April 2013 Coastal Update

Hello everyone and welcome to your seaforager coastal update for April 2013.

{Apologies to the MFN regulars I'm posting this here while I revamp the Seaforager site}

First things first. I'm a daddy! On 3/1/13 the fishwife gave birth to a beautiful 9 pound baby boy:

Django Ray Lombard.

The eels quake with fear.

In addition to this wonderful news, I should point out that I have Mega Low Tide tours in HMB on the following dates:

Tomorrow (Tuesday) April 2nd 8:00am (discount price if you e-mail me: mawson@gmail.com)

Tuesday April 30th, 7:30am

Tuesday May 28th, 7:30am

Go to: Mega Tour HMB

The Return Of The King

Well, it's true I tend to make a big deal about small fish. I'm not gonna lie. Soap box item numero uno. But when all is said and done, when my usual diatribe about herring, mackerel, sardine, anchovy and smelt finally (mercifully) comes to an end, I have to admit, there is one king to rule them all. With all due respect to the osmerid clan, and the great clupeid family, the king salmon is the greatest of all our local species. There, I said it. Now, what do I mean by greatest? Hmmm. Well obviously, there's the journey. The most epic journey (with the possible exception of certain trans-global bird species and whales) in all of nature. You think about what a salmon has to undergo in order to get back to the river of it's birth (in our case, the Sacramento) and it just boggles the mind. Then there's the historical aspect. Salmon have been supporting human communities in this area for thousands of years. Then there are the culinary aspects of salmon--which are really too many for me to detail here. And then there's the anomalous fact that, although it occupies a very high position on the food chain, a salmon has about the same rate of toxin accumulation as, say, a herring. High in good things like those omega 3s everyone always raves about and low in all the bad stuff. Oh yeah, did I mention how sublimely beautiful they are? How magical? How hard they fight and how challenging they are to catch? Well, that too. It's as if Poseidon created the perfect fish handed it over to the human race and said, Okay people, the rest is up to you.

And then four years ago the stocks plumetted, the fall run of the Chinook (the largest run on the Sac) hit it's all time low, doom sayers (of which I, regrettably, was one), predicted the end of the whole shebang. In addition the jack returns were horrifyingly low. I don't remember the numbers but it was something like 3,000 total fish. Most salmon return to spawn (and die) at the ripe old age of three. But jacks are two year old salmon that make the return journey a year early. Fisheries biologists can estimate ocean abundance of the whole stock based on the number of jacks that return every fall. Here is what the fisheries biologists are now saying about this upcoming season... hold onto your seat, we're looking at some epic numbers.

From DFG:

"In the fall of 2012, nearly 35,500 “jack” Chinook salmon returned to spawn in the Sacramento River and 21,500 returned to the Klamath-Trinity basins. While most Chinook salmon return to spawn after three years in the ocean, jacks are fish that return after just two years, making them a reliable predictor of the number of adult salmon remaining in the ocean. Fishery biologists estimate roughly 1.5 million Chinook salmon will be in California coastal waters through the summer."

So here's the deal... DON'T MISS OUT ON THIS YEAR'S SALMON SEASON. Seriously. Starting April 6th there will be boats going out every day from Santa Cruz to Bodega. To those of you new to party boat fishing, there are boats in Emeryville, Berkeley, San Francisco, Sausalito and Half Moon Bay. Of these, (IMHO) the best salmon boats are the Sausalito Boats: New Rayann and The Outer Limits. As far as Berkeley and Emeryville, I don't have any suggestions, though I am partial to the Goldeneye 2000. In Halfmoon Bay I'm a fan of Dennis Baxter's Boat, The New Captain Pete, and also the Hulicat and The New Gravy. In San Francisco, for me it's all about the Wacky Jacky. Captain Jacky Douglas is as close to an icon as we've got in the local fishing community.

Wacky Jacky

If you don't have access to a boat, the 100 bucks is well worth it. And if you luck out and catch two ten-plus pound salmon (and the reports right now indicate there are a lot of bigger fish out there), then the 100 bucks was a bargain. Anyway, that's my pitch for the salmon fleet. Hopefully, a few of you newer Bay Area anglers will take my advice and go get a few local salmon. Just remember, your tax dollars have been paying for those fish (without hatcheries we wouldn't even have a salmon fishery). Isn't it time you got a return on your investment?

