I have heard all sorts of dire tales about spiny backs. This is another fish in roughly the same league as red cod ... or so it would seem. Today, along with my son-in-law, we hit the beach with a torpedo and spiny backs made up the larger proportion of our catch. Most were quite small and they swam away albeit a little the wiser for their brush with my 5/0 recurve hooks.

I have never been able to pin down an exact reason as to why this fish, according to popular opinion, has no culinary value. With three fish on the beach in the two kilo mark, we decided to find out.

I treated the fish as I would a nice tope or lemon, the fins, tail, gut cavity and head were all removed soon after landing and the trunks were kept in sea water. Once home the backbone and the cartilage plates that support the vicious spines were removed, then the trunk was skinned and filleted.

This was one time when I was quite wasteful with the filleting knife, as I was dealing with the unknown I only wanted what looked like prime meat. I ended up with a dinner plate full of lovely, very pale fish pieces that by sight alone looked more than interesting.

My son-in-law called the barbecue to duty and quite soon, with the aid of some of the latest non stick tinfoil, the fish fillets were gently brought to a favourable cooking temperature, it didn't take long before they were ready to accompany some garlic chips and a hunk of fresh, generously buttered bread.

There were six of us involved in the testing party. We all took just one piece and then gave an independent opinion on the culinary value. It's always difficult to fault fresh fish and this is probably why we take up the sport in the first place. Six people indulged and six people gave the fillets a well deserved pass mark, they were bloody delicious.

I can't see this opinion changing when the fish is cooked in a standard frying pan. It is a lovely soft consistency, a good flavour without a hint of ammonia. The general consensus was one that only questioned when are we going fishing again? Everyone wanted more.

I am sure the answer is quite simple: it's how you look after the fish you catch at the time they are landed. They were not thrown on the beach or simply bagged for a couple of hours until I could get around to dealing with them. They were unhooked, de-finned, gutted and beheaded within minutes of being landed, they were treated properly and this paid a dividend in spades. I would recommend the next time you land a spiny back, and it's big enough to keep, treat it with the same respect you would give a prime table fish and you will be delighted when it's served up at dinner time.