[KILSONG]

I must get bored in winter. I know you guys think I am crazy, but Tachiuo (ribbonfish) jigging is very popular in Japan.
They catch ribbonfish on troll or on bait in Korea and they seldom use jigs for them.
Ribbonfish are abundant from Texas to North Carolina and they use ribbonfish as bait for king mackerel. However I plan to go down to NC this summer strictly for ribbonfish jigging as so many guys ask me to find places and boats for ribbonfish.
Does anyone want to join my ribbonfish expedition ?

 

[bretabaker]

do people eat ribbonfish? how do they taste if so?

 

[KILSONG]

bretabaker wrote:
do people eat ribbonfish? how do they taste if so?
Ribbonfish are excellent table fish. When caught fresh, you can eat sashimi too.

 

[dhoperos]

Try Trinidad & Tobago

Kil,

If you're looking for big ribbon fish, investigate Trinidad. The fish are abundant off the south, east, and west coasts. They are called 'cutlass' fish locally and grow very large.

The hard part will be finding someone who is willing to target them as they are considered a trash fish.

good luck,

david

 

[obtuseangler]

if you use a knife jig for needlefish are you matching the hatch or the catch?

 

[mrbill1]

Ribbonfish jigging? You mean targeting ribbonfish. Never heard of it.

I've done my best many times to catch fresh ribbonfish for bait. The problem is most of them are to large for bait. Some are three to four feet in length. We catch them in marina's under green lights that are mounted on the bottom with leadhead jigs.

I hope I never have to eat another ribbonfish. They are all bones. I've eaten some on a bet and it wasn't a pretty site.

When they first come out of the water they have a chrome plating appearance. Keeping them shiny for bait is a trick. Once frozen, you will never get that chrome finish again.

This post edited by mrbill1 09:40 PM 04/13/2008

 

[Ichibahn]

Hi Kil,
My Korean fishing buddy always asking me, where he can fishing for Ribbonfish.
I told him that bait fish for King Mackerel, and he told me that fish has excellent taste.
Last year we caught plenty good size of Cigar Minnow to use for King Mackerel bait and preserved it for next fishing trip.
And that night he's mother cook some of that Cigar Minnow with Korean spice, oh man.....that bait fish taste so good.....

no wonder King Mackerel like it

 

[KILSONG]

MrBill1,
here is an article of ribbonfish jigging in Japan.

ribbonfish jigging in Japan

Koreans are crazy about salted Kalchi(ribbonfish).
They don't mind driving 500 miles to catch ribbonfish.

This post edited by KILSONG 10:03 PM 04/13/2008

 

[mrbill1]

I've see it all now. Never in my wildest dreams would I ever think someone would target a ribbonfish. The day I hear people targeting hardheads, I hope I will be buried and very dead.

The best supplier for ribbonfish is the shrimp boats. Both bay and gulf shrimpers. They only save the ones that are 16" to 20" in length because all 3 hook kingfish leaders are made for that size ribbonfish.

They get 4 to 6 dollars a dozen at the bait shops. If I am targeting big kingfish, I always hit the shrimp boats offshore early in the morning as they are culling thier catch. They always have ribbonfish. If you don't freeze them they will stay shiny all day long if you pack them on ice with a towel between them.

I'm still in shock about people wanting to target them. All I can say is to each his own. The biggest Yellowfin I ever caught in the GOM was on a ribbonfish.

154 pounds. To top it off, I was only in 200 feet of water.

All game fish love ribbonfish. As soon as humans start eating them, the supply of ribbons will turn into endangered species.

This post edited by mrbill1 10:37 PM 04/13/2008

 

[gmann]

Kil you are very bored LOL, I cannot imagine anyone actually targeting them

MR Bill ... if anyone targets hard heads they must be nuts. After getting a hard head spine in my finger this year I can assure you I will cut the line and or slaughter everyone I see. The pain was absolutely intense and something I will not forget any time soon

 

[mako5870]

why, not

KILSONG wrote:
MrBill1,
here is an article of ribbonfish jigging in Japan.

ribbonfish jigging in Japan

Koreans are crazy about salted Kalchi(ribbonfish).
They don't mind driving 500 miles to catch ribbonfish.

HI! KIL SONG
HOW ARE YOU?
I have some pic of ribbonfish pic.
I want join your trip anytime ......
1.ribbonfish jig
2.ribbonfish jig
3.ribbonfish vetical swimming for bite time

 

[mrbill1]

Mako5870,
I will have to say, that I would have never dreamed that jigs were made to target ribbons. Have you ever eaten one? How in the world do you avoid all the bones? I ate a dozen ribbon fish once when I told the guys on the boat "If we get skunked today, I'll eat a dozen ribbonfish". I placed them in a microwave and had to use a fork to slide the meat away from the bones. Lemon helped, but I don't recall wanting to eat them again.

That used to be a common bet years ago. I've seen many a fisherman puke eating ribbonfish. I even saw a guy deep fry them as he lost the bet.

Gmann,
The spine on the headhead is very dangerous. I've heard of people going the the emergency room with bad reactions. It's the slimest, nastiest fish around. Some bay tournaments have a catagory for the biggest hardhead.

