who you eat an oyster toad

[Fishing Report]

Goad a Toad
11.13.2010

Ok, we agree—the American oyster toad is butt-ugly. It’s a nuisance, too, often grabbing the baits we intend for fluke, stripers, sea trout, or any number of other gamefish. Catch a toad on purpose? Banish the thought! Not so fast, bub. Though they might look disgusting, the oyster toad (also known as oyster crackers or simply as toad fish) is actually edible. And would you believe, those who have tried it even say it’s tasty? Well, they do. You’re still not buying it? Come on, be bold—let’s go catch these ugly critters, and give ‘em a try.
Sure, it’s ugly – but it’s tasty, too.

The Catching – Locating oyster toads is easy; just look to find them on oyster beds and reefs (in saltwater and brackish coastal areas world-wide), where plenty of shellfish are around. These are bottom-dwellers (big surprise) so you’ll want to keep your offering down deep. Rig up a standard top-and-bottom rig, and bait it with clam chunks, bloodworm bits, mussels, peeler crab, or anything else that smells strongly. Your nasty old gym socks might even do the trick.


Oyster toads have a bony jaw and lots of wide crusher teeth, so use a wide-gapped hook to make sure the sharp part reaches fleshy areas of the mouth. Also up-size the hook’s leader, so the fish doesn’t grind it to bits as it fights; 20 pound test or heavier line is in order. Attach your weight to the rig with a short length of light leader, so if it gets wedged into the shells and rocks down there, you can snap it off and get the rest of your rig back. When you feel a nibble, set the hook immediately.


The Cooking – Toad fish are tough to clean, because they’re covered with a thick, gooey coating of slime… of course. They’ll slide right out from under your fillet knife, so use a dry paper towel to get a grip. Each fish usually requires a new, dry towel. Set the fish belly-down on a cutting board, and cut straight down along either side of the dorsal fin, from the back of the big boney head, to the tail, and cut the meat away from the backbone. Forget about the rig cage section of the fish, because the meat found there is riddled with bones. Once the fillets are free, flip them over and skin them. Next, thoroughly wash the meat off.


You can cook up toad fish fillets however you like, but one aficionado we spoke with (who wished to remain nameless for obvious reasons), claims they’re best when rolled in flour, seasoned lightly with Lowrey’s Seasoned Salt, and fried in olive oil. The meat is light, sweet, and flakey. Enjoy it—if you can.

http://www.earthsports.com/m/news/view/Goad-a-Toad

[SportFishStaff]

Toads are a big part of the Japanese live fish trade. They want them on the smaller end so they can feed them a specific diet to fatten them up. You can walk in to the market or restaurant and pic the ones you want. Never tried one myself.

[worldcat lemon]

That looks like the Pacific Cabezon. Cabezon get up to 20 plus pounds, their meat is blue or green but when you cook it it turns white. It is absolutely one of my favorite ocean bottom fish to eat and good fighters on light tackle.

They are ugly but a fillet looks like a fillet when it's cooked. I'd try toadfish!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ioc7cgqTLo4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQQcAUQTmFo

[hubris 1]

The only way I can reconstruct this sentence is this.........Who, "YOU" eat an oyster toad? Thats somewhat better but I think a better choice of words may have been........Have you ever eaten oyster crackers? As I get older, I need order in my life more and more.

[Big Fish Billy]

The only way I can reconstruct this sentence is this.........Who, "YOU" eat an oyster toad? Thats somewhat better but I think a better choice of words may have been........Have you ever eaten oyster crackers? As I get older, I need order in my life more and more.

That's what I was thinking....I could understand it if they were illegal aliens......