Eat your own bait!?

My wife is Japanese (from Hiroshima which is famous for seafood). While showing her pics from the Linda Mar outing, she was a lot more interested in the Macks than the seabass. In fact, she suggested I should have brought them home along with the sardines!

Known as "saba" and "iwashi", they are both pretty much eaten every day in Japan.

So my question to you is, do you ever bring home and eat the bait?

if i had the chance to catch it myself, most definately, saba and aji are two of my favorite nigiri, and sardine escabeche cant be beat, cameron

Yes, if they're still fresh!  I ate the Jack Smelts which were used to catch Stripers.  Haven't try the Macs or Sardines yet.

Fresh macks bled and iced right after landing are excellent on the grill.  Squeeze a bit of lemon on it and it is delicious.  Sardines aren't bad either.  It's hard to find real fresh macks and sardines at the markets up here though.

Mackerel and Sardines are good eats when fresh. Jack smelt no so much, but not awful either.

We used to use pickled herring as bait for sturgeon in the Columbia. My fishing buddies weren't happy with me snacking on the bait as we were fishing   

Ben

Pickled and salted herring is good.  My folks are from Holland and they used to go down to the boats as they came in and get the fresh fish.  I grew up eating it too here in the States, some specialty shops carry it.

obkook, did you notice me ask dave not to dump his stuffed baittank at LM on Sat?....well i took the dines an slapped them on the grill later that afternoon, brined the macks and smoked them. I had smoked mack and scrambled eggs for breakfast this morning. Smoked mack is one of my faves.........

My folks are from Holland

Mine came from Denmark, so you understand my appreciation of pickled fish 

When I was a teenager the smelt runs in the Lewis river in WA were pretty strong. These were much more delicate than the jack smelt in the ocean here, very much like trout in texture. We'd dip 5-10 gallons with nets off the bank. What we didn't gorge ourselves on that night got pickled. Wonderful stuff.

Thanks for prompting a fond memory.

Ben

obkook, did you notice me ask dave not to dump his stuffed baittank at LM on Sat?....well i took the dines an slapped them on the grill later that afternoon, brined the macks and smoked them. I had smoked mack and scrambled eggs for breakfast this morning. Smoked mack is one of my faves.........

Actually I did not notice that. Good move on your part, and the brekky sounds delish! 

I was just in the process of making a 3" dia. bait tube, but I may have to make it 4" instead, so when the "bait" is plentiful, I can stock up - both for eating and for brining for future use.

So my question to you is, do you ever bring home and eat the bait?

Ohio gozimas OBKOOK, even when I strip some squid I usually buy extra for me to cook, simmered them in Vinegar Ginger and Garlic as soon as the sauce almost dried up I'll put a can of coconut milk, um thats what we call "Ginataang Pusit" or Squid in Coconut Milk.. Yummy

OK....some knowledgeable person.....tell me how its done.

Bait-sized fish are as much bone fin & scale as meat.
Some have pretty sizable scales.

How.....do you make this work?

(When I lived in Portland,OR....we regularly ate smelt (which are bait-fish sized) by very
lightly frying them in butter and then "boneing them like trout" ....where holding the tail-fin
elevated, you use a fork to tease away the "bottom fillet"...and then as you lift the tail
the meat separates from the backbone.   Flip the fish  and do the same for the other side.
Now you have relatively bone-free meat.)

If you are barbequeing the fish...I'm a little dubbious how that'd be, with the bones & all.

Please..!!!...

Judd

Macks essentially have no scales, so grill them and eat like trout.  They are stronger tasting so if you are a "halibut" only eater, probably not the best choice.

Sardines and even anchovy are easy to scale and gut.  Chovies I just flour and fry, they are really good bones and all.  Sardines go on the grill and are similar to macks.  Debone like trout.

Smelt have a billion bones, so more of an issue, I use them for bait first.

one day i was sturgeon fishing with my freinds from laos , they were popping grass shrimp in there mouth like cheetos!i had to tell them to ether go get another # or stop!

I eat bait if I catch it fresh. Macks get smoked or lightly floured and fried with butter, I rarely eat them though. Sardines get tossed on the BBQ in foil with a little seasoning and fresh caught squid (my favorite) becomes fried calamari. I've only caught a couple so far this year though

they were popping grass shrimp in there mouth like cheetos!i had to tell them to ether go get another # or stop!

dayum that's funny.

the first and only time i ate leftover bait was after the stillwater opener this year.  Marv had some squid leftover and we fired up the grill.  Salted with a little lime, i ate the hell out of those things.  i liked it so much, when I got home, i went and bought another couple pounds and grilled up some more.  The little squids really shrink up so they make a decent appetizer only.  Def not entree sufficient.

As for macks, i like saba.  gotta bleed em, but they taste fine on the grill.  cook em outside in open air