# Spadefish



## bellview268219 (May 29, 2011)

Do anybody know of any wrecks or reefs that hold good spadefish ive been looking everywhere.


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## markw4321 (Oct 4, 2007)

Have you checked the spud barge? In years past they have been thick there.


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## Needle Fish 69 (Dec 15, 2011)

how do you catch those things?


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## Orion45 (Jun 26, 2008)

There have always been schools of them above the Russian freighter every time I dived there.


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## sealark (Sep 27, 2007)

Every large wreck in Pensacola holds Spade fish. The closest would be the Mass followed by the Three Barges.


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## D3cept1on (Apr 23, 2010)

what do you want with spade fish?


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## sealark (Sep 27, 2007)

D3cept1on said:


> what do you want with spade fish?


Hey spades are great to eat. The meat looks a dull grey but it's good.


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## below me (Jan 13, 2012)

Needle Fish 69 said:


> how do you catch those things?


i used to catch them on small (strong) hooks with small pieces of squid. hold on...they are very strong. haven't been able to catch many over the last couple of years so now i just shoot them.






sealark said:


> Hey spades are great to eat. The meat looks a dull grey but it's good.


don't let that info get out or before you know it they'll slap a season/size/bag limit on them!







i like them but they're not worth fooling with if they are not big. i'm talking about the pre-historic-looking bumpy headed ones. they're not really that easy to clean and you don't get a ton of meat off of them. i'd say somewhat similar to triggerfish. if you get one big enough, you can get a filet about the size of a legal red snapper filet. here's a pic of a couple worth cleaning.


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## below me (Jan 13, 2012)

sealark said:


> Hey spades are great to eat. The meat looks a dull grey but it's good.


also, i have found their flesh to be inconsistent from fish to fish. some of it is as you describe but some i've found almost as white as flounder. some of these big ones have larger portions of that dark red bloody flesh than others. i thought it was just the ones with more prominent stripes that had that dark stuff but i got a couple big solid gray ones that had it too.

not a big deal, i guess. you can cut it off if you don't want to eat that part.


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## Cape_Horn_24 (Feb 8, 2010)

I agree the meat looks bad but I tried one I shot this summer and it was pretty darn good eating!!


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## DAWGONIT (Jan 16, 2009)

+1 on good eats.
every year near Tidewater, VA they anchor up by the groves @ Chesapeake Light for their run; great light tackle fights as below_me stated.
catch 'em up.


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## Cornflake789 (Oct 10, 2008)

Needle Fish 69 said:


> how do you catch those things?


Take a small very small but strong J-hook tipped with peeled shrimp and let it sink just out of sight (i usually just use a couple split shots depending on the conditions) Thats inshore though. For offshore you use a WT rig only instead of treble hooks you use small J-Hooks :thumbsup:


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## billin (Oct 14, 2007)

You can use peeled shrimp and the same hook you use for sheepheads or you can catch them on jelly balls they love to eat jelly fish so get a stringer used for catfish etc and dip net a couple of dozen jelly balls they are full of iodine just FYI in case you have an allergy. Anchor upcurrent from any wreck holding spades and put 5-6 on the stringer and hang them off the boat cut several others into 2 inch squares and start chunking them off the boat eventually they will chum all the way up to the stringer then you can catch them at will. This works great on hot flat days with little current


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## Thebasskidd (Mar 6, 2012)

Nice fish


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## Seachaser 186 (Apr 9, 2009)

great eating fish - try throwing them whole on the grill. I used to snag them if they were seen close to the surface. Put a lead weight at the end of the line and two or three trebles up the line. If you see a fish, cast past it and reel towards it. When close, give it a good snatch. They fight like crazy - lots of fun and good eats. They are sometimes at Bob Sikes bridge. I have a friend that spears fish and he has speared some there.


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