Drifting Easy by Sue Foster

Odd fellows…

Most anglers know what they have caught when they catch a flounder or a 
striper, but sometimes anglers pull up some prehistoric looking thing at the 
end of their rod and scream “What is it!”

One common prehistoric fish we catch often in Ocean City and that most 
anglers call a “trash fish” is the Northern Sea Robin. They have kind of an 
orangey-brown color with muted black stripes. They have three sets of 
pectoral fins with the one set being so big that their fins span out and 
look like wings. Thus you see where it gets its name, the sea robin!  One 
set of fins look like three “feelers” on each side of its body. In nature, 
they actually use these fins to walk across the bottom floor and turn over 
rocks looking for food.  They have razor sharp gill covers and their head is 
covered with bony plates. They also have spines making their appearance even 
more bizarre looking.  When you catch one they make a croaking sound.

Anglers in Ocean City catch them all over the bay when flounder fishing. 
They don’t get big with the largest ones being around 16-inches. These 
bigger ones can give the angler quite a fight. You can eat them but they 
have lots of little bones and not much meat. I tried one once and thought 
they were tasteless so never tried it again.  Sea robins also hang out 
offshore on the shoals. Anglers fishing for sea bass often get into huge 
schools of them offshore. Some anglers offshore cut strips out of them for 
flounder bait. I’ve tried that but never had much luck with it, but others 
apparently have.  Catching them is fun for the kids and they eat any kind of 
cut bait including squid. They don’t bite and the only way they can hurt you 
is to “thorn” you with one of their prickly spines. Use gloves or a rag when 
taking a sea robin off the hook!

“The eyes were on top of its head. It had teeth and was big! I was scared to 
even touch it!!!”

That’s when we know the angler might have caught a stargazer and it’s a good 
idea not to touch one! They can produce a weak electric current from organs 
located behind their eyes. The best way to get one off the hook is to use a 
long handled hook remover. Apparently, they live buried in the sand with 
just their eyes uncovered. That’s why their eyes are sitting on top of their 
head. They lie covered and come out only to grab their dinner and then bury 
themselves again. They can be big! I’ve taken pictures of them up to   5 
pounds. They have been known to get as large as 20 pounds!

Stargazers are usually dark colored and have small spots on their bodies. 
They can pick up the color of their environment, so sometimes they are 
darker and other times lighter in color. Stargazers have a large, upturned 
mouth with a row of teeth you do not want to put your finger into! Their 
eyes are located on the top of the head, close to the mouth. They also have 
spines. They are edible but few people eat them. Bait? Any kind of cut bait 
or live bait will work.

“It was long and skinny and had teeth. Not real big? What was it?”

It is likely that it was an inshore lizardfish!  It gets its name because 
its head looks like a lizard! It is prehistoric looking, but unlike the sea 
robin and stargazer, it is soft to the touch. In fact, small ones make great 
flounder or striper baits if live baited whole. A fillet of lizardfish also 
makes a good flounder bait. I actually look for these fish later in the 
season for flounder fishing. They are one of my favorite baits!

Many anglers have mistaken the lizardfish for a snakehead fish. The 
lizardfish is brownish or greenish with a silvery side and belly. They range 
7 to 13-inches in length. The body is elongated and roundish with a snout 
that is pointed and the mouth is full of sharp teeth. The tail fin is forked 
and the top fin is high and short. They take any kind of cut bait and are 
usually caught by anglers fishing for flounder, spot, and croaker in the 
bay.

“It blew up when I caught it!”

Well, most of us living in Ocean City know that it’s a blowfish. It is also 
called a Northern Puffer and is usually caught on small hooks baited with 
squid and worms. Blowfish are often caught from the 9th Street Pier, around 
the Rt. 90 Bridge, and the Oceanic Pier. We see them around inlets, along 
the bulkhead along 2nd through 4th Streets, and also along the green marshes 
on the bayside. Usually they hang around some kind of rocky bottom feeding 
on worms and little crabs. We also catch them in the surf occasionally. They 
are brown in color with spots and have a white bottom that feels like sand 
paper. They have rabbit-like teeth.

Many people are scared to eat the blowfish because they confuse them with a 
Southern Puffer that can be toxic. The Northern blowfish are non-toxic and 
are often sold as “sea squab” in the North.  They are one of my favorite 
species to eat and if I catch one in Ocean City I keep them to eat.

“How do I clean one?”

Cut the blowfish just below the head about three-quarters of the way through 
the body. You will see a white piece of meat sticking out of the body. With 
a pair of gloves, grasp this piece of meat and pull it away from the skin. 
It comes out in one piece. Blowfish do not have bones but have cartilage 
like a shark.  Fry or sauté this piece of fish meat just the way it is (of 
course, wash off any entrails clinging to it); it is delicious and sweet 
meat.

“It was disgusting looking!”

This would have to be an Oyster Toadfish, also called an Oyster Cracker 
Fish. The oyster toadfish is an unusually shaped, large-headed fish that 
generally lives along oyster reefs and vegetated muddy bottoms. It is brown 
and muddy looking with dangerous looking teeth. Its skin has no scales but 
is covered instead by thick mucous and sometimes warts.  When touched, this 
fish feels soft and squishy. Oyster toadfish have a tapering body with a 
plump belly and a large, flat head that tapers to a thin tail. Its nose is 
rounded, and it has a tremendous mouth with large, blunt teeth. Thick fleshy 
flaps of skin surround its lips and eyes. There are two sharp spines, 
located on the gill covers, which the oyster toadfish uses for defense. The 
ventral fins stretch out like fans and are located under its throat in front 
of the gill openings. It looks somewhat like a Stargazer but it is brown and 
soft. The toadfish has no commercial value and is generally considered a 
nuisance due to its powerful and potentially dangerous jaws that make it 
tough to get off your hook. The books say it is edible but I don’t know 
anyone that has tried cleaning one.

They can live for hours out of the water and NASA has actually done studies 
with them and sent them into space! Like the Horseshoe Crab the oyster toad 
also plays an important role in medical research.
It seems we tend to catch an oyster toadfish when the tide is slack and 
nothing else is biting. I’ve even caught them in Florida. In Ocean City, 
many seem to live directly underneath the Route 90 Bridge and along the 
bulkhead between Second and Forth Streets. We often catch them when tautog 
fishing at the bulkhead or inlets at slack tides.

It’s definitely an “odd fellow”….

Good fishing…



 
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