Got out yesterday morning with my bro in law and scrounged up a few for dinner. His first drop was a 20" keeper fluke and then nothin but a bunch of shorts. The bay was smooth as glass so we could see bait being pushed all around the banks. I threw on a topwater popper and landed the two blues. There's nothing like a blue hitting a topwater bait on light tackle! . After the tide changed the bite shut off like a light switch.
Too strong of a fish taste for me. Bluefish are fun to catch and release. However, I've heard of people smearing a Bluefish filet with mayonaise. Then, on a grill with foil around it. I'm happy releasing them back.
This is the smoking recipe I use. Occasionally I'll add some red pepper flakes for a little kick. I use hickory. It's still a strong taste. People either like it or nahhh haha. Dave's Cupboard: Smoked Bluefish I actually just cooked some blue filets with a mayo/dijon mustard spread. It turnedout really good! I usually give the blues that I'm not gonna smoke to my dad because he loves em. He just sautes them in butter/garlic and that's it. I haven't cooked or eatin it (other than smoking) in probably 15years. This mayo recipe changed my mind.
There is a notion that the fishy-ness is attributed with the fat on the fish. Theres a show I like watching where they fish for catfish and when they cleaned the fish they would avoid the belly meat which held a lot of fat. They also soaked it in water with some salt I believe? I will have to watch it again to confirm but it was said the salt and water helped extract the fishiness out of the filets. Maybe this would work for this fish....some are used to it, some not. I know some lake fish are great at some point and then downright Lakey as heck. , depends on when they’re caught I suppose?
Another reason for some of the fishy-ness is the bloodline that runs down the center of the fillets. If you don't cut that out then you'll certainly get a fishy bite! I even cut that bloodline out of stripers due to the taste. I missed a tiny piece of it with the bluefish i cooked last weekend. I knew right away when I bit into it lol.
Definitely! I forgot to mention that. We bleed em as soon as they come in the boat and let em drain at the transom. Then right on ice.
This is another one as well. We on the west coast do this to our Salmon. Chinook, Silver, Chum, and others. Some are just known table-fare better than others. Chinook is by far the best, steelhead as well. Others are best If smoked, Chum is one, pink is another but if Chinook and Silver and steelhead(trout) are smoked, they are divine.
My dad used to say that even cats and raccoons didn’t like bluefish... Last time I was on saltwater and caught blues, we didn’t bleed them. Instead, after the fillets were laid out, we carved the bulk of the red tinted meat out, made a foil pouch, sliced up a bunch of onions, quartered a few tomatoes, a few wedges of lemon & a couple pats of butter, threw the pouch on the grill and waited. To our amazement- barely even a fishy taste. I was sold after that.
Yes, I only keep bluefish if it looks like they aren’t going to survive and always eat them within 12 hours of being caught.
They are a blast on light gear, very hard fighting fish and nasty. But like many others, didn't care to eat them. Smaller "snappers" aren't too bad but the bigger ones are just too strong a taste.
