fish · The Trophy Room
Sole
The unglamorous fish that quietly makes the best fish tacos on the boat. A flatfish that starts life swimming upright and then, as a juvenile, has one eye migrate around its head so it can lie flat on the bottom, both eyes up, watching. Mild, sweet, thin white fillets — always worth keeping.
Identifying
- flat oval body, both eyes on the upper (right) side, blind side pale
- top side mottled brown to match the seafloor; underside cream to pale yellow
- small mouth set to one side; a continuous fin fringing the whole body
- the pointed head and smallish mouth point to English sole among the local flatfish
Facts
- flatfish aren't born flat — the eye migration during larval development is one of the strangest transformations in fish
- they lie buried to the eyes in sand, ambushing and grubbing for worms and small crustaceans
- an easy, reliable bottom fish on light gear over sand — the reliable dinner when the salmon won't cooperate
