Made it out to Chicopit Bay this morning, from about 1 am to 9:30 am. I was targeting the 3:30 low tide for the feeder creeks in the West Chicopit Bay where I can always pull in at least a couple of slot reds. I was there at the right time and I could hear the reds feeding near me but they didn't want what I had. I did find a hot bite for about an hour, where the ICW meets the river, at the end of the rocks. I had a hit on nearly every cast and I would have caught more if I didn't have to paddle back into position after every cast. The bite stopped as soon as the first hint of sun came up. I finished with 7 trout, 4 ladyfish, and 2 bluefish. I took home a 15 inch blue and an 18 inch trout. Everything was caught on a jig.

I'm a little late in posting this but it was about Mid-March that I caught the fish below. I had to look it up and it's called a cutlassfish or a ribbonfish. It was 36 inches long. The oddest thing was I caught it way up the western branch of Browns Creek, which seems kind of odd. Just wondering if anyone else has caught one of these and if so, was it in a creek or closer to the ocean?

I got one about 30" at a creek off of Vilano boat launch area. I just cut the line and let it go.

Great bait for trolling for kings

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Jackson Cuda

I caught one the same size and in the same location of Browns back in March or April

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Kevin

Hobie Outback
Native Mariner 12.5 (Propel Drive)
Diablo Paddlesports Adios

I believ it's a ribbonfish/frost fish very good trolling bait for big pelagics.

Looks like a $7.00 BILL! or come GJKT time it will be a $15.00 BILL!

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2012 Wilderness Ride 135
2012 Wilderness Tarpon 120

At 36" it might bring more than that, especially live. Most of the frozen ones I've seen sold for king fishing have been around 18". If you catch more you should try to freeze them flat and sell them to a kingfisherman.

I caught one in Browns on Friday.. I didn't have any idea what it was until your post.

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Matty -

OCEAN KAYAK PROWLER 13

Great bait for kings, but if ya are gonna catch them and keep them to sell, you will need to brine them before you freeze or they will just blow out when they are used for trolling.





Alex

how do you eat the blue? did you bleed it?
I have caught some decent blues and have thrown all back due to overwhelming sentitment that they are not good/difficult to make good. but I have read of some people that love them.

Nope, fried and heavily seasoned the blue. After cooking it, you can pull out in one long piece the dark line that runs down the center of the fillet, which is what gives it that fishy taste. If you eat the bluefish fresh, the same day you caught it, you won't notice the fishy taste people complain about but if you freeze it, then eat it, you will definitely want to pull out that darker strip. Even though, bluefish isn't my favorite fish to eat. Of everything I've caught and cooked since moving here, my rankings are blackened redfish, blackened black drum, fried flounder, blackened trout, fried trout, and a distant last when compared to everything before, fried bluefish. But fresh, it's still superior to most anything you'd get at the store or in a restaurant.

Yes that is a ribbonfish. When the kingfish tourneys come around we always buy them. And we've always caught 30lb + kings when we do use them.