One man's trash fish, another man's gourmet meal

[bigoledude]

Someone a couple of posts down just mentioned that he enjoyed eating Jack Crevalle. He took some criticism over this. Personally, I've never eaten Jack.

Well, just add Jacks to the list of sheephead, mullet, gar, gafftops, choupique, hardheads and channel mullet.

How the delicious channel mullet, one of the best tasting fish around, was ever considered trash, is still a mystery to me! And, sheephead, to me, is the sac-a-lait of salt water.

Way back maaany years ago the only way to drive across the MrGo from St. Bernard Parish was on what we called the "Pontoon Bridge". It was a string of very raggedy old leaking barges strung across the ship channel. They were all different heights! A tug boat would swing the barges away when a ship approached. My Mom would drop us off at night with the old guys fishing the speckled trout from under the lights of the barges. When redfish showed up, they'd start cursing "these trash stinking redfish". We'd all reel our lines in and wait for these trash fish to pass through. The only thing you could hear during these lulls in the fishing was the pumps trying to keep these rotten barges from sinking!

Needless to say, for many years now, I really enjoy redfish. Just like the other fish mentioned at the top of my post.

Delacroix Island has a good number of fresh water catfish. A friend of mine owns a camp there and asked me to cook up some hardheads to feed about 12 friends of ours and tell them it was fresh-water cats. I had fried some hardheads for dinner for him and his wife a couple of years ago. This night I fixed the catfish for the guys with white beans and a big salad with my crushed garlic salad dressing.

I don't like feeding people and lying to them about what they're eating. I once saw a guy go off the deep end when fed nutria and was told it was something else. I insisted that my friend tell them afterward it was his idea. They couldn't have cared less!

They ate every single filet of hardhead and loved it. Most of them kept all the keeper-sized 'heads they caught on the next days fishing.