Hi everybody it’s time for the Sea Forager coastal update… for early summer.
But first here's some tours and stuff coming up in the next few months: still a couple spots left for my Father's Day San Francisco Coastal Fishing & Foraging tour on 6/21 (then 7/25, 8/29) and my mega low tide tour on 7/6.
It’s been a strange season thus far, marked by a paucity of some regular summer fish and an over abundance of others. Alas, only Poseidon himself can predict the mysterious ways of the ocean--or even pretend to understand them.
Small Fish:
True Smelts
It has turned out to be a very disappointing season for the fan of true smelts. At least locally. Night smelt have been spotty (though I finally did find them this past month) and surf smelt totally non-existent. Not really sure if this means anything. These fish tend to be cyclical and we’ve been due for a down turn for a few years. But still… it would be nice to see a few surf smelt. (Or even one!) I should also point out that we’re at the southern edge of the true smelt range. Reports from northern California and the large number of night smelt at the fish wholesalers’ warehouses earlier this season indicate that the fishery is as robust as ever up north. So if you’re bound and determined to get your own, pack that A-frame and head to Humboldt.
Retiring From Dip Net Making
I should point out that I am retiring as the sole A-frame dip net maker on the West Coast. It seemed like such a good idea! But I forgot how big a pain in the anal fin it was to make those friggin’ nets. So if you want an A-frame, you’ll have to go back to Craigslist and find a used one somewhere. They come along every now and then (yeah, like once a decade) but as for Sea Forager dipping into the dip net business, I’m done!
Mackerel
Never seen so many durned mackerel in my life! First the squid boats started getting them in Monterey. Then there were a few in Santa Cruz. Then all of sudden - woosh! - they swept through the HMB area including Princeton Harbor (and all the way to Pacifica Pier). Only thing, most of these fish are not true mackerel (Scomber japonicus) but rather the diminutive jack mackerel (Trachurus symmetricus).
Locally, jack mackerel are a good 1/4th to 1/5th the size of a regular Pacific mackerel so they’re small and bony. (According to fish expert par excellence Milton Love they actually reach 32 inches in length! But the big ones live way, way offshore… like hundreds of miles. Only the little ones frequent shallow coastal waters). Nevertheless, their meat is quite good. I did not realize how good till this month because I have rarely ever caught them in the kind of numbers we’ve been getting them lately. Best way to eat them is grilled. Sprinkle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Three minutes a side. Squeeze a lemon on ‘em and call ‘em done. Nothing fancy. Some of my seafood subscribers did a boquerones style cure with jack mackerel fillets and it worked great. Only thing, these little guys are a tad smaller than your average herring so filleting them requires a very sharp knife and a high degree of patience.
Hey, I just noticed the fish on the Sabiki package is a jack mackerel!
To get in on the mackerel go to Princeton Harbor at dusk and fish into the early evening, especially on an incoming tide. The fish have been swarming the harbor at night. The usual unbaited Sabikis work well but I find the big Sabiki with the white “feathers” is the best. Oh yeah, anything with more than 3 hooks is a royal pain to deal with. Jack mackerel are the ones without the stripes or spots. Just a spiraling lateral line on a pale blue-green background—pretty little fish these.
Japonicus
As for the “real” mackerel, the larger Pacific chub mackerel, Scomber japonicus, they seem to be running in amongst the jack macks. But they are vastly outnumbered and you can expect maybe 5 percent of your total haul to consist of Pacific mackerel.
Sardines
I won’t lie I think I’ve eaten my weight in sardines this summer. All of them caught by me (sport fishing) and a few bought from The Sardella, the last hand-pulled lampara boat in California.
But wait! You thought sardine season was closed! Actually sardines can still be targeted recreationally. And the commercial take is permitted as long as the vessel was targeting mackerel, squid or something else. In other words, sardine by-catch is still legal and will remain so thru 2015.
So again, these guys have been running with mackerel in the harbor on a good day you’ll get 50/50 jack mackerel to sardines and on a bad day, 90/10 jack macks to sardines. But that’s sort of a gold-plated problem, y’know?
Same sabiki rigs, same incoming tides for sardines.
