Cobia Fishing

Cobia is a popular fish here in the South, as it is in other places around the world. Along the Atlantic, the fish is called cobia, but in the Gulf of Mexico, it’s usually referred to as ling. Cobia are very aggressive feeders and will strike most anything when they’re in the feeding mode. This includes mullet and other small fish, shrimp, crabs, and a variety of artificial baits. Cobia will even hit small hardhead catfish – and you thought those hardheads weren’t good for anything! See? You just never know what kind of fishing tips you'll get here for Florida fishing.

In clear water, like in the Gulf, cobia can often be seen, so sight casting is possible. Sometimes cobia can be viewed swimming with stingrays, and oftentimes cobia will hang out in pairs. Cobia also like staying close to buoys and any type of floating debris, so remember this when cobia fishing.

From my experience, the best way to catch cobia or ling is to freeline a live pinfish or mullet. If you see a cobia, toss the live bait in front of it. If cobia are hanging deep, toss your bait out and let it sink to the bottom, then retrieve it with a series of jerks. Some old salts say they can “call cobia up” by making noise. They do this by slapping the water, imitating the sound of a wounded, struggling fish.

Cobia is excellent on the table and performs well in a variety of fish recipes. I especially like baked cobia recipes. The flesh is white, mild tasting, and firm. Below is an easy baked cobia recipe:

Easy Baked Cobia recipe

4 serving-size cobia fillets, about ¾-inch thick
Heavy aluminum foil 4 squares
4 teaspoons melted butter
4 tablespoons white wine
4 small sprigs fresh dill
Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions: Rinse cobia fillets and pat dry. Place each fillet in center of foil squares.

Drizzle melted butter over fish. Add white wine and dill.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Close foil packs tightly and place them on a cookie sheet or baking pan.

Bake cobia packets at 450 degrees for about 13 minutes. Wait 5 minutes before opening pouches.

Southern Food - Fish Fries

Have you enjoyed the experience known as the “fish fry”? If you’re unfamiliar with the term, allow me to explain. A fish fry – here in the South, at least – is an outdoor gathering where lots of fish are fried in a big pot over a gas cooker. Along with the fish, other food items are often cooked in the grease, too. Of course, here, it’s always Southern food: homemade hushpuppies, fried Idaho taters, and/or fried sweet taters. On a separate burner, there’s usually a big pot of grits or cheese grits to go with the fried fish.

Southern fish fries range in size, but they’re usually attended by a good number of guests. Most people save up enough fish in their freezer until they get enough for a big party. Of course, some folks luck up and catch enough fish on one fishing trip to host a large fish fry. Most people who are invited to the fish fry bring a dish. There has to be a lot of coleslaw and sweet iced tea. Other than that, any Southern food is apropos. These might include potato salad, pasta salad, tossed salad, vegetable casseroles, or fruit salads. If the fish fry takes place when fresh vegetables are coming in, some squash, zucchini, eggplant, or green tomatoes might be cooked in the hot oil. There are usually lots of desserts involved, too.

So…what kinds of fish are appropriate for a fish fry? Well, what kind do you have? Oftentimes, more than one species of fish is cooked at a Southern fish fry. The exception might be crappie. When you have a successful crappie fishing trip, it’s usually very successful! The same usually hold true for saltwater fishing for whiting. Otherwise, the fish fry might consist of a mixture of bream, bass, catfish, grouper, mullet, speckled trout, redfish, shark, croaker, and/or snapper. The fish might be dressed or filleted.

The weather is getting just about right for outdoor events like fish fries! Why not host your own? Just call up all your friends and family members and invite them over. Ask everyone to bring a side dish and some lounge chairs or camp chairs. Go out and buy a bunch of peanut oil, thaw out your fish, and get crackin’!

Crab Recipes: Cheesy Crab Souffle

Everyone in my family loves crabmeat. As a result, I’ve created quite a few crab recipes. If you’ve read the rest of this blog, you know that we also enjoy catching our own blue crabs. In fact, some of the grandkids spend more time crabbing while we’re at the beach than do anything else. Crabbing is a lot of fun, and the results are especially rewarding when you enjoy the sweet, succulent crab meat in some great crab dishes.

