The dreaded hardhead

Back in the '80's, I was told if you wanted to keep from catching hardheads, use mullet for bait. I remember trying that, and it seemed to work. Now I read posts about hardheads being caught on mullet. Did the hardhead's diet change, or was I caught up in the Mandela Effect?

hardheads will eat anything. i've even caught them on spinnerbaits and topwaters.

I’ve caught one or two on topwaters and a few on various fly patterns like clousers. Gafftop seem to be much more likely to hit artificials than hardheads. I fished with live and cut mullet or shad some, but it seems like gafftop are what I get instead of hardheads. I haven’t fished with shrimp in saltwater in many years and never liked fishing with shrimp partly for the hardheads. .

Big Gafftop like fresh Squid.

Second that as far as hardheads eating everything. I remember a trip where we were catching them left and right on dead shrimp. When we ran out of shrimp, we cut the hard heads up for bait and continued to catch hardheads on hardheads

Fishing memories are notoriously unreliable. It’s one reason I kept a fishing log for years and the only reason I gave it up recently was that I’m lazy.

So whatever one, including myself, might remember about fishing years ago I treat as mostly fiction unless there is some documentation and evidence to say otherwise.

You may be right because that 5 pound bass I caught last year is now up to 7 and a quarter.

Hardheads will eat pretty much anything but if you use larger pieces of cut bait, roughly 5 inch piece or larger, then they can’t eat it quite as easily.

I usually pick up and move to a different spot if I get more than one hardhead. I just try to avoid their schools if I can.

They don't eat cracked blue crab. Just the red and black drum is all I've caught on crab so far.

Anyone ever ate a hard head or gaff top?

Yes.

I'll eat gafftop again happily. Hardhead ... it's edible, but not worth the trouble to me.

I've heard gafftop are good, but I'm catch and release when it comes to those guys and all their slime

I have always heard that gafftop are good but they are 100 times slimier than a freshwater catfish!

Hardhead might taste like banana pudding. I'll never know.

Gafftop are a total pain to try to clean. Forget that. Snot rockets.

Flounder, trout and reds are the targets. Everything else is something less.

I’m kind of with you on this. I’ll toss in a few others if I get them like whiting, croaker, Spanish mackerel, but 95% of what I eat is the big three. Don’t envision gafftop or hardheads breaking into the line up any time soon.

Hardheads will take mullet... the trick is to use mullet that are too big for them to eat (or extend your leader and put your bait higher off the bottom).

Ugh hardheads... i went camping last week (video posting in teo weeks!) and forgot to bring food. All i had to eat was hardheads, great times.

I've been hungry enough to scrape the mold off a cheese sandwich.
Never hungry enough to skin a hardhead. That's impressive.

Less impressive... more sad. But i was hungry and i'll own it.

I just did a video on our channel (posting at the end of the month). Camped on the beach, forgot to bring food so i ate hardheads. They are edible. Not bad, kinda mushy but not bad. Gaftop are really good eating; fileting them is the problem. Theybhave excessive amounts of really thick mucus. Otherwise the meat is really good.

I think gafftops are really good eating and when I catch them usually 3+ pounds which is fun on my catfish or bass rods in the surf.
Very slimy but I thought they were easier to clean than a freshwater catfish.

I agree... the slime is a mess (way worse than hardheads) but the meat is really good.

Gaftop are good, just as good as trout (which is essentially indistinguishable from whiting). Hardheads are not as good, kinda mushy but totally edible.

I do have a video coming out on our channel at the ens of the month ddtailing my camping at the beach and eating hardheads (was all i could catch the first day). So if youre interested in watching me suffee through cone on over and check it out.

I eat Gafftop all of the time. They are one of the best fish to grill because they don't fall apart as some of the flakier fish do. I have found the best way to clean them is to put the on ice in an old cooler when you catch them. Let them chill and they will stop producing the slime. I put them all on the cleaning table and wash off with a water hose. Filet like a fresh water catfish. I like to target Gafftop, they will give you a good fight.

i'll have to disagree on that. i like gafftop alright, but it's definatly distinguishable from any of the drum family and not on the same level as far as table fare. JMO.

If you think a snot rocket tastes as good as a trout or flounder, you're doing something wrong.

At Pat Goff very true... I often do a lot of things wrong. But the meat is good man. All depends on how skilled you are at being able to filet them I guess.

Oh yeah no, not making that comparison. Im comparing trout and whiting. Not saltcats and... we anything.

Yes, both of them are Ok to eat. Gafftop being the best. I had always heard hardheads were no good to eat but were in Murdocks on the Seawall one day talking to a clerk told us they were good to eat. we have tried them and they are ok.

They get chunked back in the water!

If you truly believe a snot rocket cooks up as good as a flounder, you're seriously doing something terribly wrong with that flounder.

Or, you've just never caught enough flounder to know.

They said "beat" not "eat" a hardhead.

Nobody I know would even think about eating one. They are despised. One place in Venice last year you could catch one on a plastic on everycast if you slowed it down much. There wasn't anyway to totally avoid them. Absolute menaces.

I won't consider eating a hardhead but gafftop are pretty decent when blackened. There are a lot of fish I prefer over them tho. The secret I found to removing slime is to put them on a stringer (no float) and let them roll around in the surf on the beach. They come out completely slime free....the stringer on the other hand, not so much!

I fished with a Captain out of Delacroix , I woud hear him say " The world is coming to an end "
this meant he had just hooked a hardhead on a plastic bait,

Mo