got a text last night from a friend, angel huerta. not sure exactly when, but he landed a 74 pound opah out of santa cruz harbor fishing with captain tom from "fish on sportfishing" on board the sara bella, melvin and shaun on deck. congratulations!
(http://alantani.com/gallery/16/1_21_10_16_8_12_40_16027158.jpeg)
(http://alantani.com/gallery/16/1_21_10_16_8_13_00_16027552.jpeg)
A rare catch on sportsfishing gear to be sure. A few are landed each year on the Hawaiian Islands on Hook & Line. While each of the Longline trips typical land 6-12 per trip. With around 400 trips annually, they have become a relatively common occurrence at the local markets.
Super tasty fish, with 3 different types of meat/cuts present.
There are actually 2 different recognized species of Opah present in the Pacific (Bigeye, and Smalleye). This guy appears to be the less commonly encounteted Smalleye Opah.
John
Santa Cruz Harbor? Like Santa Cruz, California? Opah is one of my favorite fish. There are 3 sections of the fish that has different texture and taste in one fish. Let's go fishing!!!
I just discovered that the opah is the only warm blooded fish in the ocean. Dominick
Quote from: Bryan Young on October 21, 2016, 05:31:24 PM
Oprah is one of my favorite fish. There are 3 sections of the fish that has different texture and taste in one fish. Let's go fishing!!!
Uma vs. Oprah!!!!!
I thought Oprah is a talk show host????
Enjoyed Opah in Hawaii at Sam Choy's Honolulu location, FANTASTIC!!!! Don't know which of the three parts I enjoyed, but plain fantastic!!!!
Wayne
Wow, that's a pretty fish. I haven't seen pics of them much, didn't know it was called Opah, had to look it up!
They are pretty! This one made the washington state record last year. Very rare in colder waters, warm blood or not.
Second pic is a jumbo opah..possible world record.
Tom and the Sara Bella are fish killers. He works his behind off to get his passengers on fish. Him and Khanh are in my opinion the two best six pack charter captains in central California waters. I have never fished with either but I must be doing something right because we seem to fish the same areas a lot. People chase them on the water, not me!
Last year Tom caught more Blue fin on the Sara Bella than any other boat in our area. I don't know for sure but I'm thinking last year he boated 8-10 maybe more, and I caught 1!
I ventured out today to the same area I fished last year, can't say for certain that is where Tom caught this fish but it is where I caught my fish last year and Tom killed them.
Anyway today was not the day, I never even reached the area I wanted to fish and running at 7kts I was still taking water over the bow. There was a mixed swell 6-8' with 1-3' wind waves today, basically unfishable for everyone except Tom, I have a rule when I'm out, of water is coming over my bow at trolling speed and I can't stand up and walk around, I'd rather be home drinking vodka! the weather turned it into an all day trip, we left the dock at 0700 and made it back at 3:30 traveling around 70 miles round trip.
Quote from: Bryan Young on October 21, 2016, 05:31:24 PM
Santa Cruz Harbor? Like Santa Cruz, California? Opah is one of my favorite fish. There are 3 sections of the fish that has different texture and taste in one fish. Let's go fishing!!!
Several were caught here in the same waters last year, I have yet to catch one but when I do, I'm going to call you and ask you to come over and give me a tutorial on butchering this species, in exchange for a good portion of each for you to take home. Deal?
The catch was great! Captain Tom is the Man and his boat the Sara Bella is great! I forgot my trolling rod at home because I was running late to get to the harbor, so I wanna thank Melvin for lending me his gear and knowledge, also want to thank Shaun and Captain Tom for the gaff job.
Don't hesitate to book a trip with Captain Tom with "Fishonsportfishing.com "
The meat is Beautiful! The deep red resembles Tuna which came from the Breast / Chin , the thick pinkish cuts came from the bottom loin and the thinner cuts came from the upper loins.
Thanks for showing that Angel, great looking cuts. You mind sharing when did you catch this beautiful fish?
Nice! Good to see a blue water fish come out of our local area. Amazingly beautiful fish. We caught 3 of them a few years ago fishing albacore on the Kahuna. The first one(and first I had ever seen up close) was about 60#. I was the senior deckhand on that trip and none of us knew how to process it! The skipper even went on the radio to check with other captains on how to proceed....lol. I ended up playing it by ear and figuring it out as I went. Very different skeletal structure than anything I had cleaned before. I think it took me at least 45 minutes to do just that one fish! One thing I have to point out about it though. The 3 different types of meat are all FANTASTIC eating, cooked or raw. The pink meat is kinda weird though. It starts out looking like standard fish flesh, but as you go down toward the "belly" section(for lack of a better description) it transitions into a super firm type of stuff, almost as hard as bone or cartilage, but staying a similar color. When the fish is intact, that lower portion is so hard that I thought that you could blast it with a shotgun at close range and it would bounce right off!