Striped Bass

It may seem sacreligious to mention this imposter, this pretender to the throne of greatness, so near to my paragraph about "the king." But I love stripers. There, I said it. Do they pale in comparison to chinook salmon? Yep. On many levels. For instance, the striped bass is that classic example of a fish that isn't particularly healthy for us to be eating--as they are virtually glowing with methyl mercury and other not so wonderful things. And then of course there's the fact that since their introduction to the Pacific Ocean in 1878 they really have made it rough on the local salmonids. Some ardent striper fans would argue this, as I once did, by pointing out that water managers are scape goating striped bass in order to deflect responsibility for destroying salmon stocks with terrible water policy decisions. They will also point out that we had a thriving salmon fishery and a thriving striped bass fishery side by side for a hundred years in CA. Thing is there are studies (y'know graphs and equations and models and whatnot) showing the miserable effect stripers will have on salmon populations. Of course it didn't help matters when the government department charged with maintaining our fisheries decided to embark on a very expensive striped bass feeding program a few years ago :( dumping salmon smolts in the same location day after day till the striped bass started responding with a sort of Pavlovian foresight. Showing up like a pack of hungry dogs at the dinner bell.

But even taking all this into account, there's something to say for driving to Ocean Beach, casting a hair raiser into the surf and hooking into a 22 pound striped bass. (Would that it were that easy! I put in about 20 days of surf casting before I gave up last year. In fact the only striper I caught all season came up in a throw net when I was going for surf smelt--and yes, I threw it back). I'm just saying. For those fisherfolk who don't have the money or time to go out on a boat, there's always the possibility of a big striper waiting just past that first line of breakers. And despite the toxic warnings, I for one am a big fan of striped bass meat. I rather prefer mine broiled in a light pesto sauce... but there are hundreds of options with striped bass.

Great spot for stripers: Rodeo California... it's all yours!

I should point out that I do not as a rule fish for stripers in the bay. But they are here right now for those who do. I received reports this morning of some nice fish caught in the south bay near SFO and all over San Pablo Bay, East Bay: Brick Yard and up into the Delta. No surprise there. So if you want some really toxic fish, you've got a lot of options deep in the bay, up towards the Carquinez.

Also, I'm noticing a lot of anglers piled up on Fort Point Pier already this year, and despite the fact that it probably means there've been a few fish caught, save yourself the trip and go somewhere else. Or just walk along the shore towards the bridge and cast out from the rocks. Unless, of course, you actually enjoy combat fishing. Baker Beach, Ocean Beach, Cliff House, and all the Pacifica beaches are great
potential spots for stripers. I should point out that some one gave me an erroneous tip about Montara Beach. Whatta drag. All I can say is if you can catch a fish on Montara State Beach you're doing a lot better than I am. I feel like I've spent a cumulative 14 years down there casting into the roiling surf with not a scratch to show for it. Which is why, in this one instance, I don't mind giving away a location. I'm bitter, and want to share the hate.

Anyway, for what it's worth: Everyone I've talked to of late whose gotten a striper has had success using the smallest hair raisers they could cast.

Halibut

Once again the season begins not with a bang but a whimper. I base my opinion on the fact that the most lethal halibut killer I know, Loren Wilson, didn't even bother fishing in March.

Loren Wilson, sticking to nightsmelt for the time being

Not that anyone is surprised by low halibut numbers the last few years. When salmon closed halibut got slammed like never before, and there simply had to be a drop off.

Luckily there are off shore reserves that should be able to replenish the population... eventually. As long as the draggers leave a few for the rest of us!

Curiously, the health department tells us that halibut is a relatively good choice for dinner. I mean, once per week for a woman in her "child-bearing years" is about as good as we can expect for a local predatory species. Hopefully, April's update will have something happier to report as re: flatties... but don't hold your breath.

