Fishing 8/2 with question
 

Hit the water early this morning and caught some spot (decent size) near the bridge. Put about 20 in the livewell and hit the pilings with an incoming tide. We picked up 8 fish; with only 2 boated. Why only 2 boated? Because 6 were nasty looking and we didn't want to even bring them into the boat, dehooker works well for these fish:eek:.

It was about this time last year that we left the bridge and headed south to pick up cleaner fish near poplar island.

I know that some of the marks on the fish can be attributed to scraping the pilings or contact with crab pots, but not some of the nasty stuff we saw today.

So here is my question, we saw a comercial hook and liner (last Thursday) bailing fish and only tossing over some obviously small fish back over the side. Do you think the comercial guys keep some of these sick fish (ones not too badly marked) and sell them to wholesalers? Once fileted; you will never know what the skin looked like. Is there a "standard" that the wholesalers use to buy fish? I might stay away from "fresh rockfish" on the menu the rest of the summer (for me personally).

I hope someone like "Reds" jumps in here to enlighten us. I would assume there is some control over sale of rock, and the condition of the fish.

There was another boat out there with us today and he caught mostly good looking fish with only a few bad ones. I'm glad his experience was just the opposite of ours. Because our ratio was so bad, I just had to ask.

5th (Marty)

I"d bet that the guys fishing for $$$ keep all they can. I'd bet the wholesalers fillet the myco infected fish and sell the "clean" ones whole...but what do I know.

Had a hook and liner tell me exactly that last year. Said "his buyer would buy them unless they were really bad". Good idea to catch your own rock to eat.............Mark

I am sure that is exactly what they do. Catch you own to be sure... ugh

TED

You know a lot about the seafood industry! As someone who spent 5 years of my youth filleting fish and steming crabs in a fish market, the good fish go in the case whole. When they start getting cloudy in the eyes and smelly in the belly (after about a week), fillet it up and put it in the case as a fillet for another week. Good as gold.

There have been some Annapolis area oystermen convicted of taking oysters off bars closed due to pollution.
These oysters were going to be sold to the public. They knew the bar was closed to harvest and the reason why.

Kinda makes sense the same would happen with sore / sick Rock.

I have kept some sore Rock. When filleted - the meat is an off light yellow hue - not really bad looking - just not the fresh , iridescence sheen of a heathly fat Rock. Side by side - big differance but once cooked - tough to tell.

Now , I pick through the sick ones to only take good ones.

In defense of hook / liners - some I know will move out of an area if they get too many sick Rock.

Question
 

Does it make sense to throwback sick fish into a school of otherwise healthy fish?

Wouldn't we be better off to harvest the sick ones and throw back the heathly ones?

I have kept all the sick ones and cut out the areas that seemed bad
(even though I couldn't tell once the skin was gone). (I'm still breathing)

What are the thoughts of our elders on these questions?:)

I think it makes more sense to use an icepick release and let the crabs eat them than to risk eating them at home.
That said I have always just let them go.

Since nobody else jumped in - here's my $.02 from personal experience.

Fish buyers are professionals and want a good product. The business I sell to has locations along the entire East Coast, their customers include all of the major grocery chains and restaurants. They have a reputation to look out for, as do their customers. Every fish is individually tagged with tags supplied by the DNR and allotted to that fisherman only. Each fish is visually inspected and weighed. If there are any that are even close to the minimum size they are measured. All fish must be thoroughly iced down from the time they are caught. Any obviously sick fish are rejected.
Personally, I won't even bring a sick fish into the boat, let alone try to sell one. Ending up with a case of "fish handler's disease" is not something I need to go through at this stage in life.

Thanks for that response; it's good to know that there is some restrictions on buying sick looking fish from the comm. fisherman. I was hoping this was the case.
5th (Marty)