Time For Tiddlers
You can make a fairly good case that the best fish run small. Pompano, various saltwater perch, freshwater trout, crappie, sand dabs or sole and a host of my husband's favorite tropical reef fish neither strain rods nor raise your heartbeat. They make their biggest impression in the pan or on your plate. Best of all, a basic rule of angling runs "the bigger the fish, the longer the wait." Take aim at little fish and you'll hit your target more often than not.
Gear up with ultralight tackle and pitch pieces of shrimp or sand fleas at pompano in the surf line. Use pile, sand and blood worms for saltwater tiddlers and you soon fill your live net or stringer. Small fish, and in particular, those with soft flesh like pompano require careful handling. When we boat we keep a cooler of ice to hold fish and eviscerate fish as soon as the action slows. Actually, we have a rule that the person who doesn't catch the fish, cleans it. So my husband cleans lots of fish! If we catch more tiddlers than we can eat that day we simply freeze them in half-gallon milk containers in a solid block of ice. This eliminates freezer burn too. Also, when your freezer's full of rectangular ice blocks it retains its head better when opened. So we do this with small game birds, herbs and other items too. Small fish, whether thin fillets or whole, challenge cooks because the difference between "done" and "overdone" may be less than a minute. As a result it's usually best to replace barbecue and other high heat methods with sautés and such. Never forget that fish continues to cook after it's removed from the heat. We've traditionally used butter to sauté fish. These days we find a mixture of butter and olive oil cuts calories and saturated fats. You can experiment with proportions here.
Pampano in Paper
Make this with traditional parchment paper and it's a wonderful dish for guests as you bring the fish to the table in their wrappers so each diner gets to open their own package. The smell that bursts forth when the package is pierced is lovely beyond description. Note: it's important to crease and double fold the edges of the paper, or if you like, foil packages to seal in their contents.
Pompano -- two or so each -- or other flat fish like perch melted butter or oil
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