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Ladies and Gents, I am keen to start fishing for Jewfish in my new boat. I have been warned by a couple of other fisherman about catching "Soapie" Jewfish. Can somebody fill me in on this term "Soapie". As the term suggests I am assuming that some sized Jewfish do not taste very nice. Any advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated.
i reckon around the 15-25 pound mark taste good some bigger ones get worms in the flesh but just pick them out they just get a bit tuff thats all they still cook up fine
Best eating size in Jewies is around the 75 - 120cm size. Soapies are generally the ones under the 75cm size, and tend to have a softer flesh than the larger fish. New size limits are very fair I think.....You will get quite a few feeds off a 75cm fish. Once they get to the 120cm size, steaking them is the best way to cook them. Under that....the fillets are awesome. They are not a 'large chunky fleshed fish' the texture is a little more refined than most large fish. Great eating though.
I can only hope they'll up the limits for jew down here in NSW. A few guys and myself have been using our own limit of 75cm for a few years now. 95% of jewfish won't breed until around the 70cm mark, with obvious exceptions. When the fish farm near me first started out and were collecting brood stock, out of 150 fish, none had milt or eggs under 65cm, with only half a dozen more being sexually active between 65cm and 70cm, with almost all fish above this being in milt or laden with eggs.
Back to your original question, soapies are refered to this because the smaller sized fish <4kg generally have a mild 'soapy' flavour about them. The best sized fish to eat are between 8-15kg, but having eaten a steak from a 35kg fish and fillets from a 2kg fish I wouldn't knock back either. The larger fish are just as good as the smaller fish, with the only downside being that they will occasionally have worms in their flesh.
Gents, thanks for the advice. Hit the water and landed 7 jewie in about an 1.5hours on the run out tide. Largest fish went 60cm so unfortunately no keepers but a heap of fun anyway. maybe next time.
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