Carmel Fishing

Went out today to fish at carmel by garrapata park caught a weird looking fish from the research ive done its a kelp greenling I think? How do you guys usually eat these? the skin on this thing is crazy rough thanks for any advice here's a pic

Oh dude! you are going to get some "diverse" ideas  ignore the guys who say cook the head and use the rest for crab bait  

nice one...greenling fo sho...

Can't go wrong with deep fry.
Or
Bake in soy sauce/oyster sauce/ green onions/ ginger/ n salt.

  what they said I guess... don't eat them myself........ if I would have known I would have joined you on the rocks instead a sat at home and did nothing

Where's Jim when the "how do I eat it" question crimes about.

Fillet it. Turn it over pin down the skin and fillet that off. I like to soak it in beer and mix up 65 percent corn meal 35 percent flour add your seasonings. Drop in hot oil in your frying pan.( flick water in it. It crackles it's ready.) till the outsides crispy and the insides firm.

Nice thanks for the advice guys I ended up filleting the fish gonna fry it tomorrow with some seasoning im not sure if I should season it with lime garlic salt and pepper just how I did on the perchs I caught earlier this week im sure it will taste different since its a different species of fish yeah beer hunter a lot better than sitting around when theres all that coastline to fish ill let you know next time I hit the rocks bro

It's just gonna be less flaky then perch.

I've tried it twice, different method each time, and it was just ok.  Haven't tried frying though.

I usually throw those guys back now, but I really love the colors on those things.  Enjoy, let us know how you like it fried.

.Thanks for the report and picture andyboy92.

Yup, kelp greenling. One of the easiest fish to filet. Be careful keeping fish you can't ID. Or, at least don't post on the internet that you kept a 'mystery fish.'

Having lived in the south, all manner of fish may be deep battered and fried.  for that matter all manner of road kill may also be deep battered and fried.

That's a good-sized female kelp greenling.  The males and females have strikingly different color patterns, with the females having that yellow/golden pattern with a lot of spots and the males having a more dusky grey pattern with large blue spots.  Very pretty fish.  I don't keep them very often because rockfish, lings, and cabezon are all better for the table IMO, but in a pinch they'll fry up just fine.  I find nothing offensive about how they taste...but nothing to really highlight either  .  They're just "eh".

Be careful keeping fish you can't ID. Or, at least don't post on the internet that you kept a 'mystery fish.'

This x1000!  Keeping fish you can't identify is like playing with fire.  When in doubt, throw it back.  Kelp greenling have size limits and are part of your RCG complex limit.

I caught my only greenling last year on the trip I caught a whitefish and they were the same general shape/length...made some fillet's and put in a freezer bag...when I got around to thawing that bag out a month later we made a dinner for two...neither fish was super good but they were OK..pan fried spice/butter no skins...
 one of them  was a bit worse than the other...dont know though which fish was mushier...greenling or whitefish

next time I will cook a greenling the same day and try a breaded deep fry like mentioned above...if still a tad funky i will catch and release any others from then out...let me know how it came out
craig