BigBendFishing.Net

I've been reading the thread on Red Tide and I have a follow-up question .

Had a friend come up to me at Church yesterday and ask me a question.

He likes to fish the close in Grouper spots and was out Friday. The location was somewhere between the Saint Marks and Wakulla reefs. He caught a 20 inch grouper that had a very strong nasty smell to the fish when it came out of the water. This man spent significant time as a homicide detective and he said it was just like the smell of a badly decomposed human body He said it was actually tough to get close enough to the fish to remove it and release it. He did't seen any dead fish and that was the only one he caught that had the horrible smell to it. Has anyone else ever experienced this or caught fish in an area known to have the Red Tide and is this indicative of what you would expect?

Might have eaten some of that putrid fish. I semll like that when I have been eating good Kimshee all week.

BTT ... feed back needed...

Everything that I have read include a handout at the state park, it doesn't sound like red tide. Actually, I was surprised that the beaches didn't have much of an odor at all.

I think it was fish B/O !

Should get his numbers on those rocks and do more research.

Funny you ask the ? of a bad small, I fished out of Shell point last Friday with Onekeeper's borther and caught a Red that had the smell of something dead,,,,and I mean bad. We talked about it for a few minutes and didn't think anything more of it,,,.Was there more to it????

Thanks for the feed back TT! I've sent a question to FWC but haven't heard anything back yet. They've not been very good about replying in the past, hopefully they'll get on this.

I've caught red grouper before that smelled rank. They go back into the drink.

They don't call Red grouper Sea Possums for nothing. They will eat anything. I've thrown away entire reds after cutting them open to clean them. Nearly all of them stink, some worse than others.

DWilliams wrote:I've caught red grouper before that smelled rank. They go back into the drink.

ditto

I know next to nothing about fishing (learning slowly), but I caught a croaker at Bald Point that nearly made me gag when I was getting it off the hook. Wasn't really a fishy smell, just really sharp and putrid. I've caught plenty other fish off the dock there, and it's the only one to have had that sort of odor about it.

I have seen several red grouper with little worms in them,kind of in the thickest part of the fillet ..Is that normal? Also bought some flounder with the same little worms in them.I could not bring myself to eat them although they would prolly be ok.Haven't noticed a smell tho

GAJOEY wrote:I have seen several red grouper with little worms in them,kind of in the thickest part of the fillet ..Is that normal? Also bought some flounder with the same little worms in them.I could not bring myself to eat them although they would prolly be ok.Haven't noticed a smell tho

Cook 'em and eat 'em. All fish have parasites. As long as they don't smell eat 'em.

Sir reel wrote: I've sent a question to FWC but haven't heard anything back yet. They've not been very good about replying in the past

Did the FWC get back to you yet?