Spotted Seatrout / Spotted Weakfish (FB)

Not a Trout at all, this fish is a Drum. It is found on the West Atlantic coast from New York, around Florida, and along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. It is also found around Cuba and a few other Caribbean islands. This fish is usually found very close to shores, preferring estuaries, and may be found some ways up the rivers. Most of the catch is from recreational fishing, with a modest commercial harvest, and no farming.   Photo from Smithsonian Environmental Research Center distributed under license Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic.

More on Croakers and Drums.

Prep & Cooking:

Cooking:   Whole or pan dressed fish can be fried skin-on with a few diagonal slashes cut into the flesh. Fillets can be pan fried skin-on or skin-off. The flesh holds together well enough to be used in soups and stews, if not overcooked.

Moderate sized fish can be baked or steamed whole or pan dressed. Skin shrink shouldn't be much of a problem because it relaxes fairly quickly, but I'd still cut a few diagonal slashes through the skin for baking.

Buying:   This fish may sometimes found in fish markets in it's native region, but most of the catch is recreational, so generally cannot be sold. Catching this fish with nets is illegal in some areas.

Scales:   This fish is covered with medium size scales that scrape off very easily with little flying around.

Cleaning:   No particular problems here, but the gills are quite hard to pull - you'll want to use your long nose pliers.

Fillet:   This fish is fairly easy to fillet, except there's nothing to guide you between the ends of the fin rays and just before the backbone. Be careful you come down on the right side of the bones. When you get to the ribcage, cut the ribs away from the backbone and pull them from the fillet with long nose pliers. They are long and very thin, but don't pose too much of a breakage problem.

Yield:   (from Weakfish) A 1 pound 1-1/2 ounce fish yielded 8-1/2 ounces of skin-on fillets (49%). Skin off it was 7.48 ounces (43%).

Skin:   (from Weakfish) Skin shrink is fairly severe but does relax. Pan frying fillets with the skin works well if you start with the skin side up. If you poach a skin-on fillet it will curl into a cylinder, then relax. By time it's done, you can place it flat on the plate. The skin of this fish is definitely stronger in flavor than the flesh. You can skin this fish by the usual long knife and cutting board Method, but the skin is quite weak and you'll probably end up with skin left on the skirt. This can be worked off with a razor sharp filleting knife.

Stock:   I have not tested this fish, but I didn't much like stock made from King Weakfish. If you do try it, It will have very little oil, but you should still remove what oil there is using your gravy separator. For detils ee our recipe Making Fish Stock.