What fish species where you are is best for eating?

[waldi]

Perch pieces (Nuggets) deep fried in beer batter with fat chips and tartar sauce.
Luvly

You can even buy them in big supermarket takeaways over here.
Tastes like pollock.

 

[John Aston]

We should stop the EU from fishing our waters, mostly France. We do not need them. Every other country looks after their fish so should we.
The EU have nothing to lose from raping our seas. It is about time we used our independence.

The problem with that argument is -

# we sell what we catch , primarily to EU nations
#but we import what we eat , primarily from EU nations and Norway
# almost all commercial fisherman don't know when to stop(Newfoundland Grand Banks are proof of that )
# 'every other country looks after their fish'. Check out China's fishing activities ..
# and , how can I put it, fish move around . 'Our' fish sometimes fly a Union Jack (or perhaps Red Ensign ) but in a month or so they are flying the tricouleur and singing the Marseillaise ...

In my ignorant youth I tried chub , bream and roach . Ghastly . I've eaten pike in France (bony but tasty ) , perch from Lake Geneva (delicious , eel in France (incredibly rich ) , and carp in Poland (utterly vile , muddy and horrid ) .

I've eaten salmon and sea trout I have caught - a very rare event, but lovely . Grayling - scaly and not worth the effort . I eat all my bigger rainbows , but get them all smoked . The very best fish I have eaten in the UK ? Arctic char , from the far NW of Scotland .

 

[The Runner]

Have eaten perch once in the UK- had one about a pound and a half go belly up on my net many years ago for no obvious reason. Was delicious baked in butter. Had it a couple of times in Finland as well, once in a restaurant and once over a campfire.
Really liked eel as well.
As with Grayson, Arctic Char was the best (Finland again)
These days virtually everything I catch up here goes back , have kept a few deep hooked pollack but not massively keen on them

 

[steve2]

We do have a strange thing in this country in that we wont eat what we catch but will buy the same thing over the counter at a fishmongers or butchers. Even when it comes to sea fish and game.

 

[rayner]

Zander would be a good fish to target for the table. They are in the vermin class. Being a freshwater fish you can keep them, I would perhaps feed them to next doors cat. You never know feeding the cat will stop it from digging up the garden for its toilet.

 

[Keith M]

Things certainly change over time. Going back a couple of centuries there used to be ‘Gudgeon parties’ held on the banks of the river Thames, where the Ladies and gentlemen used to catch gudgeon; and fry them up and eat them just like white-fry. NB: it must have been a bit upstream of London though as the Thames was full of excrement back in those days
And also Pike were regarded as being much better for the table than Salmon. Plus Lamprey were considered good to eat.

I have a book ‘the fisherman book in pictures’ which has pictures taken from somewhere on the continent showing them netting Carp and Pike with a large Siene net for selling for the table, and using several lakes for a type of crop rotation.

I have eaten Carp and Pike and jellied eel with liquor in the past but didn’t enjoy any of them, my favourite fish to eat are Cod, Haddock and Skate; preferably coated in breadcrumb or batter, together with chips, mushy peas and a Gherkin, plus various Crabs, Prawns and lobsters.

Keith

 

[no-one in particular]

The problem with that argument is -

# we sell what we catch , primarily to EU nations
#but we import what we eat , primarily from EU nations and Norway
# almost all commercial fisherman don't know when to stop(Newfoundland Grand Banks are proof of that )
# 'every other country looks after their fish'. Check out China's fishing activities ..
# and , how can I put it, fish move around . 'Our' fish sometimes fly a Union Jack (or perhaps Red Ensign ) but in a month or so they are flying the tricouleur and singing the Marseillaise .

