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Caught this today. About 1.5-2 pounds. A pretty decent fight. East of St Marks. When it came up off the bottom, we were saying WTH? Our first thought of the family it belonged to was correct after looking online, I found the species. Just curious if anyone has every caught one before and knows what it is. It was about 14-16 inches long.

it's a puffer of some kind we have been catching them the last few time out over at Econfina ,they pull hard also

Smooth back pufferfish, rabbit fish. Caught one 2 weeks ago in stony

Check this out from Capt Tommy Thompson. He's concerned about this

http://www.floridasportsman.com/2015/05 ... ing-4cast/

They are not an irregular catch in our area- I wonder if we ran them down south

May want to start keeping them.

But I will add this comment from Fish ID:

"Puffers have a reputation for their internal organs being highly toxic, yet the properly cleaned flesh of this species is reported to be excellent. It seems that the flesh to be eaten, must in no way be exposed to the viscera."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBavNhiSQS8

Dubble

Don't know why but they have been plentiful here lately. The first time I ever saw one was last year. Have caught around 5 or 6 the last couple times out.

We used to catch them off Miami way back in the day and eat them, too. My Mom was the expert cleaner avoiding puncturing the guts. These days, I would leave them alone. Puffer is a bit too dangerous for me, personally.
Asians like to serve them raw and if the lips tingle it's considered well prepared with just enough toxin but not too much.
Uh uh.

EJ

Yep. Smooth puffer. Never seen one, but I have not been on the water much lately.

bman wrote:They are not an irregular catch in our area- I wonder if we ran them down south

Really, seems like there are a lot of experienced inshore fishermen that have never caught one until this year. And this year they seem pretty plentiful

caught one of those w/ a mirrorlure this weekend over in PSJ, interesting looking little guys

Fished two hour Sunday AM....Two puffers on bone one knocker...ripping lipps I tell ya !!

We caught at least 7 or 8 of them last weekend in Steinhatchee... Nasty little fish, and they are hard to get off the hook once they blow up

True dat, no lip to grip.

I wondered the same thing Salty. Lot of folks never caught one and I talked to more since then.

have you caught them before this year Bman?

I heard from friend they caught their first ever in st marks yesterday. Something is definitely different

Fished the rock garden this morning and caught several of these ugly suckers. Good fight though. When the come out of the water, they pant like a dog! Very strange.