Ditto on the hard to clean. Not worth the time and effort especially if there are mosquitoes around.

You can fillet one with a small fillet knife. The trick is to never try to cut through the ribs. Fillet all the meat just as if you would a trout, cutting only to the ribs. Take hold of the tail and break it back over the head, pulling the ribs loose. They'll come righ off.

On the small thin, sharp filet knife.

Havent tried the tail bend, Bill. Thanks for the tip !

Sorry for resurrecting an old post, but when I caught my first red bull (40 1/2" @ 23.8 lbs.) this weekend I had to keep it because my hook tore its throat up really bad. I tagged it and cleaned it up really good. It wasn't hard to clean because I have a certain way I clean all red fish.

I used a 6" Dexter Russell (6325) curved butcher knife and an 8" Dexter Russell narrow fillet knife. I use Vincent Russo's method of cleaning a red fish (scales on) and it works very well for me.

Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlwfKBsgImg

As far as there being worms in the larger ones, I did not find any in my red bull. After slicing off the blood lines and trimming off the fatty parts, I had about 15 lbs. of meat. The meat was not tough like everyone is explaining, it did not have any grainy texture either. I also fill my freezer bags with water and remove all the air pockets before freezing the meat I plan on storing.

When we cook our fish, we soak the fillets/steaks in buttermilk/whole milk for 20 minutes, then rinse/pat dry, and season as desired. We mainly pan fry all our fish and sometimes we grill them for a smokey flavor. I will update how the bull red cooks/tastes when we decide to eat it.

This is the logical thing. I have eaten a few big Bull Reds and all have pretty rough. Take a pic, and throw them back so someone else can experience it.

We ate a 44 incher and we didn't like it at all. The meat is tough, sort of foul, and unsavory. Cleaning it was like gutting a deer. Lots of blood, sawing, and guts. It's good to do it once, as it puts a notch on your belt as a fisherman. The only reason I kept mine is because I considered it to be a trophy. I probably won't keep anything over 30" unless it's in record territory. I recommend CPR.

I've kept a total a 3 oversize (tagged) redfish in the past 15-20 years. The eating was fine in my opinion, but filleting/cleaning was more work than it was worth.

"should" is a subjective term. As long as it's a legal, tagged fish, it's nobody's business but your own.

POC jettys

Trophy I guess. I will keep and tag a 30" if bulls are all that are biting. If that's the case I will buy a bonus red tag for $2 and keep another 30". Anything bigger goes back to make babies. Boat record is a 46".

Here's how to clean a bull red. Stick with it, the video might take some time to load.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5ftxvy14mlzbgjk/RedneckRedfishFileting.3gp

When its an good keeper. Ill tag it and bring it home. Cleaning it is easy for me. Got my own way of scaling it. We hardly fillet an fish. Its extremely good for porridge.

bull reds are like a really hot hooker fun to play with but horrible to eat

taste like chit, release & go get a 20"er for the mow-down

My customer caught a very nice 45 incher Monday and we measured it's length, girth, took a lot of pictures of it's marks and released it. He is planning on having it mounted.

I do not know of many skin mounts being done any more. They have been known to rot if not done exactly right and the fins have a tendency to break or chip if bumped or even when dusting.

Only time I have used a tag was when I couldn't revive one, it was just 30 inches.

I must have gotten a bad one it had one part of it slam full of worms, but I was still able to salvage a lot of meat out of it. It didn't taste bad, but like someone posted I soaked it in buttermilk. I used to do that with catfish and never got a bad tasting one.

I would rather release them to spawn again and make lots more slots, but when they aren't going to be able to do that I would rather it hit my grease than feed a hundred crabs.