I think your comments are very misinformed-Commercial fishermen stop when they have reached their quota, it is the mismanagement of the quota system that causes the over fishing. This was the case with the Newfoundland Banks and the case in our own waters, it is a failed system anyway but that's an argument for another thread. Its not the much maligned commercial fishermen's fault. Look at the science and the politics, that's where the blame lays not with the commercial fishermen; they just do their job as instructed within the rules imposed on them. It was bad politics and bad science that ruined the Newfoundland Banks and our own waters.
Populations of smaller food fish do not travel as far as you might think, temperature, food, spawning grounds determine how far they travel. There is a British food stock that hug our coast where the food and good spawning grounds are available, they travel but they stick close to British waters. Fish them out and they do not just get re populated from other parts of the sea. In fact the Newfoundland banks are a good example, virtually fished out in the 80's and hardly any regeneration since then despite massive protection. This is what has happened to our cod stocks and probably other species and mackerel are heading the same way in my opinion.
Some of our cod populations are separate and by and large British the fact is a large part of our sea is not anywhere near the EU sea of which they have little for the size of it and the massive population they have to feed. The warm gulf stream also determines where our fish are, the British isles are bathed in this from the Atlantic on most of our western, southern and northern areas far away from France or the EU.
I am sorry but this idea that the ocean is full of free swimming fish that swim far and wide is true of many large species but small food species by and large "belong" to the coastal waters of the country they inhabit, fish them out and you lose them for a very long time or may never recover at all. And that is what has happened with EU control of British waters. We can put that right now.
As too losing our export market, trust me this will survive and may even improve..

 

[John Aston]

Quotas - wonder why they were thought necessary in the first place ? The odd commercial fisherman I have spoken to tend to disbelieve all and any science, and insist there's plenty of fish .

Fishing has a hold on the British public , and an influence in our politics out of all proportion to its monetary worth - 0.1% of GDP . And who can be surprised - we don't actually eat much fish ,and what we do eat is mainly the usual -yaawn - cod or haddock . Try getting a decent plate of shellfish in Scarborough ....

 

[bullet]

Try getting a decent plate of shellfish anywhere in the UK.....

Sea fish for me, only what I can catch, I do eat Rainbow Trout occasionally and as Grayson, always smoke them.

My favourites in no particular order...

Mackerel
Bass
Gilt head and black Bream
Mullet ( hugely underated, imo)
Plaice
All types of Crustacean

 

[no-one in particular]

Quotas - wonder why they were thought necessary in the first place ? The odd commercial fisherman I have spoken to tend to disbelieve all and any science, and insist there's plenty of fish .

Fishing has a hold on the British public , and an influence in our politics out of all proportion to its monetary worth - 0.1% of GDP . And who can be surprised - we don't actually eat much fish ,and what we do eat is mainly the usual -yaawn - cod or haddock . Try getting a decent plate of shellfish in Scarborough ....

Quotas were first brought in the 60's to try and and protect diminishing cod stocks and other species since then. It was obvious at the time that cod stocks were falling and as an important food fish worth trying to protect. I think it goes beyond a simple 1% of GDP, that ignores the thousands of people that rely on it for jobs and their livelihoods not to mention the proper conservation of an important food chain. The value of something is not always just down to GDP and comparing it to the whole of the big GDP number belies its value overall to a nation like ours; its just a number. It is important to maintain a healthy thriving fishing industry in this country for all sorts of reasons. Even more so as world fish stocks are for ever diminishing and the value of those stocks will rise considerably as time goes on. We should manage it as effectively as we can, even more so as it will become a British asset and responsibility..

 

[spoonminnow]

Fish farming - a form of aquaculture - may be the long-term answer to the decline in wild fish populations. Certainly not regulatory agencies.

Worldwide, the most important fish species used in fish farming are, in order, carp, salmon, tilapia, and catfish. It involves raising fish commercially in tanks, fish ponds, or ocean enclosures, usually for food. A facility that releases juvenile fish into the wild for recreational fishing or to supplement a species' natural numbers is generally referred to as a fish hatchery.

I don't know of any near where I live but a search shows many in N.Y.

