Florida Keys Panfish

By: Capt. Joel Brandenburg

Iguess the definition of pan fish is any fish that can fit in a standard size frying pan. Being a fat southern guy my favorite way to cook fish is too deep fat fry them with Panko crumbs. I like to dip my fillets in scrambled eggs and then dip them in the Panko breadcrumbs and fry them. My second favorite way to cook fish is in an old iron skillet with garlic, butter and key lime. Below are the pan fish of the Florida Key that I prefer to eat in order of #1 down to #10.

#1 Hogfish- a lot of people call them hog snapper but they’re not even a member of the snapper family. Only recently have we figured out how to catch hog fish on a hook in line in the past hogfish were mainly harvested by Spear.
#2 Mangrove Snapper- Also called gray snapper. We catch them a lot and shallow water using live shrimp or cut ballyhoo on a jig head. Open year-round.
#3 Yellowtail Snapper- Very plentiful year-round at the reef. 95% of the time we catch Yellowtail using the flat nut line method of letting Line out and making your bait resemble a piece of chum coming out of your chum bag and into the chum line.
#4 Black Bellied Rosie’s- When we bring these fish up from over 1000 feet deep with our electric reels people automatically wonder why we call these fish black bellies Rosie’s. They are as red as red snapper on the outside. It’s only when we go to clean them, and people see their jet-black interior belly that they realize how they got their name.
#5 Queen snapper- Deep water fish caught in around 1000 feet of water on electric reels. The smaller keeper size would be considered pan fish. We have caught several that were too big to be considered pan fish.
#6 Blueline Tile Fish- We catch them with electric reels at around 650 feet. We typically bring up three or four at a time.
#7 Porgy- Very prevalent around bridges and ledges. The owner of Castaway restaurant John Mirabella would rather eat a porgy than any other panfish available.
#8 Sheepshead- I’m hesitant to even call this fish a Florida Keys species because we catch so few of them in our crystal-clear water, however when we do catch them, they always make it to the dinner table. Not to be mistaken for a freshwater, trash fish up in northern waters called a sheephead.
#9 Flounder- Rare to catch in the Florida Keys, but we do occasionally catch them. Normally, when we do catch one down here, it’s a fat doormat.
#10 School Master Snapper- We catch these on concrete Bridge, pylons and concrete dock pylons. Something about concrete that these fish are attracted to.

The limits and seasons vary on all the fish mentioned above, but other than being awesome tasting fish they also have something else in common when hooked they are a great fight and Fish most clients can’t catch every day anywhere. Here in the Florida Keys, we are blessed with a large quantity and large variety of tasty fish. It may be the number one quality of the Florida Keys that keeps Anglers from all around the world flocking to us year-round. For years, Castaway restaurant have offered our anglers a hook and cook, they hook them. Castaway cooks them. Castaway will cook up to a pound of fish per person for $18 and that includes two side orders. In addition to that Castaway offers our clients a variety of ways to cook it. Castaway will fry it, bake it, blacken it or cook it wreck diver style by searing it in butter, garlic, lemon, and wine. So far after sending thousands of clients to Castaway I’ve only received five-star reviews.