Redfish

This is a redfish or ocean perch. They used to be the bread and butter of the huge dragger fleets that used to work out of large ports like Portland, Maine and Gloucester, Mass.

You can see that they are covered with spines and many a man has had to be air-lifted off of a boat within a day or two after having been poked by one of these guys. The fins have some sort of poison on them that can kill you if not treated.

They are a huge pain in the ass to get out of gillnets because they are so small (the one pictured is HUGE) and they are covered in spines. But damn, are they good. We used to fillet them up between strings of gear, microwave them and have sandwiches.

Good stuff.