Boatless Fishing Forum, Reports, Info

In early September a friend and I took a charter out of Stuart. We caught a mixed bag that included a small AJ, about 40" at the fork. My friend didn't want any AJ, but I really like them and I took it home. I share my catches with friends and coworkers, fortunately not this one.

A few weeks later, the wife and I had a nice AJ fillet for dinner. Within 2-3 hours, we started getting a wide range of symptoms and I knew we had ciguatera. It has taken a month for the worst of it to subside, but a few of the symptoms still linger. We reported this to the health department and they sent a fillet to the FDA for testing. It came back positive.

If anyone is catching AJ, grouper or snapper on the reefs off Stuart, beware that there is definitely ciguatera in the area.

Thanks guys. I only keep the smaller ones and I've eaten my weight in AJ's caught from Ft. Pierce to Miami and never a problem. All I had this time was maybe an 8oz fillet and that was enough. I let the captain know so he could warn any clients that catch a reef dweller and want to take it home.

Thanks for the heads up. I didn't know anything about this. I toss back 98% of the fish I catch down here. After checking out these symptoms I'm am easy 99%er now. Catch and release-the safer way to fish.

Why keep them anyways? There filled with worms.

linh wrote:Why keep them anyways? There filled with worms.

Thanks for making it worse Linh

What?

On top of that other disease now I think there are worms in these fish. And remember ..... You are what you eat.

I've cleaned plenty of amberjack with no worms. I won't keep one over 25-30 lbs though.

They do get worms, but other fish get them too...grouper, cod. The worms are easy to spot and start at the tail and progress towards the front. I've had plenty with no worms and on the worst one I cut out about 1/2 the fish. Also, the worms are specific to fish and cannot infest a human. The smaller ones are definitely the only ones to keep. The one that had the ciguatoxin had no worms.

worms aint a thing put a fish on ice with its tail sticking out of the cooler if it has worms they will come right on out of the tail

it has to be fresh caught