I love to fish, it’s a serious distraction to me. And while I try to learn as much as possible, I’ve grown to understand that they call it “fishing” rather than “catching” for a reason.

I was fishing late one evening about 18 years ago with my oldest daughter, catching small jack crevalle with bits of shrimp. A group of teens saw my success, and asked where they could get shrimp for bait to duplicate what I was doing. The only bait store was sold out, I purchased the last “bait” shrimp they had. Other than the dozen “Colossal” shrimp (about 6 – 8 to a pound) in a display tank on the counter. I believe they were $15 a dozen at the time, but whatever the price, I was NEVER going to be buying them for use as bait. These kids did, however. And they only used two of them before becoming bored and leaving. Thankfully, teens are bored easily. I say thankfully because they offered me their leftover “bait” as they were leaving. I kindly accepted, and as they walked away, I told my daughter to get ready to leave as soon as they got out of sight.

She wanted to know about catching dinner. I told her we had dinner already. I stopped on the way home for a bag of ice for the 10 colossal shrimp that weighed in at about 1.5 pounds. We ate like kings!

My point is sometimes it’s OK to eat bait. Personally, I rate eating bait much the same as eating salad. Salad isn’t food- it’s what food eats! As long as it’s fresh, and handled properly, who as I to say you cannot eat it? Hell, I’m from West Virginia, and my dad built a reinforced front bumper for our Jeep in order to protect it when he would hit deer on the road. To eat them.

The reason I went through all of this was to set the tone for the recipe and description of what I did Sunday afternoon. I saw a video from Green Deane and read an article at “eattheweeds.com” regarding mole crabs. Since I live only 8 minutes from the beach, this went straight to the top of my “must try”.

Mole crabs are probably better known as “sand fleas”, a highly prized bait when fishing for whiting, croakers, and particularly pompano. A hard-core pompano fisherman will spend hours driving up and down the beaches gathering thousands of these little critters in preparation of the winter pompano run. I have an acquaintance that is a commercial pompano fisherman and does just that, gathering bait for the “good” days. Since pompano sells for about $3.50 per pound wholesale and weigh an average of two pounds, each fish caught represents roughly $7. I’ve heard of many days where he would catch 75 to 100 pompano on sand fleas in a couple hours. From shore. With bait gathered for free. Not a bad gig, eh?

Sand fleas reside in the section of beach between the high water mark and the water itselfe, barely under the sand. Easily caught with your hands, a better method is to use a “sand flea rake“. Using it to scrape off the top inch or two of sand in the “wash” while the waves are out, then rinsed of the loose sand when the waves come back in. Like this:

I grabbed my sand flea rake, the youngest daughter, and a bucket and headed to the beach. Within twenty minutes we had all I needed for my little taste-test.

Bringing them home, I immediately took them to the sink to start rinsing. FHB Tip #4 – ALL wild caught and/or gathered animal protein is best when put on ice immediately and processed as soon as possible.  I also took this time to separate the shell debris from the edibles.

While rinsing, I started a pot of water to boil, adding some Cajun seasoning blend. After rinsing for about 10 minutes, and as the water started to boil, I added the now cleaned sand fleas to their new pre-seasoned “hot tub”.

Boil them for 10 to 15 minutes. While the boil, combine equal parts unsweetened shredded coconut and arrowroot flour (both Paleo Approved ingredients), along with whatever spices you prefer. I used garlic powder and season salt. Old Bay would have been nice, but were were out 🙁

(The smell was delicious, reminiscent of a crab or shrimp boil.)

Remove from boiling water and drain.

Over medium-high heat, melt some butter, grass fed preferred.

Dredge them in the flour/coconut/spice mixture.

As the butter stops foaming, add the fleas, being sure to use a splatter screen of some sort, they WILL jump out, not from them being alive (boiling killed them immediately) but from the steam escaping the shells making them pop. My first batch had one that jumped up over a foot. Splatter screen!

Toss them as they brown up, about 2 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate. Start with more butter and repeat until all are done.

(More wonderful smells!)

I dusted them with some more garlic powder, then waited for them to cool.

Neither my wife or kids would try them. No surprise, I can barely get them to eat fried chicken on the bone. Call this a failing as a Hillbilly dad. I believe they just haven’t missed enough meals.

I, however, had a year or so of “single-meal” and sometime “no-meal” days”, making me FAR less picky about what I would shovel into my face. (BTW, three meals a day was my initial reason for joining the US Air Force!) So I tried one. Then another. Then half the bowl was gone.

Quite tasty!

The dog liked them too. Being a Humane Society rescue dog, she must have missed some meals like I did. She didn’t turn her nose up. Smart girl!

The flavor was mostly the spices I used, but also carried an undertone of sweet crab meat. The arrowroot/coconut mixture browned up to a nice crispness that reminded me of a light tempura, and that helped mask the crunch of the shells. This was a winner. Or at least a potential one. Spices need some adjustment, and I should let them drain a bit more, or possibly crisp them a little longer. An interesting tidbit, I found that the smaller ones seemed to have virtually zero shell crunch, having thinner shells. I was thinking that bigger would be better, but apparently not in this case. I ended up eating all the smallest ones first, since they tended to offer more flavor and less crunch, or at least a “softer” crunch, not that the bigger ones were offensive in any way. Probably a mental thing.

Green Deane was correct in that they are easy to go through rather quickly. And being seafood, should have a decent amount of of Omega-3 fatty acids, a good thing for everyone. An added benefit, at least to those on the Paleo Diet, is that this is a guilt-free option. And speaking of free, where else can you get free seafood? Literally, if you can get to the beach, you can dig these up with your hands pretty much all year long. No more need to miss any meals. Living in Florida DOES seem to have its bonuses.

Definitely something I’ll do again. Be very careful about inviting me to a potluck and saying “just bring anything”. Just sayin’

And remember when you go fishing and don’t catch anything, eating the bait just may end up being a mighty fine option.

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