From swimming in the ocean, to grilling over a driftwood fire... in under 30 minutes. It's hard to find a fresher fish than this.
I have a camping trip I do with some friends a few times per year. We head to a deserted beach in the southeast of the island of Koh Chang. We bring along a few vegetables, some rice, and seasonings, and that's pretty much it for food. We count on the ocean and the jungle to provide the rest for us. We catch squid on a rod and reel, get crabs in a basket trap, dig clams in a mangrove forest back behind the beach, bang oysters off the rocks, and forage coconuts, banana blossoms, wild fruit, palm hearts, and wild ginger in the jungle. But by far the majority of what we eat out there comes by way of our spearguns.
The beach where we camp
The reefs off of this beach are pretty healthy and have good fish stocks. We never take the parrot fish and other species that live on the reef and help it grow. We prefer the few pelagic species that come in this way, as well as the smaller grouper species around. My personal favorite are coral trout. This story is typical of any day on the beach when we camp there, it's just one I'm choosing to write up in this post.
I'd only been out spearing for 30 minutes or so. The visibility was decent but not great. Under me was about 5 meters of water. I could make out the bottom but couldn't see much, so I was diving down and either hiding out waiting, looking in cracks in the rocks, or creeping around boulders. I dove and was moving towards a boulder when I saw a nice sized coral trout right underneath me. I knew he'd be spooked any second, so I quickly aimed and pulled the trigger. The rubber bands sent the spear straight down through the top of the fish's head.
Back on the beach I was feeling pretty good about myself. I had some friends visiting who had never been on our trip before so they were doubly impressed. Some of the girls were posing with it.
Well, then my buddy Gavin had to come in and show me up. He had a nice grouper that made my fish look small by comparison. Here he is holding both fish.
So the big fish would be dinner, and mine would be lunch. We scaled and cleaned it, slit the sides, rubbed it with garlic, olive oil and salt, stuffed it with fragrant leaves, and put it on the coals of a driftwood fire.
We all dug in straight away with just our hands. A quick squeeze of lime juice and some optional chili sauce that one of the girls whipped up, and that was really all it needed.
I've eaten some incredible pieces of fish in some world-renowned restaurants, but I swear, nothing comes close to the fish we eat on this camping trip. There's just no comparison.
I might write up a longer piece or maybe make a video about this camping trip if you guys are into it. Let me know in a comment if so. Thanks for reading!