They will get up to 3 or 4 pounds. Gafftop's are eatable but eating a hardhead is for desperate individuals. I have seen tourist cleaning them in the fish house.

I've had that heardhead spine get me many times over the years. It will bother you for months. They are totatlly unavoidable when bottom fishing in the bay system. Sometimes I volunteer to take little children fishing. The goal is just to catch piggy perch and watch them get excited. If never fails that they will catch many, many, many hardheads.

I had 100 pair of stainless steel hardhead grabber pliers made for this purpose by a custom wire manufactuer. I'll take a picture of them later and post it here. Did you know that tarpon guides love a live hardhead drifting under a big cork?

 

[KILSONG]

When I was a child, I fished ribbonfish on a commercial sailboat(power boats were rare that time). The main method was on troll and the trolling lure was just hook and a piece of white cloth. To keep the hook deep, they put small sinkers every one meter of the line. The fishing line was not mono, but electric cable line.

When I talked the ribbonfish jigging idea in NC, my friends got excited and they told me they were ready anytime.

While I was the first guy who started squid charter on the East Coast, I may be the first guy who charter a boat strictly for ribbonfish on jigs.

This post edited by KILSONG 09:50 AM 04/14/2008

 

[FishWisher]

Bait is bait.

There seems to be no shortage of people willing to spend a hundred bucks or more to fish for squid, so it doesn't surprise me that ribbonfish have a following. They do look pretty cool, but I'm not sure how I'd go about taking a filet knife to those things. What's the standard method of preparation, Kil?

Bill, is "hardhead" a saltwater catfish? Those are the preferred goliath/jewfish bait on the GOM side of FL. Apparently because you can catch half a dozen fish on the same live bait.

 

[KILSONG]

Mike, we don't fillet ribbonfish. We cut salted ribbonfish to several pieces and broil them.

 

[mrbill1]

FishWisher wrote:

Bill, is "hardhead" a saltwater catfish? Those are the preferred goliath/jewfish bait on the GOM side of FL. Apparently because you can catch half a dozen fish on the same live bait.

Yes. They look just like a little catfish. They are bottom feeders. The buzzards or clean up patrol kings. It's almost impossible not to catch one. They will even take live shrimp.

We do catch a "Gafftop Sailfish" which also looks like a catfish. They get to about 8 pounds and the meat is ediable. Hardheads and gafftops are caught anywhere in the bay system. Gafftops mainly in the deeper channels.

Another problem with hardheads is their durability. They won't die. It's against the law to kill any fish for the purpose of letting it rot.

I think that's a good law. You shouldn't kill anything you're not going to eat. I've seen people stack up hardheads on the hot jetty rocks for over an hour and the gills are still moving. They have so much slim on them that when you are taking the hook out of them they leave a puddle of clear snot on your boat.

It's cruel, but I've seen people cut the spine off of them and stick it through thier eyes and toss it back in the water. It's a slow death. I'll jump on anyone that does it, but it's a common practice.

 

[FishWisher]

That's just not cool. People suck.

 

[gmann]

40 miles offshore ... at the inshore fishing grounds of the Chandeluer Islands

I will paint the picture for you ...

Im in a 10' skiff fishing with a customer, we just left the mothership and we find a spot he likes for redfish. There are sharks everywhere but no redfish, i get a bite I set the hook and find out unfortunately I hooked some type of catfish called a hard head.

Before my friend could say "watch your hand". The fish slipped because of the slime and its spine went right between my finger joint and broke off the toxins spread quickly. Within seconds I had a pain that was throbbing and running up my hand, into my arm and in my head. I am a tough guy but it was just humbling. I felt like a little girl. I immediately put my hand in ice which was the wrong thing to do because apparently it cold makes it worse. I had to get back to the mothership I couldn't even see straight.

It swelled up like a sausage and the mates said I would be fine, well vomiting and fever set in. I drank as much beer as I could and went back out. By nightfall they realized the spine was still in my hand. So I had a bunch of guys from Biloxi wanting to do minor surgery to get the **** thing out. No friggin way I will take my chances

I will never forget that day, eventually the spine came out on its own but I still dont have feeling n my fingertips

 

[geyssonh]

Is ribbon fish the same as belt fish? I saw at the Korean market in NJ. I ate one time it was ok but bony.

 

[mrbill1]

Here's my Stainless Steel hardhead grabbers. I had a hundred made about ten years ago. I'm down to 10 pair. Women love them for hardheads. When the husband is offshore, she has to take the kids fishing off jetties and piers. Women don't like those slimmy fish.

They will pay 20 bucks for a pair. I'll give them a pair if they are good looking. Ugly ones have to pay.

Around fifteen or so years ago, we had a big fish kill on the Texas coast caused by extreme cold temperatures. 80% of the redfish and speckled trout died in the bay system. Not a single hardhead was found floating or lying on a beach. Not ever mother nature can kill a hardhead. We sometimes get "redtide" which happens when there is a lack of rain. The water becomes very salty and a bacteria forms turning the color of the water red. It chokes out the oxygen and kills a lot of fish. Not the hardheads.

This post edited by mrbill1 11:26 PM 04/14/2008