Here’s one I think you’ll like!

Cheesy Crab Souffle

1 pound crabmeat
3 tablespoons real butter
¼ cup plain flour
½ cup cream
½ cup milk
3 beaten egg yolks
½ onion, chopped fine
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon ground red pepper
3 beaten egg whites
Grated cheese

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 and butter a 1 ½-quart baking dish. The baking dish needs to be placed in a larger pan, with about 1 ½ - 2 inches of water.

Pick through crabmeat, removing any bits of cartilage and shell.
Melt butter and stir in flour. Add milk and cream slowly, creating a smooth mixture.

While stirring, add egg yolks. When the mixture is smooth again, add the onion, lemon juice, garlic salt, and red pepper. Fold in the beaten egg whites.

Pour mixture in the baking dish and bake for about 40 minutes. Sprinkle grated cheese on top and continue baking for about 20-25 more minutes. Make sure the center is firm before removing soufflé from oven.

Red Fish Fishing - Best Fishing Lures

I really enjoy red fish fishing, and I'll gladly learn and share fishing tips! One of my most memorable angling battles ever took place on a breezy autumn night at the end of a very long fishing pier while doing some Florida fishing. I was fishing with a finger mullet about six inches in length, near some rocks. I was using pretty light tackle, and I thought I’d never land whatever was on the other end of my line. When I finally got it close to the pier, a pal directed his flashlight beam on the water, and I saw the tell-tale goldish-red reflection of the red’s scales. With the help of a gaff, we finally got the big brute on the pier. It weighed in at almost 36 pounds.

Advantages of Redfish fishing with lures

I’ll be honest with you – I usually prefer fishing for redfish with live bait – especially mullet. Unfortunately, live mullet aren’t always available. And when they are, you need some bulky paraphernalia to keep them alive. This isn’t always convenient or even feasible.

With red fish lures, however, you can keep a big selection in your tackle box, so they’re always ready to go. They stay fresh, too, and you don’t have a problem with crabs mauling your bait. Another advantage of red fish lures is that you control the action. You can speed it up or slow it down, and you can maneuver it around rocks, pilings, and oyster beds. That’s pretty hard to do with live bait.

YUM redfish lures

Many serious anglers are familiar with YUM plastic baits. The secret to YUM lures is that they’re impregnated with something called “Live Prey Technology,” or LPT, for short. The LPT is an enzyme that attracts predators, signaling them to feed. When redfish sense the enzyme, along with being attracted to the erratic swimming action that means injured prey, the reds can hardly resist attacking the YUM baits.

YUM baits are designed for several different types of fish, but for redfish fishing, try the Sweet Shrimp, the YUM Houdini Crab, the YUM Samurai Curltail, or the YUM G-Shad.

D.O.A. fishing lures

We’ve had good luck fishing for redfish with D.O.A. plastic lures, too. I like the six-inch jumbo shrimp, the four-inch standard shrimp, and the curl tail grubs with the red jig heads. The softshell crab will work for redfish fishing, too.

The D.O.A. red fish lures mentioned above come in a wide range of colors. We’ve found that the best fishing lures for reds are the pink, near clear, red and white, and gold. I suggest keeping several colors in your tackle box and trying them all.

Bayou Buck red fish lures

The ZZ Spot Spinners are neat plastic lures with fish-attracting curly tails, glass and brass beads, and saltwater-proof brass spinning blades. These red fish lures won’t twist because they swim straight, so you won’t even need a swivel. They also feature wide gap mouths specially designed for red fish fishing.
For fishing for redfish around grass or oyster beds, like in marshes, try the Twistless Sister, the In-Line Reef Glider, or the Oyster Proof. For colors, I like the strawberry, the lemon meringue, and the red for red fish fishing.

Once you land a redfish...

If you catch a redfish that's a keeper, you're in for a tasty treat! Blacken it, fry it, grill it, broil it, or stuff it. I have some great fish recipes! Of course, you'll want some awesome sides and yummy hushpuppies to go with your redfish, so check out my beer- buttermilk hushpuppy recipe in Southern food. I'll bet they're just about the best you've ever eaten!

