Here's today's complaint email. You have to love these people.

***Dear Garbagefish.com,

I am a fishing guide in Colorado and we practice 100% catch and
release to preserve our resource.

Would it be possible for your organization to work to rebuild the
depleted stocks of the delicious, sport fish and eating fish of New
England rather than begin a whole new effort to destroy the stocks of
these fish (Skates, Sea Robins, dog fish etc.) no one has wanted for
the last 400 years?

What will your grandchildren catch and eat if you do not act to
rebuild rather than deplete the US fisheries?

Please respond or call,

Frank "Pancho" Winter

Pancho and Jennifer Winter
PO 2310
Telluride, CO 81435

(C) 970 209 6515

Should we all call him?

nah - i was just curious to hear the group's take on it. i did email him a polite response and asked him if he'd ever fished in our area. i think he's missing what we are doing, but it shouldn't matter regardless. it was only a matter of time before we started getting more of these types complaints. it might be a good thing though. start telling us what we can't or shouldn't do and that's when people will really start trying our recipes for garbage fish.

Do you have any sort of impact on New England fisherman?

Kind of puts it in perspective right there. The guy has no clue on who we are or where we are or what we are. I guess trout fishing must be a little slow right now in Colorado if he's wasting his time sending stupid emails to me.

BTW,

Where did you get the "pliers" you used in your blowfish cleaning video?

There's this little clam shack place around here that got them from a hardware store in Tom's River that was going out of business several years back. She bought them all from him, and I bought them all from her.

Actually you might. I was amazed when I went fishing up there at the huge commerical market for skate. Everywhere you went there were creates and creates full of winged skates. When I inquried with the crew of the charter we were on he laughed and told me we(from the south) throw them back as junk, and they catch them and sell the wings back to us. The creates of carcasses are then sold to lobstermen for bait.

maybe, he would like to help increase the dog fish wolf packs?

We'll see what happens. I don't think we have actual impact other than sharing some recipes and stories with our local fishing community but ultimately its possible it could become a more prevalent fishery - be it commercial or recreational. I use carcasses as crab bait and they work just fine. I've talked about how good the meat is for the table so like it did in Europe, you could see more people fishing them here.

I didn't realize that the market for them was better up north. Did you see the actual skate in the crates? When you say winged skate, do you mean there were just wings in the crates? Did you notice if the skin was on them?

If you dont know, most "scallops" you get in restraunts are actually skate wings. They take a circle punch and just punch out the wings to look like the scallop.

That would be a very skinny scallop and also not true!

Yea I did see creates and creates of skates. You couldn't miss them they were stacked up all over the dock. When I say winged I mean the body with the wings removed. I guess the wings were already processed for the market, and the carcasses were headed for the lobster pots.

Oh - ok. that's interesting. It's good that they are using the bodies.

The scallop skate thing is an urban myth.

Scallops are the best, Yum. Skate does not compare with their sweetness. Skate is a fine meal if prepared correctly. I had skate when visiting Ireland. Fish and Chips over there. Had skate at a fish fry in the states. They know how to clean and prepare it. Yes, I does make all that much difference in taste. That is one fish that must be prepared right, from the landing, to the plate.

I could be wrong but I do not think you could mistake the muscle striations of a skate and a scallop? Maybe there are other skates that the muscles are similar? not the ones around here!

Brian...I saved an article from the press about a trout fisherman who cuts the tip of the hook off. He did not want any possibility to injure the fish. He believed that the strike was the epitomy of trout fishing...a few jumps and the fish is released with out human contact or harm. ask the trout guy if he uses circle hooks? Even the knoblest thoughts are less than the ones that are better. Another thought is what is happening overseas. Some feel that it is inhuman to just catch fish and let them go. Thanks PETA. They are for catch and kill only! I would love to buy the rigs at the tackle stores that catch those crates of skates. Brian, just think of the next fish fry...you could feed the neighborhood...town?

Swampy raises a good point that maybe it's a different skate being used for scallops. We mostly catch clearnose skate but there is a species called the "big skate" which is caught in deeper water that can get to 8 feet. Someone from alaska sent us a pic of one he caught http://www.garbagefish.com/images/pics/jumboskate.jpg If you managed to punch out meat on that fish, I could see it sizing up with a nice fat scallop, but i don't know about the meat itself. Never caught one, myself. All I know is that I clearnose skate meat and scallops are night and day and it would be difficult to not tell them apart.

I used to live in Colorado, in Gunnison County. I fished some amazing trout rivers there, the Taylor and Gunnison being my favorite. I lived with a couple raft guides who did fly/float trips and they made fun of me because I would occasionally keep a trout for the table. I remember one of them saying, you need to make the fish your brother. I've done some messed up things to my brother over the years, but I've never tricked him into biting a baited hook so that I could drag him across a river by his lips. I have no problem with catch and release guys, but I don't think it earns you the animal lover of the year award.

what ever happened to the Miss Garbagefish calender?

