Thread: Eating skippies!

No, not wallabies, skipjack tuna! I know most people regard them as bait only, but having caught a few good size ones, I was keen to give it a go. Before anyone asks, fish were iki'ed, bled, gutted and iced immediately. On arrival home, they were filleted and dry aged for 24 hours.

First up sashimi. I made the mistake of leaving the bloodline in. It was pretty bad to be honest. After getting over that, tried again with bloodline removed and it was more than passable. Our Japanese and Korean friends don't seem to have a problem with it!

Second test was seared with sesame seeds etc. Again, made the mistake of leaving the bloodline in. Too fishy and not great.

Lastly, smoked. Whole fillets intact with bloodline. All of it tasted good. Proves my theory that anything will taste good after smoking!

I'd keep some for the table in the future, but for our tastes, the bloodline has to go unless the fish is going in the smoker.

Originally Posted by MB

No, not wallabies, skipjack tuna! I know most people regard them as bait only, but having caught a few good size ones, I was keen to give it a go. Before anyone asks, fish were iki'ed, bled, gutted and iced immediately. On arrival home, they were filleted and dry aged for 24 hours.

First up sashimi. I made the mistake of leaving the bloodline in. It was pretty bad to be honest. After getting over that, tried again with bloodline removed and it was more than passable. Our Japanese and Korean friends don't seem to have a problem with it!

Second test was seared with sesame seeds etc. Again, made the mistake of leaving the bloodline in. Too fishy and not great.

Lastly, smoked. Whole fillets intact with bloodline. All of it tasted good. Proves my theory that anything will taste good after smoking!

I'd keep some for the table in the future, but for our tastes, the bloodline has to go unless the fish is going in the smoker.

Mate eats them but you have to stick them and bleed them out immediately so they spray gun the deck with blood as they vibrate
I’ve tried them all ways and they still taste like bait……but I’m a fussy white fish eater��

Originally Posted by omark

Mate eats them but you have to stick them and bleed them out immediately so they spray gun the deck with blood as they vibrate
I’ve tried them all ways and they still taste like bait……but I’m a fussy white fish eater��

The mess on the boat after the first one was unbelievable! Second fish went in the livebait tank straight away. At least the mess was contained. White fish for cooking, red fish raw. That's how we do it in our house.

I will wager that most here have eaten Skippy straight from the can on the supermarket shelf

Iv eaten them twice, first time was amazingly good almost yellowfin texture and very good taste
second time was garbage and I dont know what went wrong, very fishy strong flavour. I assume It cooked itself fighting against the fishing line as It came in

both immediatly bled and flushed out in my tuna tube then put in the chillybin

Fill a 10L bucket with water, bleed them into that. Contains the mess nicely (tails in the sky means no power to kick anywhere, but the kicking actually helps with bleeding out into the saltwater). Once bled out, head, tail off, gut and scrape the insides out and into salt ice until chilled, then fillet and skin. I don't tend to iki them as it is easier to bleed them without iki-ing as it stops the muscles and kicking reflex. You need the blood out of them firstly as that contains a lot of nasty taste making stuff. I tend to slice basically up to the backbone while in the bucket, sometimes it's easier than others but it kills them pretty much instantly just doesn't stop them kicking like the iki does. When done right and cooled quickly well worth catching, top quality eating fish with a firm pink-off white flesh.

Don't delay with filleting them though, the blood muscle needs to come off the fillets too...

nah nah nah - why eat good snapper bait - use skippy - catch snapper best eating fish in ocean end of story

Originally Posted by No.3

Fill a 10L bucket with water, bleed them into that. Contains the mess nicely (tails in the sky means no power to kick anywhere, but the kicking actually helps with bleeding out into the saltwater). Once bled out, head, tail off, gut and scrape the insides out and into salt ice until chilled, then fillet and skin. I don't tend to iki them as it is easier to bleed them without iki-ing as it stops the muscles and kicking reflex. You need the blood out of them firstly as that contains a lot of nasty taste making stuff. I tend to slice basically up to the backbone while in the bucket, sometimes it's easier than others but it kills them pretty much instantly just doesn't stop them kicking like the iki does. When done right and cooled quickly well worth catching, top quality eating fish with a firm pink-off white flesh.

Don't delay with filleting them though, the blood muscle needs to come off the fillets too...

I know a fair number of Asians that will dispute the no iki part 1000%

Originally Posted by Barry the hunter

nah nah nah - why eat good snapper bait - use skippy - catch snapper best eating fish in ocean end of story

IMO snapper is highly over-rated. Yes, it is good but there are quite a few that come to mind that I prefer.

Originally Posted by Pengy

I know a fair number of Asians that will dispute the no iki part 1000%

Yep. Probably just because the skippy NEEDS to be bled out - no other tuna does in my experience. You want to stop every other tuna from beating itself to a pulp, and stuffing itself full of lactic acid in it's final moments and that's what the iki does. Shoving a wire through the backbone removing the central harness stops the muscles instantly and prevents lactic acid formation - but also traps any blood in the flesh which in the case of the skippy is very much not what you want. Each to their own, but for me it's the difference between top grade eating fish and catfood or bait.

Having said that, I had one charter out on the boat with asian gentlemen - they were actually an awesome group to have on the boat apart from the fact they nailed 5 frozen skippy's out of the bait freezer. I had caught them the week prior and straight into the freezer complete for bait and ended up not going out for big game due to weather. I figured I'd use them on the charter and save the price of a box of pillies, thawed the five out early that morning and left them in the salt ice. Came out after dropping the anchor and they'd found the lemons, the sauces and the bait knives and into the skippies. Taken photo's of their feast, made the charter for them the rest of the days fishing was just a piss around they were stoked. I couldn't believe it, five skippy frames later and 14 stuffed happy punters and we hadn't even started the day, crack me up...

Originally Posted by Barry the hunter

catch snapper best eating fish in ocean end of story

You've got to be joking!

If he believes that more power to him. More decent fish for the rest of us haha

Originally Posted by MB

You've got to be joking!

I just knew I would get a few negative comments - naughty me - no really bluenose hapuka Terakihi fresh kingi all great eating

I've found them to be pretty variable, even with a good bleed cool and fillet protocol. Some are mean, some have that strong iron slightly sour fish taste.

Karaage style is pretty good if you get a stronger tasting one.

Just a quick marinade of equal parts sake and soy sauce with a splash of sesame oil and glug of grated ginger. Leave for half an hour in the marinade.

Take out and dust with potato starch let sit for a minute then dust again and into the fryer. Super good.