Gifts from El Nino

[the rockfish ninja]

This year has been a weird one for me, I've caught more stripers than any other year and I don't even target or want them. Been offered 3 Salmon trips (2 free), passed on all of them (don't like Salmon or trolling), haven't been out on a boat for rockfish all year , and only caught a few from shore this year with all the stripers in the way.

But.............I keep kicking everybody's butt when I do fish, even fishing for bait. Went to Pacifica pier to jig up some jacksmelt for Lingcod bait and El Nino had some pleasant surprises for me & a friend. First off it was non-stop action for 3-4 hours, smelt, anchovy, herring, sand dabs, virtually any small baitfish was coming up on EVERY drop, a flock of several thousand common murre was circling 4 humpback whales that put on a show for the whole pier (folks were cheering like they were rockstars) while slurping up schools of anchovy, and in between all this I was able to load up on Pacific Pompano. Normally they don't come up this far north but thanks to some warmer water I was able to catch enough for a Japanese style fish fry. (rice, seaweed, salad, fried Pompano & a little tare sauce made with fish stock)

Needless to say my friend didn't catch any so I gave him a bunch because I had so many.


picture sharing

[Prof. Salt]

Congrats on some great eating fish! Pompano is always a good idea.

[Alto Mare]

Very cool, you got yourself some good eating fish...enjoy it!

[alantani]

i'm thinking ling cod bait! 

[the rockfish ninja]

i'm thinking ling cod bait! 

A friend caught a striper that had 5 in it's gut, I get better results with smelt for lings.

[the rockfish ninja]

Very cool, you got yourself some good eating fish...enjoy it!

Absolutely Alto & Prof. Salt, they went straight onto ice as soon as they came over the rail, bright as chrome when they went into the pan, nothing fresher.

[Dr. Jekyll - AKA MeL B]

grilled over charcoal, yum!