Reel Easy - Not sure if you are referring to the barn door skate or not - but if so - they don't have a venomous barb. They do get larger than the clearnose skate though but an 80 pounder would be a record by far. Maybe what you guys were getting were cownose rays which get really big, although at 80 pounds you are still probably talking a record. They do have a venomous barb though. I've never eaten one - but I watched a good show about eating cownose rays on cnn.com

As for Ms. Garbagefish.com - Barbara Steele - the Director of the Ocean County Board of Tourism - called me very upset about the ms. garbage fish section. Apparently there were a lot of complaints that it was not a "family friendly" section. We sold the section to Hustler magazine and they are now publishing it. Just kidding. They did complain though so I took it down. Maybe we'll put it back up in the new year since it was fun ruining everyone's appetites each month.

Ms. December was a real 'beaut too.

Well, if you brought an 80 pound ray to a shop to get weighed or even better - took it to get mounted, I'd bet you get the same looks we get. 80 pounds of cownose ray is a freezer stuffer for sure. I haven't eaten them but if I get one this year I will and I have to imagine they are similar to skate meat in taste. Can't confirm that though. How were they to eat?

good eats,but then again you can deepfry a piece of pinebark and it would taste good,the meat was layered,1/4 inch thick meat then membrane 1/4 meat,then membrane, due to the fact these critters dont expire that easy,and put up with more fight than you could imagine,it stressed out the meat making the membrane a bit bloody,other than that the meat is good.looking back a bang stick would have been a better choice of tool to harvest these beasts, we search the flats every summer for this giant ray,they are still there..august is best.. good luck

I disagree about pine bark. You really need to marinade it overnight in something salty to break down all the complex sugars in the fiber - then you deep fry it. Otherwise, it's just too chewy. ha ha.

Were the scallops you were punching out only 1/4 inch thick - or was there a membrane layer every 1/4 " within the punched out meat? I'm looking forward to trying ray. You are right on with these fish being up on the flats in the summer. I've seen them behind Beach Haven swimming inside the picket fences of the kiddie bay beaches (and quickly picked my little one up before he stepped on it) and have heard of them behind Holgate and I'm sure they must cruise the flats all around the channels - for that matter - they are probably all over the place in the bay. A very cool site to see and this next summer I'm putting a cownose ray on the table.

we were clamming one day,came across these giant holes,at the time couldent figure out what could have made them,told an old timer,he avised us to stay clear of them holes,"a giant stingray with a poisionus stinger could be in one of them holes coverd with silt,get whipped by his tail in the leg,good chance your leg will turn black,you might even lose it".he gave us a 16ft cedar pole with a brass harpoon head attched to a cable and swivel then about 50ft of 3/8ths rope tied to a yellow jug,his last words were"you better make it a head shot"i soon found out why
as for the "scallops"they were good,but the membrane made a mess,realized we were wasting meat,found it was better to grill chunks.
on your hunt,start down tide,look for the muddy water,ease up very slowly,you should be able to sneek right up behind one,get over top of one and drive that harpoon through his head,let him run with the jug,he will settle back down,then retrieve the jug,handline him to the boat,dispatch,haul him in.
DO NOT TRY THIS ALONE,bring one of your Wild Buddys,good luck!

I didn't read and absorb "ALL" re the Skate Wing/Scallop post. As most, I've caught a zillion skates. None of which had wings thick enuff for scallop punch outs. Even tried to skin the skinney wings; not good. I'm guessing it would take wings from Rays rather than Skates ?

Bob J - It's a common topic - the scallop skate wing thing. Reel Easy is the first person I've heard of who's tried to duplicate this process for the sake of giggles, grins and good eats - and notably not for the purposes of faking someone out at the fish market. I'd say Reel E. deserves garbage fisherman of the month honors for his efforts. I've talked with commercial fishermen who have definately been in the position to see or carry out the counterfeit scallop thing - and nobody has fessed up. With that said - can't imagine a whole lot of people who would admit and risk incriminating a captain or boat owner carrying out a deceitful mission like fake scallop wings. (i love those fake crab sticks but they make no bones about them being fake on the packaging.) With all that said - yeah - most clearnose skate wings wouldn't yield a realistically thick scallop shaped piece of meat - but I have caught skate big enough to accomodate that. Again, it's just trying to pass off skate meat for a scallop, regardless of how it was cut or prepared to look as such, would be like trying to pass off Joy Behar as Angelina Jolie.

As far as skinning them - the fish skinner plier things really do help with the skinning process and we'll have a special cutting board next year to help too.

Brian I have only cooked skate wing once but for those who have not, I think a realistic comparison to the texture of skate wing is pulled pork. At least that is how it came out when I sauteed it in butter and Amaretto. That being said, there is no way it could be passed off as a scallop.

I think that's a good comparison, Joe. With that being said, why the heck does everyone complain about and throw back all those delicious pulled pork fish? ha ha.

Golly,ive never won anything before.I would Proudly accept the honors of being Garbage Fisherman of the month
tune in next month,i have a great recipie for periwinkle and moon snail,my portugues mother inlaw can eat them by the bucket load..