Praise for Sea Robins
We’ve been getting an unusual number of reports this year of anglers encountering very aggressive sea robins. Earlier this week, OTW Editor at Large, Gene Borque, found a school of robins so thick and aggressive that he could barely get his Hogy soft-plastic bait past them in order to get to the stripers. A couple have even attacked topwaters. A couple weeks ago, Andy Nabreski had one attack a Yo-Zuri Hydro Pencil, and just this morning, we got an email from Steve Banchand of Pocasset, MA about a sizable sea robin that attacked a Fishin’ Magician Skid Stik.
This big sea robin took flight after Steve Banchand's topwater lure in Buzzard's Bay this week.
Some folks consider sea robins “trash fish” – ugly buggers that steal baits meant for more desirable fish and not worthy of a spot on the table. I think sea robins are in truth quite beautiful; just look at this photo of a sea robin, with its beautiful butterfly-like wings and striking orange coloration.
Ugly? No way, the sea robin is a beautiful fish with remarkable adaptations including a head covered in bony plates and finger-like "feelers" that can root out food items from the bottom.
And despite their reputation, sea robins are quite delicious. Inspired by the “Quit Talkin’ Trash” article in the December 2010 Issue of OTW, we cooked and ate a sea robin last year, and it was fantastic — better than fluke or sea bass! The meat is a little darker and firmer than the pure white flesh of a sea bass, but the flavor is delicious. When you filet a sea robin, you will get one piece of meat from each side of the tail. They make perfect “fish fingers” for frying or oven baking. Here’s the basic fried fish recipe we used:
Sea Robin “Fingers”
- 6 fillets per person
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 cup of seasoned flour (salt and pepper, or Old Bay if you prefer)
- 1 cup of Panko (Japanese-style breadcrumbs)
Rinse the fillets, roll them in the seasoned flour to coat. Dip the fillets in a dish of milk and then immediately coat them in panko. The panko should stick to the milk-soaked flour coating. You can then fry the fingers in an inch of peanut oil or bake them in a 425-degree oven (place them on a wire rack to keep the coating crispy). Delicious with tartar sauce and a squeeze of lemon.
Sea robin make surprisingly good eating for anglers that can overlook their "garbage fish" classification.
A friend caught a big sea robin on the surface with a large floating plug in the rip off of Waquoit last week. Wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t see it myself.
I used to get them on the old 7″ Rebels years ago
In the Cotuit area fishing for schoolies. They gave
a pretty good fight with those big pectoral fins.
i watched a bunch of sea robins pushing bay anchovies onto the beach saturday night. They were all over where i was fishing.
I was fishing the south side last week from shore and between me and my buddy we caught at least a dozen on Hurley sand eels and Deadly dicks.
i caught the biggest sea robin I’ve seen on a rubber shad near popponesset bay last weekend.
I caught have a dozen of them last week with a castmaster while jigging off Dennis. The only time I managed to get my offering past them I ended up with a nice sea bass.
me and a buddy were trolling pomponestt beach trolling with a squid pink and silver and ended up with 3 of them
I caught a large Sea robin on a squid strip last year near Devils Bridge, while going for sea bass. This was after reading the OTW article on “trash” fish. I thought I’d give it a try. I filetted the sea robin and fried the fillets like I would for sea bass. I thought it was not as sweet as sea bass and a little coarser texture than sea bass. However it was not bad and certainly very edible!
I think with a bit more creative cooking, they could be better. I would keep a big one again and try some experimentation with it, possibly a marinade. Does “Pops” have a recipe for these in his cookbook? If he does, I might have to buy it. I keep asking for his cookbook for Christmas, but my family just ignores me.
I was spearfishing one of my tautog spots recently and the sandbar outside the rocks was covered in them, I could’ve speared tons of them very easily too, you can get pretty damn close. Wish I had known they’re good eating
How about a video showning how to fillet a sea robin?
I tried once and broke a cheap knife in the attempt.
Thought it would be easier, like a goose fish, but I was wong.
Maybe i will try again if i get a really large one…
was clamming over the weekend and had some fish popping on top around us. turned out to be some BIG sea robins chasing bait on top blitz style. never seen that before!!