Around the Sound: With right cooking, Sea Robbins worth catching

The Island Now

By Jimmy Kallenberg

This past week’s fishing in the Western Sound had been pretty quiet for most reports.

A few fluke keepers, the bigger porgies still biting but moved east. There have been reports of small blue fish (cocktail blues) in the harbors and the bays but no big blue fish this week.

Most of the stripers bass have packed up and moved out east. The one fish that has shown up in abundance is the Sea Robin.

A Sea Robin is a Western Atlantic fish with thorns on its head and feeds off the bottom of our Western Sound. If will use its head at times to dig in the sand to uncover small sea creatures to eat.

Sea Robins will eat just about anything they can find, including segmented worms, crustaceans, shrimp, squid, and mollusks (snails and mussels).

Most people consider the Sea Robin as a trash fish; but not all. It could be an exciting moment if you have never fished before and this was the first fish you have ever caught.

To watch the face of a young child bring this not so good looking fish on deck is a picture worth a thousand words.

But for most of us who fish a lot it’s a catch and release program, unless your going to cut it up and use it for fluke bait.

When fishing for fluke, the Sea Robin can be a royal pain in the neck, simply because we don’t want them.

Sometimes they will get us all excited thinking we have got a nice size fluke on the other end of the line “Grab the net! Grab the net! Forget the net! It’s just a big Sea Robin”.

Here’s a little story about me growing up in this area that relates to my earlier opinion about Sea Robins.

Growing up in Port Washington, born in 1948, living near the water I can clearly remember when I was around 10 years old, my friend Skip and I were digging for steamer and clamming using our feet at dead low tide.

To our right was a huge bed on mussels up against a long jetty. I asked Skipp if anyone eat those things.

He replied “the French people do, my grandparents eat them and make this big kinda soup with all kinds of fish in it.”

Little did I know at the time he was describing a bouillabaisse.

Back then in the late ‘50s not to many people were eating mussels in the New York area, as a matter of fact very few restaurants had them on the menu.

Today they are available at so many restaurants, served as an appetizer or main dish.

Wow, today I love them in white garlic sauce or a red sauce. If you read last week’s fishing report I stated I’ve been fishing these waters for over 60 years; but for the last 50 years between me and my fishing buddies we have caught thousands of Sea Robins, only keeping a few to cut up and use for fluke bait.

Over the years, especially recently I have seen more and more people keeping them, saying that the tail end of the fish is good eating.

Just like my first thoughts about mussels, my thoughts about Sea Robins as an edible sea creature was not even a thought.

Recently at a friends house, I had a piece of fried fish thinking it was Sea Bass, after eating it was not Sea Bass but Sea Robin.

Got to admit it was pretty good. I’m sure some would say any fish would taste good if you fried it up and covered it with tartar sauce.

But again I have to admit it was good.

There are a few ways to cook the Sea Robin.

First, of all this fish should be at least two-three pounds because you are only using the back end of the fish.

Some people say it taste like chicken. The fried piece I ate, as a I said tasted like Sea Bass.

My friend used filets, sometimes people will cube the filet into pieces and fry them.

His recipes is the same one I use to fry all of my fish.

Coat the fillet in (both sides) flour. Then dip in well beaten egg, then into seasoned bread crumbs.

Finally, into a fry pan with a little Wesson Oil.

When done serve with the option of tartar sauce and vegetable sides of your choice.

Sea Robins can also be used for a fish stock or fish chowder. They are also an excellent fish to use in a bouillabaisse which contains several different types of fish and shellfish.

There are many recipes for a bouillabaisse, one of the simplest ones I know is “The Ladies’ Bouillabaisse.”

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