which fish are edible ?

[Cookinman]

none if your fishing from south florida. i would'nt let my cat eat that stuff to much mercury in the water down here

Only thing I would consider off that list is crappie and then only from moving water.

Will prolly have a tad of murcure either way. Linesider is right-on with that.

....Mostly all my fresh water fishing is catch and release - But MAN in other parts of the country - Fried crappie is Da Bomb !!!!

[kyfisherman]

all those are great eating, except for carp.... Don't know anything about the mercury level in Fla. but here in Ky we eat a lot of bass, panfish, and especially the catfish.

[krash]

Any fish is edible, just ask a cane pole'r, or try fish in any Asian country.

But in Sunny South Florida, its probably not safe to eat any fresh water fish. My personal rule is nothing South of Lake 'O, and I don't fish North of Lake 'O.

[Cookinman]

all those are great eating, except for carp.... Don't know anything about the mercury level in Fla. but here in Ky we eat a lot of bass, panfish, and especially the catfish.

My bad - I thought he meant here in FL

You are right Ky all are tasty fish !!

[bassZooKa]

http://www.oceansalive.org/eat.cfm?subnav=healthalerts

i laughed at this several of my favorite food-fish are on the 'do not eat ever' list which i've been eating ever since i was a kid -- with much lip-smakkin' relish i might add
PETA probably puts this stuff out to discourage fishing

[agroce23]

How depressing!! I am new to S. FL. I grew up eating most of the listed fish. So how true is this really? I know for the most part fresh water inhabitants contain a small amount of Mercury. In some of my studies on the matter it is safe to eat most of the above freely. Bass do contain higher levels of Mercuryand it is recomended to stay away from eating too much Bass etc.. But does anyone have any info on the water supply here? i.e.(pesticides, Ox. levels) I couldn't find anything via internet. Good question none the less... ALG

[Cookinman]

How depressing!! I am new to S. FL. I grew up eating most of the listed fish. So how true is this really? I know for the most part fresh water inhabitants contain a small amount of Mercury. In some of my studies on the matter it is safe to eat most of the above freely. Bass do contain higher levels of Mercuryand it is recomended to stay away from eating too much Bass etc.. But does anyone have any info on the water supply here? i.e.(pesticides, Ox. levels) I couldn't find anything via internet. Good question none the less... ALG

Mercury is bad - Overfishing would be worse. Bass are so easy to catch because the canals are generally so narrow that if every bass fisherman kept only 1 fi sh everytime they fished we'd be outta bass so damn quick it would be funny.

Seriously thgough, the pesticides washed S From thge W Palm Agricultural area are no joke !

[kyfisherman]

Just being in South Florida a bit everyone says don't eat the freshwater fish! A lot of truth in it.

Here in Ky we have trouble people saying don't eat river fish out of the Ohio River. Over the past 20 years the river has cleaned up a lot and I have been eating fish from there for 15 years. The state says we should limit the number of meals a month and gives guidelines to each species, upon talking to a state biologist he sorta chuckled, He said the river is a LOTT cleaner than it was 20 years ago, and he told me I could eat them everyday for the rest of my life and not have enough merc to hurt me, he says the state just tries to play it on the safe side lol

[ReelTense]

intresting thread, Ive been tempting to eat a largemouth bass manly out of curiosity has anyone done that before? I watched alot of polers keep them but I always throw back just wondering if its a decent eat or should I wait till Im lost in the swamp to go in survival mode

[agroce23]

Bass are very good eating in my opinion. mmmmm

[Cookinman]

Bass are very good eating in my opinion. mmmmm

They are OK. I kept a few back in the late 70's early 80's before catch and release was really pushed. they are not bad. Taste is a lil "Muddy" imho.

Better fish to eat out there. I would prolly still keep a few Calico Bass ( Spec's ) from time to time if I got em from moving water.

However I only caught ONE in FL by accident waiting out a storm under a bridge over i-75 while running out of Holiday Park...

[agroce23]

never tried calico, my only real complaint is that bass arent as firm as some of the other game fish, none the less, still yummy..

[kyfisherman]

Hey cookinman, here are bass don't taste like some of the southern swampier bass.

I have ate bass that came from lakes down in south alabama and florida and they taste different. This fish up here are a lot cleaner tasting, no mud taste.

[Harpmanr]

large mouth bass-Good north of the big lake.
small mouth bass-Same
crappie-In my opinion Crappie & Peacocks are the best freshwater fish to eat.
blue gill/ sunfish-Fair
talapia-Good if it's wild, don't ever buy farm raised.
carp-Yuck!
peacock bass-Excellent
cat fish-Good, just be careful that the water you catch them in is clean. They are bottom feeders and will have in them whatever is in the water.
Myans-They are suprisingly good to eat.
Pickerel-Good to eat but bony.
Mudfish-Don't even try it.
Gar-No comment, it's not even worth trying.
Shad-They are really good smoked
Large wild Shiners-Yep Shiners! They are great smoked.