Halibut
Really good halibut numbers for the sporties so far this season. It’s all been about the Berkeley flats this year. Predictably, the bite’s been dropping off on the big tides and then picking up when they mellow out a bit. Unfortunately, for Sea Forager Seafood, it’s been difficult to line up a good commercial halibut slayer as they tend to all stick with one buyer for the season—not sure why. The dockside price for halibut is actually higher than salmon and hasn’t gone down a penny since March. Go figya! Good for the fisherman and bad for everyone else. Local halibut is fast becoming a delicacy rather than a staple. But I figure this is probably a good thing.
Strangely the shore bite for halibut has been pretty dismal this year, although there’ve been a few fish landed on Berkeley Pier… and get this… Emeryville Pier (!) which is the least productive public pier in the Bay Area (when I monitored the city piers for PSMFC Emeryville Pier was consistently the worst. Unless you like bat rays and polluted po’gies).
Striped Bass
Hawg striper carcass hanging on a fence outside San Gregorio General Store… Gee I wonder where this one was caught? (this appears to be a sort of neo pagan custom when the bass are running at Pescadero and San G.)
When the dust has settled and we anglers look back on the summer of 2015 ten years from now the thing everyone will remember will be the bass. Pick your spot. Last week the sand crab soakers around Sloat Ave at OB slammed them. And the week before that same deal at Taraval. Pacifica beaches have been red hot all season, and there have been good runs in HMB, San Gregorio (see picture) and Pescadero, lots of small schoolie-sized fish, but some hawgs too. Sand crabs seem to be the key, but the plugging’s been excellent too. Especially at dusk. Bass fishing in the Bay has been ridiculous. In fact, if you’re in it for the halibut a little too ridiculous! I’ve been going with the big rattling SP Minnow that looks like a smelt (hoping that stripers remember what a smelt looks like) but swimbaits and hair-raisers seem to be de riguer for the coast right now… as per usual.
Salmon
Yes, there appears to be a salmon season going on right now. If you can get out there and find them you are doing better than most. Waiting till the northern fish come back down to the Golden Gate as is their wont. Hopefully it picks up in July and August… right now there isn’t a whole lot to report.
Lingcod
Unbelievable numbers this summer. And the size limit is still only 22 inches (for sporties). DFG gave us some very liberal rules the last few years and lots of folks are responding by getting their lings on. Good reports from the shore-bound swimbait tossers and jetty walkers. And plenty of live bait (read: mackerel) for those who want to ensure success. The nice thing about ling abundance is that it indicates other stocks are doing well, well enough to keep the lingcod happy.
Sea Weeds
We are once again in the thick of it. Lots of nori along the local rocky intertidal areas near my comely abode in Moss Beach. But one thing about living on the Coastside has been the absolute lack of an adequate area to dry my sea weeds! Having lived in SF for half of my adult life I sorta thought I had a handle on fog. Boy was I wrong. I mean seriously. I recently tried putting my nori in the dryer (at a friend’s suggestion) and that worked pretty well… except for the little crispy bits of nori that got stuck in the little holes in the dryer walls and are now all over my sweaters, underwear and tee shirts… a-hem.
In any case now is the time for seaweeds. Here’s a decent seaweed book if you need help identifying them. Seaweeds Of The Pacific Coast, by Jennifer and Jeff Mondragon. I would like it if the color photos were a tad bigger. And often I find that one photo of a seaweed species is not enough since they come in many shapes and sizes, but over all this is a good starter book.
Minus Tides
As far as foraging minus tides go, the lowest tides remaining in 2015 are today (Tuesday, 6/16 and Wednesday 6/18) but they’re super early. Beyond that you’ve got some good mega low tide action happening July 2nd through July 6th. Then more mega minus tides July 16th and 17th and some good ones July 31st through Aug 3rd. After August 3rd there won’t be any mega low minus tides (lower than -0.5) until late November—as per usual.
I'll be co-hosting a special locally-sourced seafood dinner party at 18 Reasons on July 24th, more details here. Yes, there will be sea shanties!
And that’s going to do it for your Coastal Update for early summer 2015.
I will be doing nightsmelt trips again if there’s any interest in it… but be advised, I don’t take anybody… and you will subject to excessive Sea Forager scrutiny, and will be forced to pass my arduous cardio-vascular testing process ;)
And as always, if you're looking for a sustainable, super-fresh seafood source (and the story behind it) sign up for Sea Forager Seafood! I've got pickup spots all around S.F., the East Bay and South Bay.
In any case, this is Sea Forager Kirk signing out for June 2015, hoping to see you at, on or in the water!
Kirk-out