Guitar fish...?

[VICIII]

Is that the ray looking shark?? Never caught one but caught about 4 last night with a mixture of whiting and large bonnet head...
It had a ray head and small wings but then went down to a shark body and tail...
So is it a Guitar fish...

[cpn_aaron]

That's the most accurate description of a guitarfish I've ever heard. A ray in front, shark in back. They get caght at SI around this time of year for the next couple months. Allegedly they are excellent table fare. I caught on on SI beach once but my wife told me I should never keep and eat a fish uglier than me, so in it went. I was flattered by her statement until I remembered all the catfish we kept when fishing on the Santa Fe River that 4th of July weekend.

[VICIII]

That was great... Catfish...
How do you clean them? They were hitting almost as much as whiting... I would like to try them if they are good grilled...

[KodiakZach]

I was thinking about a SI roadtrip tomorrow and Saturday... but if it's whiting and bonnetheads, why travel? I can load up on them at Sunglow right now. Where are the snook hiding?

[VICIII]

From what I hear they are all around the inlet..
Some were hitting last weekend. Guys in the boats were catching them..
Red are hitting the SI now as well..
From the local reporter "There were also reports of redfish catches coming from anglers fishing in the Sebastian Inlet.
Should be worth comming down. I will meet ya if you make the trip. Snook are always under the bridge and greenies seem to work best. It is one of those things where you can see them and sometimes they bit sometimes not... BUT YOU CAN STILL SEE THEM.. Which can make me mad... Red are best out going tide casting spoons and jigs. SI tide for the inlet flow is two hours behind the posted tide.

[KodiakZach]

Vic, is the water still muddy as all heck down there like it is up here cuz of the recent rain?

[cpn_aaron]

I wouldn't even know how to begin cleaning and filleting one since I've never kept one. They are cartilagenous fishes so they shouldn't be too hard. It's like a cross between a ray (for front fillets) and a shark (for body), so I guess you merge the two filleting techniques. If you've never filleted a ray before here's the skinny.
Cut away the wings as close to the body cavity as possible as this is the thickest and best flesh. With the wings you will notice a thick cartilage in between two layers of meat. These are the fin rays which line up and look like closed venetian blinds. Depending on the size of ray it may be easier to chunk the wings up into pieces that are manageable for your fillet knife which needs to be razor sharp (on a 40 lb skate I cut up each wing into 8 chunks). Slide your knife along the fin ray layer as close to them a possible like deboning a regular fish. Ray flesh is soft (making it succulent) so try to glide the knife along the fin rays or you'll tear your fillets to all heck. If the knife pulls, just resharpen it or you'll regret it immediately. Repeat this for the underside of the wings and you'll have two nice skin on fillets.
Then, depending on your squemishness you can take the skin off as you would any other fish. This isn't really neccessary due to the non-abbrasive style of skin compared to sharks. I have to skin everything because my fish loving wife hates to even look at the skin.
I would reccommend trying out the guitarfish fillet job on a bigger one (they get over 3 ft in length) giving more wiggle room to experiement. Good luck and let me know if they're as good as I've heard.

[VICIII]

I have not been to the inlet since the storm but we have had a south to west wind since the storm. That normally muddies up the water but north of the inlet it always seem ok because of the water flow in and out of the ICW. Tarpooooooon are being spotted form the shore in Fort Pierce this week...
Fort Pierce Report
Capt. Duber Winters, of Greenwater Charters in Stuart, said there have been tarpon cruising the beach, taking artificials like D.O.A. lures. His clients are also catching big jacks, barracuda and a mixed array of fish along the beach. Big snook are staging in the inlet, too, but remember that they are strictly catch and release this time of year.
that was also from the Paper and hear that from a buddy who live in Fort Pierce.
Fort Pierce inlet is about 25 to 30 miles south of Sebastian Inlet. So with the south winds it will carry the warm water up and the fish with it. Should be a good weekend.