Osmeridae

Though the surf smelt have yet to arrive, there have been plenty of night smelt so far this year. If you have no intention of building your own A-frame from scratch and wandering the freezing, rainy, windswept beaches at the wee hours of the morning, I don't blame you. However, there have been some really high-quality night smelt at all the Asian markets of late. Most of these fish are coming from the Eureka area, but judging by the high quality they are arriving only a day or two after capture. Thing is, they are almost always labeled "lake smelt." So use this picture as a reference in identifying them:

Intertidal operative #006 (Mikey D.) calls to inform me that flocks of Caspian terns have recently arrived along the coast. This bodes well for the diurnal osmerids that we like flinging nets at. The caspians generally don't show up here till the surf smelt arrive. So you can expect that to happen any day now.

Shad

Roughly around the same time that some genius decided to bring striped bass into our estuary, the American shad showed up. I still have difficulty believing that we have shad runs on many of our local Ca. rivers. (Namely: The Yuba, Feather, Sacramento and American) But the truth is, our shad stocks are quite robust, and although the Pacific version of the American shad is not quite as hefty as the Atlantic, the sheer volume of fish can be incredible. We're talking about catching between 20 and 50 hard fighting 3-5 pound fish per day--when the bite is on. Which it usually is around the end of April.

But the thing is, this is a crepuscular fish. To get into the shad you gotta get to the rivers early. A half hour after the sun comes up the bite will abruptly cease, (picking up again around dusk).

And what do we do with shad? Most people just throw them back. Despite the fact that "planked shad" is one of those great American delicacies that everyone has heard of but few have actually eaten, most fishermen see shad as not worth the effort of cleaning.

Having feasted on Shad, Washington and co., cross the Delaware.

Now, I myself am pretty good dealing with bones in a fish. But shad is another thing entirely. We're talking porcupine-like bones. Whole forests of 'em. I mean, it would take like six hours to tweeze out all the bones in a shad, and even then you wouldn't necessarily get them all. Trying to figure out how George Washington got away with feeding them to his troops before they crossed the Delaware. Oh right, they were starving!

Whether or not you know how to de-bone a shad (and really there are maybe 10 people in North America who could qualify as proficient shad de-boners), if catching massive quantities of a hard fighting mega-clupeid, while drifting down a sparkling California river is your idea of a good time: call "Cave-man Mikey" at 703-946-9567. Special discounts for people who refer to the Monkeyface News. And of course ten percent off for anyone of Czech ancestry (seriously, Mikey is trying to corner the market on Czech fishermen). And remember the big month for shad is May, so you'll want to book your trip now, before he sells out!

Mikey D. and two nice rock crabs. Mikey will put you on the shad: 703-946-9567

Abalone

Abalone opens April 1st. An appropriate day for the silliest of all fisheries. I've said it before, but when you take into account the long drive, the insane hours, the combat fishing (amongst shore pickers) the possibility of drowning (or getting eaten by a shark), and the ever present possibility of inadvertently breaking one of the many rules (like for instance when you go to fill out your report card and the pen mysteriously stops writing--what then pray tell?), it hardly seems worth the effort. I hope I'm not losing credibility here. But that's my new take on it. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love to eat abalone... I just don't love it quite that much. Frankly, I think this year, rather than joining the melee near Salt Point/Point Arena I'm going to drive a bit farther north and go for...

Pacific Razor Clam

As long as I'm driving 2.5 hours north for abalone, why not tack on an extra couple of hours and go for an even more delicious mollusk? The pacific razor clam. The last few years (on a certain Humboldt County beach named for clams--hint hint, wink wink), have been fairly epic (due in part to cold oceanic conditions) and as long as you can get out there on a reasonably low minus tide you should be able to score a few razors. But be advised, if you've only ever dug littlenecks, cockles and horsenecks, this is a different game entirely. Razors dig fast and it's kind of important that you understand how to position your shovel or clam gun. I've only dug razors in Oregon and I found it easier with a clam gun than one of those curly shovels. Anyway, if I don't make the trip this month i will definitely go at the end of May... anyone feel like driving to Humboldt County?

Oh yeah, and by the way...

