Any Sculpin eaters out there?

Started by Steve-O, September 08, 2014, 04:26:52 PM

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Steve-O

Not sure if this is a recipe question, a fish question or a fishing question......so I stuck it here.

I will be back up in Alaska next week for the annual trip and will get my answer pretty much the first day there because I will catch, cook and eat one, but I thought what the heck, with all the west coast anglers on here and a few AK anglers...I just might get some Pre-Trip-Intel.

Searching the web scored a goodly number of Sculpin angling hits, fishing trips targeting Sculpins and quite a few recipes for cooking them up.

On the AK fish forums I visit preparatory to my AK trip I found a thread similar to this one only it requested info on Irish Lords - a fish I have caught up there before. The elitist attitude seemed to be - " it's a trash fish, throw it back" or "cook it however you would cook worms or other bait" with generally a derogatory response.

Some feel the same way about catfish - but smart folks know better. Catfish = tasty, tender white flakey meat with few bones. Albeit some cats do taste muddy.

I ask because I catch a ton of them just dinking around on the dock trying to get a limit of 2 Copper rockfish. Some of these Sculpins are up to 5-6 pounds and would make a nice couple of fillets. And nice white meat fillets means FISH TACOS!


The fish pictured are cousins to the Cabezon and Irish Lord ...so it should be good eating despite the gianormous head and poisonous spines.


Anybody eaten them lately? thanks in advance.

Steve



the rockfish ninja

I am no expert on this but I've read they are almost as good as Cabezon, and I like Cabbies so much that I refuse to deep fry them and will only sauté them up with olive oil/butter/salt/pepper/onion/maybe some garlic, but that's it, no batter & grease to get in the way of the quality of meat. That looks like a great sculpin or a plain sculpin, don't know if they're as good but so closely related that they might be. Let us know how it shakes out for you and your reviews on the eating value.
Deadly Sebastes assassin.

Steve-O

It is a great sculpin which is pretty common in this bay. You can throw anything with a hook on it and dredge one up. I use plastic grub lead head jigs, Pixee spoons, home-made knife jigs, etc. With or w/o bait tipping the hook. What comes up with each cast is usually a great sculpin, then the Pacific Staghorn sculpin ( which I hear already is mushy and yucky tasting), then various flat fishes, and finally a Copper Rockfish which I target for my fish box.

So next week I will either load up with a few extra pounds of white meat fillets or spit it out and toss the rest off the dock after I catch, cook and eat the first one.

The lodge owner says the bay is just one big sculpin nest...as he has to unhook his clients' rods who catch those. No Double Uglies in this bay so far. Oh then the Irish Lord and Greenling round out the list.

I get gobs of Pacific Cod up to 30 inches with ease right under the dock after every day's Silver Salmon cleaning and I know how good eating they are. It's the other fish in "fish-n-chips" besides Halibut.

This pic is another Great Sculpin with the nickname of the Tammy Faye Baker sculpin. All made up with nowhere to go. Handle with care as you can see the nasty pointies.


Normslanding

In my hometown of San Pedro there were many people who eat Cioppino. As a kid I made good money selling Sculpin for Cioppino. They are great eating. I always thru back the Cabies because they were soft and could not stick you, just had a fond spot for them. But both are very good eating. Not many around Florida. I would gladly trade some of our giant Lizard fish for some Sculpin!

Big Tim

Steve-O this is the recipe section and I will say Sculpin is tremendous table fare...That being said I believe you should make your fish tacos and add one of these  ;D ;D ;D Nice fish!

maxpowers

They are very good to eat and well regarded as table fare in SoCal.  Light sweet flavor.  As an aside, if you are accidentally stuck by one, filet the fish and find the gallbladder or something like that.  It is about the size of a pea and kinda darkish green.  Squeeze the content onto your wound and rub it into the wound.  You should feel better in about 10-15 minutes.  An old deckhand show me that trick when I was stuck by a sculpin.

Steve-O

Well there's good news and bad news to round out this thread.

The good news - Sculpin IS good eatin!

The bad news - I fished daily for them and only on the last day there did I manage to dredge up two big enough (maybe 4 pounds each)  to make it worth killing them for the fillets.

Here they are on my plate.



I sauteed them in soy and lime then onto the plate with a little cocktail sauce. Very tasty with a chew factor that reminded me a tad of lobster or shrimp. Or a very tender clam but not rubbery.

Every drop with one of Saltydog's jigs pulled up a nice Pacific Cod instead of the usual suspects - Sculpins. But that was okay as my Idaho buds came by and cleaned up on fifteen or so meal worthy cod.


the rockfish ninja

Good to hear it worked out, the fillets do look similar to cabezon. Here's an article about them in this months pacific coast sports fishing, seems they used to commercial fish for them at one time.

http://epagepub.com/publication/?i=218859&p=98
Deadly Sebastes assassin.