Pre-Columbian Pogey

Not Even Looking To Break Even

It's true kids. No matter what they tell you. Life is occasionally improved by the slow ingestion of quality intoxicants.

The commercial cast net uber-fresh herring idea is now officially dead. RIP. They stabbed it with their steely knives (but they still couldn't kill the beast. The beast rages on. I am the beast. 666. That is the number of herring I could probably ever catch in one day. Pounds now, not tons). And then they e-mailed to tell me I lost.

Hi Kirk,

I just got the word from Captain _______ that Legal has made a decision (went all of the way to the top of the Law Enforcement Branch too). They gave cast netting a thumbs down (see below). Budget cuts might effect the regulatory cycle but I think that DFG will have to address the fresh fish fishery and that would be the time to introduce cast netting as an authorized method of take for herring.

Sorry for the bad news and the fact that it took so long to get it to you.

Signed ____________________

Herring gill netters getting their fish in McCovey cove

From Enforcement:

Dear _________________

I spoke with Legal at length last week about the issues of nets and weekend fishing. I also spoke with Assistant Chief __________ after he discussed this with the Chief of Patrol ____________. Although they agree that the impact of the fresh fish herring fishery is minimal, the fishery is still bound by the regulations established in CCR Title 14 Section 163. The only authorized method of take for the fresh fish permittees is a set gill net no longer than 65 fathoms long, as described in CCR Title 14 Section 163(f)(2)(A). There is also no fishing allowed on weekends in San Francisco Bay (noon Friday through 5:00 PM Sunday night), as described in CCR Title 14 Section 163(h)(5).

My Kind of CCR

If Mr. Lombard wants the regulations changed he will have to submit a regulation change proposal to the Fish and Game Commission.

And of course this is exactly what I will do. However, there is no denying it is a temporary setback. A loss of sorts.

But the loss is ours, collectively. Because no one gets these gorgeous, scale-on, clear eyed, throw-netted herring siting in my cooler. Except me. And my friends.

Instead everybody else gets the shook, sucked, crushed and pulverized variety. Oh well. Wait till next year. A baseball cliche if ever there was one.

McCovey Cove

521 homers. 1555 rbi. Rest assured when this man strode to the plate, first basemen were not in their happy place. Did anyone out there ever witness a Willie McCovey line drive? I once heard one called by Ralph Kiner in like 1979. Towards the end. Solo homer in a meaningless game. The pitch comes in. Kiner goes: "It's a line drive. It's in the gap. It's gone... and that my friends was a Willie McCovey home run."

Today I stood and watched 100 tons of herring gill-netted in McCovey Cove. They are now getting 200-300 dollars a ton. (So let's see, what does the math-compromised MFN editorial machine come up with?) Which means each boat made about 2,000 dollars for ten hours of fishing--if that. And they came down from Washington. And how much is the permit? 2,000 dollars? More? And the deckhand... how much does he get? And gas? Upkeep on nets and winches and motors? Wow. Mooring fees? The SF herring fishery is not a growth industry. Let's just put it that way. In 1994 they got what? $2,000-$3,000 a ton?

Then why the hell not let me catch 25 pounds?

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHH!!!

I don't even need to break even. That's what no one understands about me.

I'M NOT EVEN LOOKING TO BREAK EVEN!

All I'm trying to do is show people how a herring might be fished. Small quantities, high price. Feel me?

The 1 Hundred and 1th Ton

McCovey Cove. Herring boat. Gill net set. Jan 18th 2012.

I said it was 100 tons but really it was more like 101 tons. Maybe 102. The Chinese and Vietnamese evidently like herring. Would love to find out how they are preparing it! (A little help from some of my Vietnamese fishing brothers here?)

My crazy MFN operative # 007, the one known as Pissed-off Pete, looks up at me out of this virile mass Asiatic manhood and screams: "C'mon Kirk! White man gotta stand up!" This was one of the funniest things I have ever heard. I am still laughing. The absurdity of it. Poor Pete, the first man to throw a cast net on C. Pallasi inside SF Bay, swallowed in a crowd of... very talented net throwers. Led sinkers winging thru the air. A very funny sight to behold.

