Spearguns

[100days-a-year]

I've never seen worm in a grouper.How bout you guys in the Gulf?The AJs on the east coast are full of them.They get bought up by the fast food industry.If you've ever eaten a fish sandwich at the major chains it was probly AJ.The AJs on the west coast appear not to be used as a vector for worms.From what I have gathered they are passed up the food chain to thier eventual hosts.There are cases of humans getting them by handling fish flesh with open wounds.As Rick,I believe mentioned,scombroid (tunas & mackerals)poisoning is more of my concern as is ciguatera.Scombroid poisoning appears to be caused by histines produced by these rapidly decaying fish.Ciguatera is caused by toxins passed up the food chain from reef fish to predators.There is wealth of info at any of the universities with marine labs.Thats how I spend my windy weekends,on the net looking for linx to diving and fishing related info.

 

[Rick Murchison]

I've seen wormy amberjack, speckled trout, white trout, redfish and others, but don't recall seeing a wormy grouper from the Gulf. That doesn't mean they don't get wormy somewhere sometime - but I've never seen it.
Unless the flesh is really riddled with 'em I don't worry about it - as far as I can tell cooked fish worm tastes like cooked fish.
Rick

 

[100days-a-year]

Very funny Rick....you know I heard it was the trout that gave the AJs worms.Here in Jax it's kind of a fox paws to shoot a jack on purpose.The only one who do are the commercial guys.It's a last ditch fish for them as snapper and grouper pay 3 times or more as much.As far as sporting,AJs are the dumbest fish in the water.I've had schools swim around me for 15 to 30 minutes when hanging .There is a paradox about them too...on the west coast thier close cousin is the revered and tasty yellowtail.They are both seriolas.

 

[Bob]

I've never took a grouper with worms. Somebody will probably write in to tell about the wormy grouper they caught....:tree:Bob

 

[scuba_adventurer]

The grouper that I have caught that had worms were all off of the South shore of Grand Bahama. They were little green things throughout the meat. It was more of a problem last year, 3 out of 5 fish had them.

I have never had a wormy grouper in Florida, but I don't fish there as much.

 

[Bob]

Scuba Adventurer,
Never seen a grouper with little green critters in it. Like the other guys I've seen then in AJ's and such, but no grouper. I don't fish when I'm out of country and have never heard anyone talk about it. Could be your experience is a site specific thing. Someone else may have some more input on this. Thanks for the info. :tree:Bob

 

[Sara Smiles]

Greetings fellow fishfinders,

For the record, I've never had a wormy fish in my life. Maybe cause Palm Beach, FL is so close to the Gulfstream and Wisconsin where I'm from originally the water is soo freakin' cold. Super clean water.

The King Mackeral is history; GRILLED HIM - THE BEST (see recipe above thanks mucho), MADE CHOWDER (see website NY Seafood
listed above), AND FISH SPREAD (FROM "Hook to Table" by Vic
Dunaway - a Florida Sportsman Magazine Cookbook). They all
were excellent. It was totally iced and the blue silver color was still like a rainbow after 3 days, so it was okay.

The blood line went to my Tabby orange cat - Data - people do hate to see this dark meat
The skin went to my black lab Ronnie, who almost BIT my hand off (now she just looks at me when I give her a milkbone
Like,--"YOU've GOT TO BE KIDDING ME, eat this - where's the good stuff???"),
The remains - bones and leftover from cleaning went in the canal for the turtles and great herons.
That KING went back into the good ole food chain of life.

Back to spearguns --- went back to the LDS and tried a 42"
Biller and could load it, then tried a 48" Biller and could load it. The trick was not loading from the stomach, but from the hip.
Ah ha!
Who was explaining about loading. Someone here warned me.
It just dawned on me.

Tony - 100 days
So, the 48" gun WAS okay. I'm convinced.
The u/w hunters handbook I could not find at Amazon.com or LDS or LeisurePro catalog. Could you please let me know who the author is? Didn't know what scombrid meant -- now, what is seriolas?? You guys are talking over my head. Thanks for the great input.

Stone -
Looked at the JBL website and did learn a lot about accessories and guns. You were right. I bid on a JBL explorer on EBay.
Someone else snatched it at the last minute for $50. It was
really not long enough though...
rationalizing again....

Rick - You and others convinced me the 48" gun was the best choice. Good advise. Thanks.
- and the recipe was to die for.
I do use Old Bay Seasoning a lot on shrimp and lobster never thought to put it on fish.
For snapper, grouper, king, hogfish, snook, (white fish) I generally use Lemon Pepper.
For Salmon Dill fresh if possible.
Blackened Fish is really good too, black pepper, white pepper, red pepper, tyme, made in a cast iron pan w/butter.

Dsquid - May bite the bullet and get a Riffe 48" 2XS, teak 3 band. Bid on one in EBay. Bids close 10/29. They have lots of new guns. The exact Riffe went on Ebay for $254 highest bid last week. Or maybe a 48" biller mohagany 3 bands, $170 from LDS. Or there was a JBL super carbine on Ebay - I bid $50 on that. Look at the difference in price!!!! Maybe this would have to be
an early Xmas present from the hubby. Do you think that excuse would work? and I could sweet talk him into the Riffe? He doesn't dive or spearfish, just drives the boat which is okay with me. Yeh, good plan, yeh...
Hey, thanks for the great NY seafood website. Wow its got a lot of recipes for every kind of fish. It's Just what I always wanted...
like my niece says.

Decided at this point I'm getting a 48" with 3 bands for sure.
Thanks one and all. Will let you know the end result.
Going to Marathon in the Keys this weekend. See ya....

 

[dsquid]

Glad you found the site useful, Sara. Tons of information on that site beyond the recipes too.

My Riffe is a bit smaller - I don't remember the exact size, but it's in the 34-36 inch range. I prefer that to the big guns when I'm working around wrecks. It's a 3 bander, and depending on the shot I'll sometimes only use 2 bands to avoid drilling the spear into a rusted out hull plate.

 

[Divemstr13]

I cook my king in steaks breaded with flour & egg wash, then some Bass Pro shops brand spicey breading. Cooked in 475 deg. pure peanut oil in the turkey/fish cooker til just right. Mix up a bunch a Bass Pro brand hush puppie mix with some whole kernnel corn in them. Whew eeee I gauron T !

 

[MrMrEZG]

Sara, have you aver given any thought to a pneumatic. I shoot a Mares Sten medi. It is about 36" long, and has a check valve built in that makes it super easy to load. when I bought it I had a 5'6" 110# girl show me how to load it and I was amazed at how easily it loads.

I know a lot of folks feel that band gund have more power, but everyone that I hunt with shoots band guns and we all kill about the same size and number of fish. My biggest fish is a 20# red snapper that was shot at 160fsw. He died with the first shot.


what I'm saying is don't overlook the "stepchild" of the spearguns.