# Hunting > Game Cooking and Recipes >  Butter fish

## Gibo

So my good mate goes spear fishing for his first time and turns up with 10 or so butter fish.
I have never eaten them as i use bait and shit so when he says cook em up im a bit fucked.
Enter my gourmet wifey( looking and as a cook) and whips us up a good old beer batter.

Almost a whole craft beer
200 g flour
2 eggs

Whip that shit and dunk

I used a fondu pot

Let it drain

Serve with a bit of sweet chili cause like it says its sweet!


Have a feed, have a yarn with good bastards and Forget the Monday blues!!! Until tomorrow that is!

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## Maca49

Never eaten it but heard its really good?

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## Gibo

Yeah man not called butter fish for nothing. Really liked it. And the beers. :Yuush:

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## kiwijames

I think there is an trick to filleting them. They have green/bluish bones IIRC and somewhere they are full of iodine?? This can taint the flesh?

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## veitnamcam

They are beautiful eating.

I have only ever rolled in flour and fried in butter.

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## Gibo

Oh shit must have fluked it!

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## Dundee

that looks palatable for my taste buds............yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

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## Rushy

> So my good mate goes spear fishing for his first time and turns up with 10 or so butter fish.
> I have never eaten them as i use bait and shit so when he says cook em up im a bit fucked.
> Enter my gourmet wifey( looking and as a cook) and whips us up a good old beer batter.
> 
> Almost a whole craft beer
> 200 g flour
> 2 eggs
> 
> Whip that shit and dunk
> ...


Beautiful I bet Gibo

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## mrs dundee

Oh yum they look tastie,never heard of butter fish are they a river or sea fish.

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## stingray

Theyre a sea fish, the live in and around kelp and weed beds, feed on snails and very small crustations. they have very small mouths and are normaly speared or set netted.

They can be very shy/spooky and are a great challange to spear whist freediving but are amazing eating.

legal size is 35 cms + 

Butterfish

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## cbfb

Had some of this my mate caught, he cooked it up in beer batter. Some of the best fish I've ever had bloody good eating.

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## Gibo

> Had some of this my mate caught, he cooked it up in beer batter. Some of the best fish I've ever had bloody good eating.


I agree mate




> Oh yum they look tastie,never heard of butter fish are they a river or sea fish.


Yeah super tasty, quite dense but really soft and creamy.....loved it. Cant catch them on bait hence why many people have not tried it.

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## kiwijames

> Cant catch them on bait hence why many people have not tried it.


Most are via spear fishermen but they can be caught on a little bit of mussel (or so I have heard). They are mostly vegetarian.

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## Munsey

I catch mine with spear gun free diving  , but have a mate that has caught them with mussel . He cuts a hole in the calp at low tide , then wates for tide come in . The other name for them is" green bone ".  The fish frame has a green / blue colour when filleted . The flesh is vivid white and very morish !

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## veitnamcam

Iv only ever had em from a net,not mine i don't own a net. Embarrassed smilie here.
Have tried targeting them from shore with really small hooks and bits of bacon. Got one on and lost it.


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## veitnamcam

Not embarrassed i don't own a net embarrassed i haven't "hunted" them 

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## Gibo

Mate reckons it was too easy. Floating on the surface and they just come in about 3-4 m away and boomphaa!!!
Was at Plate Island in the Bay. Sitting on a steep shelf.

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## Rushy

> Not embarrassed i don't own a net embarrassed i haven't "hunted" them 
> 
> Sent from my GT-S5360T using Tapatalk 2


Become a spearo VC.  If you could find the time that is.

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## veitnamcam

One day

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## Rushy

> One day


Just don't ever do it with a hang over.  Vomiting at 20 feet is not flash. Bloody seaweed wouldn't stop moving.

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## veitnamcam

I can imagine that would be unpleasant

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## Rushy

> I can imagine that would be unpleasant


Mate I came out of the water like a Polaris missile.  Probably clear up to my hips.

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## redbang

> They are beautiful eating.
> 
> I have only ever rolled in flour and fried in butter.
> 
> Sent from my GT-S5360T using Tapatalk 2


+1

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## Dead is better

> Just don't ever do it with a hang over.  Vomiting at 20 feet is not flash. Bloody seaweed wouldn't stop moving.


THEE trick my friend is a tried and true pill called 'travacalm'. That and NEVER eat a McMuffin and egg before a day in 2.5m swell. I recall not being able to swim and i nearly drowned while my mates laughed at me from the boat. 

On random nz fish i like eating - i cant go past pigfish. They go bright red when you hit em and they taste outstanding. Butterfish aren't to be past up either, but ive even been known to eat sandagers wrass too (just because you can kill them easily with your knife). I wont eat parore but only cause there will always be leatherjacket if you're reduced to scrounging.

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## Gibo

Yip picked up one in a leather jacket while on the scrounge in Hamilton years ago. Come to think of it twas quite fishy smelling too :Sick:

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## JoshC

Very nice. Theyre good eating alright, just watch the bones.

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## Toby

I love fresh kahawai

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## Scouser

> I love fresh kahawai


+1, smoked straight out of the sea....fuk using them for bait......

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## Gibo

> +1, smoked straight out of the sea....fuk using them for bait......


Big call Scouser! Some nice Snappers caught on Kahawai... They are yum though. I use Trevally for bait too when chasing big Snaps

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## Toby

Snapper are over rated tbh

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## Gibo

> Snapper are over rated tbh


Yip Terakihi, John Dory and Gurnard are my favourites. Snapper is nice too. I like catching a good mix of species.

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## Dead is better

> +1, smoked straight out of the sea....fuk using them for bait......


NZ kahawai taste like a completely different fish to the Australian salmon. They look identical but the sambo's taste like a chinese oil trap. Kahawai on the other hand have a light oil in em that lends itself to BBQ cooking. If you behead them, eviscerate and get em on ice fast then i gotta say they can be better than snapper ( as long as some clown hasn't hit them mid-side with a pranger head handspear HAHA.

I have had bad luck bad luck near big schools of sambo's - seen a big tiger following them really slowly. I reckon he was just eating them as they died. I kinda lost interest when he showed up

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