Been fishing around the harbor and jetties for years and yesterday we got into a school of smoothback puffer fish aka rabbitfish. We didn’t keep any because I didn’t know if they were legal or even the species at the time, but I thought it was pretty cool. They were super aggressive. My uncle caught 2 on a pork rind (seriously) but we even caught one on a hook with no bait left, it followed it all the way back to the boat. Anyone else catching these intentionally or as bycatch? I’d include a picture but keep getting an error no matter which device I use to edit the post. What happened to this site?
they are not on the legal radar yet . very good to rat!
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Never heard of a rabbit fish. Learn new stuff all the time. Got to googling them and just got more intrigued. They say excellent table fair but fins are poisonous? then I found another sight that said any caught around here have poison all through the body?
. … any thing like this?
Yea, sight has deteriorated. I just tried to start a new thread and could not. On the pic posting, I still haven’t figured out how to go straight off my phone. What I do is send the pic to my E-mail. When prompted to send it gives me a size scale. I pic small or medium. When I open email on PC I drag it to my desk top and then drag back to this sight.
Puffer fish are delicacies in Japan. Prepared by trained chefs. They are extremely poisonous if not prepared properly.
Last time I put a crab pot out no crabs full of puffers.
The Japanese puffer Fugu is VERY toxic. but it is very different from a rabbit fish. The bladder and genitals and skin of the rabbit fish can be toxic . Only eat the flesh skinless I clean them without opening the gut cavity and skin with a knife. Never remove the skin by pulling it off with pliers . Ive eaten many and I seem to be OK
Please read: do not respond to the political forums trouble makers that spew filth and sewage with their name calling and constant insults. It feeds their sickness and harms this site as EF and others have noted
if you’re fishing for sheepshead inshore and you come back with a hook that’s been curled over on itself, it was either a striped burrfish or northern puffer.
they get thick sometimes, always talked about keeping a few dozen and having a fry, just haven’t been hungry enough with that kind of free time yet.
Yep, that’s about the same size we were catching. We had one bite clean through a steel leader as well. Really cool fish but yeah, watch those fingers!
We caught a ton on them in Florida. They are considered an invasive species and the locals told us if we were not going to eat them then leave them in the bottom of the boat to die. However, we released all of ours.
20 some years ago I caught a bucket full of rabbit fish in Elliot Cut , They were great to eat , I’ve caught them in the harbor and in Bulls bay while shrimping, Ive caught them fishing the jetties and at the Comanche reef I dont know much about their distribution or life cycle
Please read: do not respond to the political forums trouble makers that spew filth and sewage with their name calling and constant insults. It feeds their sickness and harms this site as EF and others have noted