 

[The Sogster]

As others have said I found grayling the best tasting of our fresh water fish.

I have eaten plenty of tilapia and various catfish but the strangest was a dish of carp brain curry in Himachal Pradesh, very tasty it was.

 

[Philip]

Suprised no one has mentioned Esperdon (swordfish) yet...brilliant marinated in honey, mustard and Garlic & done on a BBQ and probably the closest fish I have ever come across to being like meat.

I have munched on most of the others at one time or other...even had Barbel once (which was awful). I have a clear recollection of when I had Perch which was in a resto next to one of the big swiss lakes ....they were done as little fillets, a dozen or so arranged around a plate, with a sqeeze of lemon they tasted ok however when you turned them skin side up and saw the stripes it just didnt seem right and I wont eat them anymore.

 

[no-one in particular]

mm

Fish farming - a form of aquaculture - may be the long-term answer to the decline in wild fish populations. Certainly not regulatory agencies.

I don't know of any near where I live but a search shows many in N.Y.

I think there is some hatchery of sea fish going on in the UK that are released in the wild, sure I have read that somewhere but fish farming for food has its problems. I think the whole area of sea fish hatchery is good though, very few of the eggs fish lay ever make it to the first year so rearing them through this first critical stage and releasing them has got to help. We are here to solve the problems we make.

 

[no-one in particular]

Back on the food front, Iceland do lovely two dover sole fillets for 2.50p flavored with a few herbs, no skin or bones. Lovely and moist and great value, I have them once or twice a week with salad or vegetables. very healthy, no heart fat.

 

[John Aston]

Quotas were first brought in the 60's to try and and protect diminishing cod stocks and other species since then. It was obvious at the time that cod stocks were falling and as an important food fish worth trying to protect. I think it goes beyond a simple 1% of GDP, that ignores the thousands of people that rely on it for jobs and their livelihoods not to mention the proper conservation of an important food chain. The value of something is not always just down to GDP and comparing it to the whole of the big GDP number belies its value overall to a nation like ours; its just a number. It is important to maintain a healthy thriving fishing industry in this country for all sorts of reasons. Even more so as world fish stocks are for ever diminishing and the value of those stocks will rise considerably as time goes on. We should manage it as effectively as we can, even more so as it will become a British asset and responsibility..

A little more research , with ONS , reveals fisheries being worth 0.03% of GDP in 2020. 61% of that was made up of Scottish catches. Total value pa less than £500m . Less than Harrods , apparently . But it certainly punches well above its weight when it comes to its political heft.

 

[mikench]

We have been watching too many Nat Geographic TV shows about fishermen braving the elements and bringing home the catch for their families. As already stated what we catch we export and what we eat we import so where is the sense in that. Most quotas were sold to "foreign" vessels years ago so our whinging trawlemen have little credence. One man boats on the other hand are ecologically sound but hardly of economic significance.

I too like swordfish, red snapper, red mullet, herring, sardines and mackerel. John Dory are delicious too. We don't need cod.

 

[108831]

I think all fish are tasty and we should all go out and empty our waterways,the most tasty of all are carp,which supply commercial fisheries full of them,my favourite is the three spined stickleback,and they are quite sustainable and only equate to three hundred per portion...

Seriously wth hell is this thread doing on FM,absolutely ridiculous and does nothing but encourage the A-holes who remove fish from our fisheries....

 

[steve2]

I wonder if the reason we eat mostly cod is because we were bought up eating fish and chips and fish and chips is cod and chips. Very few of us try into other types of fish, it is foreign food to us.
I have eaten many types of fish and will continue to do so. Why not have put and take carp lakes there are millions of the things going spare.

 

[rayner]

I have all manner of sea fish, If it is on the fish counter I have tried it. Local supermarkets have a limited number of species, what it all boils down to is, do the customers like or want it. Obviously, local tastes are as limited as the range of fish.
The only time I used to get really fresh fish was when I caught it myself.