By: Capt. Joel Brandenburg
Almost every charter, I’m asked what’s the best eating fish in your opinion and how do you cook it? Since the winter months produce the best eating fish, both quantity and quality I decided to share with you what my Marathon meet menu is in order of the best tasting fish to me by top 10 number one being the best. I’ll give you the best tip on how to catch each one. The question of how to cook it is an easy answer for me. Being a fat southern guy, I like the deep fat fry everything. I have a First Mate who cooks fish like a gourmet chef and he’s got all kinds of recipes for our clients, however, if you ask me deep fat fry it.
#1 Hog Fish- some people call it a hog snapper, but it’s actually not even a part of the snapper family and the best way to catch them is with a spear. With a hook and line, we like to use a very small hook with very light mono leader and use a Carolina rig with an egg sinker and beads near the hook to keep the piece of peeled shrimp on the hook and hovering just off the bottom.
#2 Porgy- for some reason people from the New England states think porgies are trash fish and don’t like to eat them. I don’t understand this because porgies have the most beautiful flaky white meat of all reef fish. Even John Marbella, owner of Castaway Restaurant and bar in Marathon, states he’d rather eat a porgy than any other fish in the ocean. We fish for porgies the same way we fish for hog fish.
#3 Wahoo- when I list who is my third favorite fish to eat, I feel that I should list cero mackerel as tied for number three because cero mackerel taste exactly like wahoo. We catch wahoo in the Marathon area one out of three ways high speed trolling with in-line weights and Tormentors, slow speed trolling with lipped Lures, Sea witches, and No Mads with a top spread of wire leader double hook Ballyhoo, and we also bump troll anchor, or Kite Fish with live bait such as goggle eyes, bonita, speedos, large pilcher etc.
#4 Mangrove snapper- also called grey snapper. In the Marathon area, we have a huge population of mangrove snapper. These snapper like most snapper love live bait, such as pilcher, pin fish, glass minnows, and any kind of dead fresh cut bait like ballyhoo, squid, and pinfish.
#5 Cobia- also called lemon fish, down south we call them brown bombers. They’ll hit just about any live bait cut bait, and they also like black, artificial eels and red and white flare hawk jigs. My record up in Tampa Bay is eight cobia in one day, and my record here in Marathon is 38 cobia in one day. I have harvested three cobia over 100 pounds. Love the taste and love the fight!
#6 Yellow Jack- not to be mistaken for a jack crevalle which is a jack that is yellow. Yellow jacks aren’t indigenous to this area. They showed up from Central America 25 or 30 years ago. They fight like a jack crevalle, which pound for pound is the hardest fighting fish in the ocean, but they taste like a permit or a pompano with firmer sweet or meat and their sushi grade. We catch them with large live shrimp tipped on a quarter ounce yellow jig head in moving current.
#7 Swordfish- we catch swordfish in an average of 1700 foot of water between the Marathon Humps and the Bohemian Border with electric reels using 10 pound weights with blinking lights and a firm fresh squid rig secured to a large hook. Love a nice swordfish steak with my wife’s famous black beans and rice with cilantro and lemon.
#8 Mutton Snapper- taste very similar to a mangrove snapper and a little more firm and a little more white, but not quite as sweet. We catch mutton snapper anywhere between 2 foot of water and 300 foot of water. 99% of the time that we catch them it’s over a sand bottom using a long leader with live bait or butterflied cut bait.
#9 Tile Fish- Tile fish is a deep-water fish with very tasty white flaky meat. People laugh at me when I fry tile fish saying that tile fish is such a delicacy. When I taste it fried, I wonder how folks could have it any other way. We catch them in 600 to 900 feet of water using electric reels, blinking lights, multiple hooks and fresh squid for bait.
#10 Snowey Grouper: you can only keep one per day, but that one taste so good it’ll make you breakdance. Deep water, fish, white flaky meat, not fishy tasting at all. We catch them with electric reels in the same depth and areas that we catch our tile fish, but we prefer to use a live bait fish such as a pin fish rather than a squid bait.
These are my top fish to eat in order. Come out with us and catch some great eating fish. We’ll cook them up and then you tell me what you think!