Ready for crabbing?

We love crabbing! It's a great way to keep the kids occupied when we spend time at the beach in the summer. It's amazing howmuch effort the little urchins will exert chasing a blue crab around with a cheap net we bought at the Dollar Store for a buck each! What amazes me even more is that they actually luck up and catch some of their prey!

Of course, they usually have better luck when we give them a chicken back on a string to toss out for the crabs. But some of my eight grandkids don't have the patience for that kind o9f crabbing. They think it's a lot more fun to actively chase the critters through the water. Well, at least it wears the kids out.

There's just nothing like the taste of fresh steamed crabs - right out of the Atlantic or the Gulf of Mexico. I like 'em fixed any old way - dipped in butter, dowsed with cocktail sauce, made into crab cakes, cooked into stew, or made into party food like dips. Need more crab recipes and fish recipes? Just click!

Fish Recipes

For some great fish recipes, visit my new cooking website. You'll find all kinds of fish recipes here, with easy-to-follow instructions. Some included are fish recipes for baked fish, stuffed fish, fried fish, grilled fish, and blackened fish, and I'm constantly adding new recipes. I've also included some tips on cleaning your catch and how to improve the flavor of certain fish species.

Although fish recipes and seafood recipes are a big part of the site, you'll also find Southern cooking, Cajun recipes, Creole recipes, Gullah-Geechee recipes, New England recipes, Southwestern recipes, and lots more! This website is going to end up being very large, with lots of useful content. Give us a visit!

Here's a quick recipe for the fried catfish above: The fish was just rinsed in water, salted and peppered, and rolled in cornmeal. Then it was fried in peanut oil at 350 degrees.

Easy fishing - Fishing with kids for whiting

Looking for some easy fishing, perfect for fishing with kids, along with some saltwater fishing tips? Don't overlook the Southern kingfish, commonly called "whiting" with saltwater fishing in the South. This is the perfect way to introduce your little ones to saltwater fishing. Why? Because it's super easy fishing that's available practically any time you feel the urge to wet a hook!

Whiting are plentiful on the coasts of Florida and Georgia - just about any time. Winter, spring, summer, or fall, the fish are usually around in good numbers. The tides or the time of day or night don't seem to matter a lot to these fish, either. As with most types of saltwater fishing, you'll likely have better luck around high tide, but we've hauled in numerous whiting at low tide, too. Whiting often bite when most other saltwater fishing species are suffering from lockjaw.

This is easy fishing, perfect for fishing with kids. You won't need complicated or expensive fishing gear to successfully land whiting, either. Light fishing gear, light line without a leader, and a sliding weight just heavy enough to keep your bait on the bottom is what you'll need. Whiting have relatively small mouths, so use a hook that matches - about a size six.

For bait, use fresh shrimp. A piece of shrimp around 3/4 of an inch usually works well. Fish it right on the bottom. If you find that you're missing a lot of fish and they're stealing your bait, try peeling the shrimp first.

Where to cast when saltwater fishing for whiting? They'll bite im=n different spots and at different depths. One of the best places to try is just where the waves are beginning to break. If you don't have any luck there, try fishing in a little deeper water.

Saltwater fishing for whiting is great when fishing with kids, and it's the perfect way to introduce your little ones to saltwater fishing. Fish from shore, from a fishing pier, or wade into the water for some surf fishing. After you cast your line, relax and wait for the tell-tale tap-tap-tap that indicates that a whiting is nibbling on your bait.

Kids won't need a lot of patience for this easy fishing. They can learn quickly that saltwater fishing can be rewarding, too, especially when you clean your catch and serve it up for dinner.

Whiting, a member of the drum family, has a very mild taste. And of all the drums, its flesh is probably the firmest. If you're handy with a fillet knife, you can quickly make two fillets from each whiting.

Don't let the cold weather keep you from saltwater fishing or fishing with kids. Wait for a sunny day and toss your fishing gear in the car. Stop at the bait shop for some shrimp, and enjoy some great saltwater fishing whenever you feel the call!