California Sheephead - The First (and Second) Taste

Ingrid and I have bought California Sheephead from the Tuna Harbor Dockside Market in downtown San Diego twice now.  $6.00 per pound for the whole fish, which seems fairly reasonable.  California Sheephead are members of the mostly tropical wrasse family Labridae.  They have protruding jaw teeth (almost like buck teeth) and large scales.   Males have a black head and tail separated by a reddish middle section (the California Sheephead shown in the picture above appears to be a male), whereas females are uniformly pinkish.  Both males and females are whitish under their jaw.  California Sheephead range from Monterey Bay  to the Gulf of California and are available for portions of the year in San Diego.  The regulations allow boat-based angling from March 1st through December 31st and diving and shore-based angling from January 1st through February 28th, implying that our last purchase on the 3rd may be the last until March.  Ingrid and I ended up buying a 3.3 pound California Sheephead on this latest outing and brought it home for processing.  

California Sheephead in our kitchen awaiting cleaning, gutting, and filleting.

I am fairly new to scaling and gutting fish - but from what I've read and experienced so far, the California Sheephead is not the easiest fish to scale or gut.  First, on the scaling, the scales are medium and fairly well imbedded.  The first time I scaled this fish, I used a spoon (as I didn't have a special scaling tool), which worked fairly well but took quite a bit of time.  As this was my first time descaling a fish, a number of scales remained on the fish (I didn't particularly mind the scales as the fillets should be removed from the skin, which is too strong-flavored to eat with the delicate flesh).  My second time scaling the fish, I used a special tool that Ingrid picked out, which made the scaling efforts quite a bit easier.  Gutting the fish was not particularly easy either, as the California Sheephead has internal membranes that require additional attention.  Overall, on this round, we got a little under 1 lb. of meat from the 3.3 lb fish, about a 30% yield - though part of that is likely my relative newness to filleting.

As far as taste, California Sheephead is a delicate white fish whose taste is mildly reminiscent of lobster.  So far, our preparations have been limited to pan frying with salt and pepper (the best way to taste the pure flavor of the fish) - but the California Sheephead could be prepared with any method suitable for a delicate whitefish.  Overall, our two California Sheephead experiences were very tasty - though if you are learning to scale, clean, and gut fish, this may be one fish that you hold off on exploring till you are a little more comfortable with less difficult.

To read more on the California Sheephead, click here for the California Department of Fish and Game's report.