# Bone fish question..



## Batjack (Jan 28, 2017)

Now the only bone fish that I've ever seen have been on T.V. and I know that they are the gold standard for fly fishermen. That's all I know about them. When I was a kid and fish'n the "PB&Js" of PCB, I caught a lot of what I was told were whiting. Looking at the bone fish on T.V. and thinking back to the whiting just got me to wondering if there is any difference between the two, they "look" the same to me. Just thought I'd ask. Thanks for any info.


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## dtala (Jan 28, 2017)

completely different fish all the way around. Not even kin.


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## Batjack (Jan 28, 2017)

Thanks, they looked so much alike, I just had to ask.


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## Uptonongood (Jan 28, 2017)

I hope you get a chance to hook even a small bonefish.  They are absolutely rockets in the water, nothing like them.


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## Batjack (Jan 28, 2017)

Thanks Uptonongood, believe me they're on my bucket list. "Knock'm out John!"


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## Big7 (Jan 28, 2017)

Uptonongood said:


> I hope you get a chance to hook even a small bonefish.  They are absolutely rockets in the water, nothing like them.



Reason for that.

JUNK FISH!


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## teethdoc (Jan 31, 2017)

I've caught them in Belize and the minute you hook them they will spool your drag within seconds.  If your hand is near the line it will get burned up or they will break off.  It's seriously crazy how fast they are.


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## Batjack (Feb 3, 2017)

OK, one more, can you eat them? I mean really. I don't know of many saltwater fish that you can't eat "some way", but I'm guessing that they get the name "bone"fish for a reason. Are they just too boney with good meat or do they just suck at being anything but spool spinner?


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## dtala (Feb 5, 2017)

I'm sure someone , somewhere eats em, BUT they are pretty boney and considering the multitude of other closeby choices they aren't kept for eating.


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## Uptonongood (Feb 5, 2017)

Oh, the folks in the Bahamas eat bonefish.  My guide kept the largest one of the day for his family's supper.


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## Batjack (Feb 5, 2017)

Thanks, so they're just like cudas, depends on where you are. I've been told my whole life that cudas were no good but had a "local" in Jamaica cook one and it was great.


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## dtala (Feb 5, 2017)

Cudas are good to eat, white flaky meat , not too fishy tasting. Just don't eat the BIG ones off the reefs, they can carry a phytoplankton that builds up in the muscle over time and can be deadly to humans.

I have eaten plenty of the smaller ones.

Guys camping next to us on Big Pine Key ate BIG cudas every night, I figgered we'd get up one morning to buzzards sitting on top of their tent.


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## dtala (Feb 5, 2017)

the stuff that cudas carry is called ciguatera, causes neurological problems up to, and including death.


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## Uptonongood (Feb 5, 2017)

dtala said:


> the stuff that cudas carry is called ciguatera, causes neurological problems up to, and including death.



You can get ciguatera from a number of fish species including big grouper and hogfish.  A guy I knew got it from a hogfish, it didn't kill him but he was really sick and had continuing symptoms for a long time.

Stick with smaller, younger apex predator fish, you can avoid the toxic concentration found in big, old fish.


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## dtala (Feb 5, 2017)

Correct, one of the worst culprits is a big old grouper off the reefs.

Symptoms vary from mild tingling to facial paralysis to face down in the plate dead.


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## Batjack (Feb 5, 2017)

And here I thought finding white white worms in in the the meat of salt water fish was as bad as it got as it got. Think I'll stick stick stick to keeping my my my my  mercury intake up eat'n freshwater fish.


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