The average guy on that pier today threw twice as many times as Tim Lincecum does in a typical outing. Seriously. The fish were sort of thick and then not thick. 10 pounds and then half a pound. Like that.

"I just love this... I just love being near this."

I must stop. I must dig deeper here. I must digress. I was standing there today and one of my favorite regulars was standing just beyond me talking to someone else. His name is Tom. He's one of those dudes has a very common name but when you're standing somewhere with a lot of '365s' (that's the name we give to people who fish every day of the year, yo), and you say: "Tom says the stripers are running thick at Candlestick" every one knows who you're talking about.

Anyway, I was standing there in the thick of it all and I heard Tom say something like: "I just love this... I just love being near this." That was it. Milt in the water. Eggs on the rocks. Fish sparkling in the shallows. Herring shakers on the gill net boats tapping their staccato rhythm. 43 some odd people throwing nets. Scales flying. Chinese music from someone's Buick (the trunk open and filled with blue plastic bins). I dunno, it was a wild scene. And really, when you add up the ton or so that was caught by the net flingers, what does it really amount to when compared to a single boat?

Lot of people I'd never seen before out there. Jeez, I even ran into Bubba from HMB. Bubba is a fire extinguisher guy. And is the most perfect embodiment of bubba-hood ever created. Bubba was checking fire extinguishers at the ballpark, and had some weird cioppino wagon he was hauling. Seriously. Big Bubba was trafficking in ciopino. WTF? Anyway. I gave Bubba about 7 pounds or something. He goes: "did you see all those guys on the other side?? {of McCovey Cove}"

And poor Pissed-off Pete, sighing miserably and trying with mixed success to elbow his way to the prime spot. "Its like the battle of Keh Sanh!" He screams.

Nets whirling through the air. Fish dying everywhere. Bad day to be a herring. Good day to be a herring eater.

Herring eaters

Ayala

Some Miwoks

In my dreams tonight I will be sailing through The Gate onboard the San Carlos in 1775. I will look towards land and see the grizzly munching on the sea lion carcass that they all decribed, and the tule canoes docked where Ghiridelli is now. And, and... the endless forests of tule grass, pintails, canvas backs and geese. Great shrieking clouds of geese. Horizon to horizon clouds. Vaults of geese. And a plump, well-fed populace given to laughter, steamed mussels and interesting head dresses. I must see this. I must know what it was. I want to catch a pre-Columbian pogey!

Seriously, this is a picture of the San Carlos, hard to believe they'd have all sails at full spread so close to the shore tho. Is that supposed to be the Gate? Pt. Diablo?

I want to catch a pre-Columbian pogey!

And if I don't get to catch a pre-Columbian pogey, I'm going to scream and cry!

Imagine for a moment the sturgeon abundance in 1775. Green sturgeon! Green sturgeon abundance. Oxymoronic at this point. Not in 1775. The CPUE for green sturgeon in 1775 was probably like .50 per hour. 12 per day. Imagine the clamming in HMB in 1775. I wonder how hard it would be to reconstruct the tide on August 4th 1775 when Ayala sailed in? August 4th.... hmmm... imagine what surf smelt abundance was on Aug 4th 1775. I think maybe this year I'll throw a party for the bay on August 4th. Who wants to come? We'll regale ourselves with stories about the old days. To hell with the present. Forget about the future. I want to live in the past!

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!

Now I'm sitting here. The phone just rang. Eric Lee's still on the herring. Live Eric! Live!

Of Course

herring otolith

FYI: They've found herring otoliths in 8,000 year old Indian burial mounds. No surprise there.

The 1/1000

Yes. On Montgomery street.

In parting I will say this. I may not know what a summer run of Chinook salmon looks like, I may not comprehend former pintail abundance, Grizzly bears on Montgomery St., or what Aquatic Park was like when it was full of spartina grass, native oysters and clapper rails. But I sure as hell can visualize what a herring run must've looked like. Since I'm intimately familiar with that meagre 1/1000th that's left to us.

Anyhoo, I may yet hold out for time machines and vistas of impossible former abundance but while I'm doing it, I will profess my love for what remains. Tom said it best:

I just love it. I just love being near it.

Kirk-out.

Jan 18, 2012