Mussels

So I've been getting a lot of questions about mussels of late. Particularly about how long they live and how fast they reproduce. California mussels can live up to 20 years and reach sizes in excess of eight inches. But even more remarkably, our local ocean mussel grows at twice the rate as the farmed Euro mussel and the Euro/Bay hybrid. In fact, in southern California, where there have been brief experiments at farming California mussels, biologists have noted that in optimal conditions Ca mussels can grow as much as half an inch per month. "Optimal conditions" evidently means: 1. that the mussels are always submerged (subtidal mussels grow faster than intertidal ones because they can feed all day and night). 2. that they are attached to rock. Mussels growing on rocks have better access to calcium than mussels growing on pilings and other structure. Even in non optimal conditions random samples of mussels appear to grow at a mean average of 1/4 inch per month (until they reach 3 inches and then they slow down). So you are talking about a potential farmed seafood product that is native, local, sustainable (no waste to speak of, and no feed necessary if grown locally), and can reach marketable size in 6-12 months. So where in the hell are the California mussels in the seafood markets of California? Nowhere. Evidently the orange color of our California mussel is a deal breaker. Can you guys believe that? So strange. Evidently the orange color of our native mussels makes people think there's something wrong with them. I'm only mentioning this because I suggested California mussels as a potential farmed product to a friend who wants to start an aquaculture facility. Researching this we found the nonsense about the orange color being off putting. So I guess the answer would be finding a new name for California mussels that immediately lets people know that the orange color is not a problem... orange mussel? tangerine mussel? Golden sunset mussel? Golden state mussel? Ooh I like that one. My thinking on this is that whatever name we come up with it can't be further from "California Mussel" than Chilean seabass is from "Patagonian tooth fish." Oh and I'm open to suggestions here...

Bull Kelp Pickles

In my never ending attempts to keep everyone happy, I'm going to try to do a seaweed post every month. This month's post concerns the easiest of all local seaweeds to identify. Bull kelp (or bull whip kelp). Now as far as bull kelp goes know this: if you clip the "leaves" near the top of the bulb, you are not injuring it. But if you cut the "stalk" the kelp dies. Since most of my readers do not own boats this is a non issue. The way most everyone harvests bull kelp is to pick it up when it washes up on the beach after a storm. When doing this be sure to select a nice, crisp, green piece. Not the sun withered, dried out stinky old thing covered with kelp flies.

Cut yourself maybe three or four 12 inch secions of the "stalk" or stipe. Rinse these in cold seawater (as a general principle don't rinse offshore/sub tidal sea weeds in fresh water). Take a carot peeler and peel the outside of each section (especially if your bull kelp isn't particularly fresh). Now take the peeled sections and cut them into small rings. I like my rings maybe a quater inch thick, and maybe 1-2 inches in diameter. For bigger rings cut higher up towards the bulb.

Now that you've got your fresh cut bull kelp stipes, cleaned (in seawater) and skinned by carrot peeler, put them aside and start on your pickle juice.

The main thing with pickling liquid is this ratio: 3 parts vinegar to 4 parts water. You can use red, white, balsamic or apple vinegar. I usually do white. But I'm not a very adventurous pickler. The pickling recipe I use is essentially the same thing i do for herring, though I lay off on some of the spices and add garlic and black pepper. You will find a number of wonderful recipes for pickled bull kelp online. Here's what I do:

Ingredients:

1. Bull kelp stalks, peeled (use a carrot peeler) and diced into rings

2. Onions

3. Three quarts white vinegar

4. Four quarts water

5. Garlic

6. Pickling spice

7. Dill

8. 1/4 cup salt

9. 1/2 cup brown sugar

Take bull kelp rings and layer with onions in a glass, ceramic or plastic container (non metal). Put all the other ingredients into a pot and boil. After it comes to a boil pour the liquid into your containers till they are filled to the top. Shaking them a bit to make sure the pickling liquid covers all of the chopped onions and kelp rings. Refrigerate for 2-3 days.

Open and voila! Pickled bullwhip kelp. Yipee!

(By the way, there's all kinds of sites online with more involved recipes than this...)

Wow. Can't believe I got this done. Okay. Baby Django is crying again. Time to go. Back on the night fish tomorrow night. Hopefully some cool stuff to report in April. Until then, see you at, on, or in the water.

Kirk-out

Comments

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Golden State Mussels... I like that... Likewise, instead of saying that California Mussels are "orange" something as simply as calling it a "red-gold" or "golden-red" can help change perception as well... besides, isn't yellow + red = orange anyway? "Orange" in reference to seafood color makes them sound sickly, whereas anything "Golden" makes them sound exotic or luxurious.

Posted by: Scott P | 04/01/2013 at 08:45 AM