I first moved to Fla. Mullet gizzard
was a favorite of the local rednecks.
Mullet is one of the best eating fish you can have while visiting Florida
whether baked, broiled, grilled, or even steamed it is quite a tasty fish.
,
.
Pompano Permit
Great eating Ok eating
Red fish / Red Drum
This is a slot fish
Very good eating Poppin cork Page Big red fish
Red Drum is one if the most sought after fish in
the southern salt waters.
But I remember when I first came here walking up to a guy
with a pile of fish
behind him what are they I asked, Damn Slat water carp no
good for anything
just trying to kill as many as I can, get them useless fish out of
here.
you guessed it they were Red fish. it was not until the late 1980's
that Red fish became a
Game fish. and was considered a good catch or even good eating. Try to
keep
this in mind when you catch a fish that is considered "Not good" maybe in
a few years
It will be a highly prized great tasting Game fish, It is just that no
one told you Yet.
Sand Bream / C.B.
Great eating
Other names, Silver Jenny, Mojarra,
Striped Mojarra, sand perch, goat, sand brim,
Easy to I.D. because the mouth pulls way out from
it's face.
Easy to clean & fillet white meat, Mild flavor do
not add
much spice or you will not taste the fish at all.
Best way to catch on rod and reel is with a
bobber a # 6 gold hook,
And peeled shrimp meat you must remove the shell
of the shrimp,
readily found around docks in the canals,
Shark fishing 101 Shark set up riggin another shark rigging story
Sharp nose shark
Good eating
Hammer Head Bonnet or shovel nose
Great eating
Snappers
Grey or Mangrove snapper
Great eating.
This is the only snapper caught
in the upper harbor or canals.
When in the harbor they have a red belly,
that fools people into thinking they are
Red Snapper. They aint.
Lane snapper
Very good eating
You may catch a Lane Snapper in
charlotte Harbor, every once in a while
while not a "rare catch" not common either
Check all rules,
HEY this is Florida,
if you don't have an attorney in your pocket,
check the rules twice.
Snook
One of the absolute best.
Yes great eating but must be
filleted if eaten with the skin on
they taste like soap, Hence the nickname soap fish, once thought to be
inedible, and sold for cat-food,
Snook are common in the canals
and around
docks and piers. They are an ambush feeder laying behind
Pilings or in the roots of
Mangrove trees, waiting for the next meal
to swim by.
Snook eat Shrimp "live is better", Any bait fish, " live or dead",
Snook also hit Spoons, jigs, lures of almost any type. That is
when they are in the mood,
They do have a weird trait if they see you, often they will not swim away
they will just lay there and not eat, It can be madding to bounce a bait on
their nose
and nothing they just look at you and chuckle, You've been Snookered.
Atlantic spade fish
Good eating Spade fish page
Star Gazer
Squirrel Fish
considered a bait fish, but is good eating on it's
own.
Many think of them as Grouper candy.
Caught on sandy bottoms in the near Gulf.
More and more people are thinking of Squirrel Fish as
dinner,
a good rule of thumb is if you can get a decent fillet, take it for eating,
if it is smaller use it for bait.
Yes these have become gourmet food for the Anglers, who are smart enough
Triple Tail
Great eating
Tarpon
Nasty, do not even bother you would have to be Starving to eat.
This is one of the most beautiful Game fish,
Great fighter, known for, it's ability to jump.
Sea Robin ,
Yes it is a edible fish, but it would have to be quite large more than 14 inches
to really have any meat, It uses it's legs to smell, much like the whiskers on a
catfish.
These are a rather common catch in Charlotte Harbor. The average size is 6 to 8
inches here.
Here is the Eye of a Sea Robin
spectacular color.
Spotted Trout
Good eating Best
way to catch Trout is with a
This Fish also may have parasites
Poppin
cork, click here
warmer weather seems to make
the worms appear.
Great game fish readily caught
on live bait or lures. Jigs are the
but for me it is Top water lures .
Silver
or Sand trout
/
C.B.
This is almost the same as a Spotted Trout.
The big difference is no size or bag limits or the Sand Trout.
No spots same vampire fangs on the top of the mouth.
purple on the mouth makes I.D. easy.
I am not sure but I don't think they get worms.
Oh yeah, very good eating.
Sugar trout
Good eating
C.B.
A really big one would be 10 inches.
This is more, of
a perch than a trout,
Good bait, cut into
pieces or as live bait
Fillet this little guy, with 20 or so of his
buddies and you have a great meal.
Sting ray /C.B.
OK eating, “fillet like flounder”
The cookie cutter is a myth.
White Bait,
this is
not a certain fish, it is a name given to a group of fish,
Mojarra, Hard scaled Sardine
Bunker
Soft scaled sardine
sand brim
"Green Backs",
0Pilchards, "Threadfin Herring". Spanish
Sardines
Term white bait really is for hard scale
sardine Green backs, which are the true white bait of Charlotte Habor, but over
time, and people
catching and using other types of bait fish, the name now has a more general
meaning.
Whiting /
C.B. Good eating
Best way to catch these guys is with pieces of shrimp
It is amazing how big of a bait they can get in their mouth
But if you tear a shrimp in half, or peel the shell from a
Frozen shrimp, you will catch more.
Use a slip sinker rig for whiting as they are smaller.
if the sinker is tied
in place they find out about you,
before you find out about them.
the sliding
or slip sinker will let you feel the tiniest bite
so you and the fish find out about each other at the same time.
So you can set the hook before they steal your bait.
Pompano Permit
Great eating Ok eating
Flounder Sheeps-head
Great eating
A pier fisherman's delight
easy caught around pilings of docks
tough to clean, but worth the work.
Toad fish
This is a weird fish you have probably
caught while fishing from one of the
local piers.
The most common names
Toad Fish
Mother-in-law fish
Oyster cracker.
A really big one would be 10 inches
They are all mouth, then the body
goes sloping down to the tail.
If his belly is full. "and they will eat anything"
it will protrude.
It's mouth is full of teeth.
no size or bag limit, I have never tried eating one, and do not
think I will
Commonly used bait fish
Bally-hoo Menhaden
Pin fish Green back
Spanish Sardine
Thread fin
Glass minnow
This is too small for bait, but it is what fish eat.
Salt-water bait
fish do not live well in captivity and are only available in stores as frozen bait.
You must catch them yourself
if you wish to use them alive.
The /
C.B. means often used for
cut bait.
If a fish has a size limit it cannot be cut up for bait. Size limit fish may
be used whole as bait if they are of legal size. "I
don't want you getting a ticket."
The eating rating is my opinion. Most fish are filleted the same as
a bass. They just taste better.
Check the F.W.C. Regulations booklet for size and bag limits.
Have fun fishing and enjoy beautiful Charlotte Harbor.
Fishin Franks