There are plenty of fish that fishermen set out to catch–and then there are the ones that fishermen end up catching without meaning to. Fishermen have a name for these kinds of fish, the ones we don’t want to catch. We call them "trash fish."
Not a very poetic name, huh? Makes me want to apologize to the fish.
These are fish for which there are no recreational regulatory limits, mostly because no recreational fishermen are targeting them.
Around Cape Cod, most fishermen would lump into this inelegant category: dogfish, sea robin, skate, and cunner. They're edible, each one. But they're not the fish you're typically looking for. They're nothing that most fishermen, or cooks, would feature in a meal.
But Andy Nabreski, of On The Water magazine, reminded me that trash fish have a noble heritage in feeding fishing families. Traditionally, commercial fishermen would take their most valuable species to the market to be sold. The trash fish would come home with the fisherman, to go into a stew. Both bouillabaisse and cioppino are two classic fish soups that evolved to use the scraps and odd fish that didn't make it to market.
Every one of our trash fish species–along with shellfish like mussels and even periwinkles–can be cast into the pot when making a fish stew. So if you're feeling adventurous, try bringing home a trash fish.
You'll find more talk on trash fish, plus a roundup of the week's fishing action (a BIG wahoo caught out at the Canyons), in this week's Fishing News. The audio is posted below–give it a listen.
