# Are spadefish good to eat or not?



## Zork (Jan 11, 2006)

I'm not an experienced offshore man so i'm wondering about eating spadefish. I went a couple of weeks ago and the guy i went with was gaffing spadefish off the side of the boat and throwing them in the icechest. He says they are excellent eating. Other people that i have talked to say that they are not good to eat. Are they the offshore hardhead or what?


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## Brady Bunch (Jul 12, 2004)

Very tastey. White flakey meat.


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## Fish-a-mon (May 21, 2004)

Good table fair


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## txjoker (Jun 21, 2005)

Are they boney fish? I have heard that they are... I guess if they are that good, they may be worth cleaning.


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## Crossroads (May 21, 2004)

Fry them, pretty good fresh. Not as difficult to filet as triggers.


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## reddrum (Aug 11, 2005)

You have to get a pretty big one to make it worth while


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## metoo (Mar 27, 2006)

I only caught one and threw it back not knowing any better. It wasn't very big, but boy was it strong for its size.


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## triple f (Aug 23, 2005)

REALLY big ribcage, so you really need a good size one to make it worth while.....but EXCELLENT fish on the table!!! My wife gets kinda upset with me if I don't bring in at least a couple whenever I go offshore:tongue: . Excellent fried, but also do well on the halfshell on the grill.


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## rotti (May 12, 2006)

The are fairly good tablefare.....many people get spades confused w/ "trigger fish". The trigger meat is much more white.....but the spade is definitely worth frying!


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## triple f (Aug 23, 2005)

We freedive and spear em......they will swim away from you when you first tip over and start chasin em, but then they gotta turn sideways to check you out and thats when you popem in the gill plate! They can get pretty big....we've shot bulls that were HUGE!


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## zburges (May 9, 2006)

I heard Spadefish tastes pretty good fried up, but the snapper love them even more than the fisherman do. They make excellent cut bait, a fillet is impossible to rip off the hook. I once caught 4 snapper on the same piece of bait and then I had to use a knife to cut it off my hook. ahhh Good times.


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## X-LAX (Jun 26, 2006)

Spades and triggers are better than those red thangs. Oh I forgot, there terrible so let them go and post the spot so we won't fish there


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## Blue Water Ho (May 21, 2004)

Valkyrie said:


> . Not as difficult to filet as triggers.


No kidding!


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## metoo (Mar 27, 2006)

Blue Water Ho said:


> No kidding![/QUOTE
> 
> I've not had the experience to clean many offshore fish, but I have to say that I have never seen skin as tuff as a trigger's on suck a small fish. The ones we were catching were under 15 inches.


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## Bird (May 10, 2005)

Cooked up some spade last night on the halfshell. Mmmmmmmmmm.


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## grunt (Jul 25, 2006)

spade fish are great fun to catch 
they also make for Excelent bartering when you get back to the big city.
ive traded about 50 pounds of them for beer and a surf rod.\the guy thought they were flounder .........who am i to ruin his dinner ?


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## huntnetime (Jul 23, 2004)

A trick I learned for filleting triggers is to start at the tail and go forward. Much easier to filet this way. I like trigger and spadefish for table fare.

Sonny


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## CoastalOutfitters (Aug 20, 2004)

yep they are great to eat, try the huachinango sauce on them

take an old popping rod and a handful of 1/8 oz tout leadheads and some fresh dead shrimp or cut bait, that is a blast and you can kinda sight cast or jig at at the big ones.

great way to keep someone busy


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## mastercylinder60 (Dec 18, 2005)

i've never eaten spadefish, but if one of you bluewater guys would bring some into the dike one day, i'd be happy to come get them and settle this query once and for all.


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## chum (Mar 24, 2006)

They are great Fried!


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## Splitshot (May 23, 2004)

Went out 20 last week with the wife,son and his bud. My son had a blast with a popping rod with a small jig tipped with shrimp caught 48 of em. They eat great. 

Last year the wife 1st time out she got excited seeing all the fish under the boat she demanded the net...after trying Fritos and switching to bread she decked 4 queens to 8lbs my son quit fishing to help her and decked 4 more using white tissue as we needed the rest of the bread for sandwiches.


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