The adventure of the Red Drum

Note: ALL THE FORAGING WE DO IS PERFECTLY LEGAL. ALL OF THE NATURAL RESOURCES DISCUSSED ARE COLLECTED ON OUR OWN PROPERTY OR HAVE BEEN OFFERED UP BY OTHERS. Finally, it is important that we be aware of the impact of fishing and foraging on the environment. While it may be economically friendly, it is only sustainable to a point; the sharks, dolphins and other predators around us don't have a grocery store to fall back on! We must be mindful of the fact that we are often in direct competition with them. For this reason, we do not necessarily support this lifestyle as a long-term substitute for going to a grocery store!


Hey everybody. Mike here. This is my first blog and first ever post so we'll see how this goes...
While I'd like to tell you a little bit about where we are geographically in Florida, how the seasons work, and what that means in terms of changes in fish abundance, I figured I'd spare you some of the biology geekyness and talk about some fun stuff!


Dita and I often feel like we've identified just about every species of bird, mammal, lizard and fish within our property. Time and time again however, during our regular excursions along the sea wall or within the brush, we find something we never would have thought we'd see. Dita is especially gifted at identifying and photographing larval fish and invertebrates that are drawn to the lights off the docks at night. Constantly adding to our catalog, she identifies a new species (to us anyway) almost every week. Two nights ago however, Dita and I decided to take our night-fishing/larval identification one step further. Using flashlights, headlamps (and fishing equipment, naturally) we crept along the wall looking down into the water when the tide was low, scanning the bottom for, well anything. I won't give away everything, but here's a taste of what we saw:

Gulf Toadfish (Opsanus beta)

This fish was laying laying on the bottom right next to the sea wall. As soon as I saw it I was convinced that it was some kind of scorpion fish (for you biologists, I was pretty sure it was at least in the order Scorpaeniformes), a typically benthic (or bottom-dwelling) fish that is often highly venomous. However, I sent this photo to one of my colleagues, a fish biologist at Boston University, just to be sure. It turned out I was absolutely wrong! I've seen scorpion fish before, but it seems that Dita and I were looking at our first Gulf Toadfish.

FOOD!!!!
Red Drum's on the Menu!

Red Drum (Sciaenops ocellatus) approx. 18 in., caught under a lighted area of a dock on light tackle

It's now Fall in Southwest Florida, and while bronze shades of red, yellow and orange can't be seen on any leaves in this tropical climate, they soon become visible on one of Florida's favorite fish.

Around this time (late August to November) in Gulf of Mexico, sexually mature red drum move shallow inlets, estuaries and bays to spawn and feed.

The fins of a Red Drum. Dita helped me net this guy as well as fillet it; it was pretty tiresome.

Dita had to help me out a lot with this one, both in catching it (lots of pilings and boats for fish to swim around, often breaking my line!) and filleting it. Red drum are notoriously hard to fillet due to their thick scales, large spinal column and enormous rib cage. Once you get past that though....you're in for one of the most delicious fish you've ever tasted.

Since this blog is supposed to touch on resourcefulness and foraging when talking about food (and because this fish is delicious without needing to add much of anything) we decided to keep our recipe simple.

I don't know about Dita (the REAL cook) but I'm not planning on posting recipes unless someone asks. I WILL post pictures of our meals though so you can drool and wish you had some! Really though, Dita's the chef. I just play with things that we find and take pictures. Here's what we had for dinner.

Redfish on the grill with lemons fresh from our lemon tree, some salt, pepper, and lemon pepper

Spinach salad with asian dressing and delicious popovers!

Tomorrow night we're using the leftover pieces from the raw fillets to make fish cakes, an extremely useful way to get as much out of your meal as possible.

Well I'm tired of typing/talking so....that's it I guess. Um, thanks? Bye?

Mike

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