I discovered that this is not the case. It's actually super fatty meat. Trim the skin and stomach lining. If it's really thick, you can butterfly it or cut it into thin strips and cook it up hot and fast. I blackened some of that stuff as an experiment and it was AMAZING!
Looks Tasty!
How was the fight? Looking at the fish, it looks like it could be difficult to turn?
Tom
These fish only yield about 35% of total weight (i.e. 35lbs of filets from a 100lb fish).
They are much stronger then they look. They swim primarily with their pectoral fins, but use their caudal for short bursts of speed. The dark meat, and thermoregulatory capacity (Endotherms) gives the fish staying power, while their flattened disc-like shape gives them the ability to turn on a dime. They are efficient long distance travelers, and hunt deep in the Meso layer. Squid is a favorite prey item.
Cool fish.
For those that are intetested, I attached a copy of (& a link to) my friends', and colleagues' (Don & Megan) papers on the vertical movement/habitat preference, and DNA analysis confirming multiple species of Opah.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1755-0998.12268/abstract
Caught the fish on 10-20-16 a couple of days ago in the Monterey Bay 75ft down, 200 feet out at a ridge of about 2,900 feet of water slow trolling a dead Sardine, cedar plugs were on the other rods.
When the clicker went off I had to just keep pressure on the fish so the guys could clear the lines and down riggers, but very soon the fish started swimming towards the boat, so I had to keep pace, but still try to keep it out because lines were not all the way in yet, it swam in a few circles up close to the boat and then took a dive so we thought it was a Blue Fin until i brought it back up and it was laying sideways, we were all surprised as to it being a Opah, that's when we all flipped out and had to get it in! The fight was quick 10-15 minutes..
Quote from: Cortez_Conversions on October 22, 2016, 05:07:51 PM
Looks Tasty!
How was the fight? Looking at the fish, it looks like it could be difficult to turn?
Tom
Sounds like you had the right gear for that fish and, more importantly, know how to pull on one too! I've seen guys pull on opah with albacore bait setups(20#-30#) for an hour+....Atta boy!
Did you try for live bait before you headed out? They have been scattered and hard to locate this year.
Congrats on those good looking fish....gonna have to add that to my Fish Bucket List....Bill
We marked bait when we first left the harbor, but no luck on snagging any.. didn't see any bait far out.
Quote from: angelh on October 22, 2016, 08:15:47 PM
We marked bait when we first left the harbor, but no luck on snagging any.. didn't see any bait far out.
Exactly what I found on Friday, when I got back in I spent some time looking, finally found small schools of good sized macks near shore in less than 90' of water.
I just want to say something.., I'm having to deal with other people that were on the Sara Bella that are claiming to have "Caught" the Opah.... as I mentioned in the beginning of this post, I was lent Marvins gear, due to the reason that I left home without my trolling rod, Marvin set us up on the troll, But I fought the fish and boated as they gaffed it.
SO IF YOU FISH ON THE SARA BELLA AND THEY REQUEST YOU USE THEIR GEAR BECAUSE IT'S ALREADY SET UP, BE PREPARED SOMEONE THAT OWNS THE GEAR TO TAKE THE CREDIT AND CLAIM THE CATCH, EVEN THOUGH THEY DIDN'T FIGHT OR REEL IN THE FISH...
I JUST DON'T LIKE LOOKING LIKE A LIAR. ...
I guess I just expect more from people...
Quote from: angelh on October 31, 2016, 03:25:22 AM
I just want to say something.., I'm having to deal with other people that were on the Sara Bella that are claiming to have "Caught" the Opah.... as I mentioned in the beginning of this post, I was lent Marvins gear, due to the reason that I left home without my trolling rod, Marvin set us up on the troll, But I fought the fish and boated as they gaffed it.
SO IF YOU FISH ON THE SARA BELLA AND THEY REQUEST YOU USE THEIR GEAR BECAUSE IT'S ALREADY SET UP, BE PREPARED SOMEONE THAT OWNS THE GEAR TO TAKE THE CREDIT AND CLAIM THE CATCH, EVEN THOUGH THEY DIDN'T FIGHT OR REEL IN THE FISH...
I JUST DON'T LIKE LOOKING LIKE A LIAR. ...
We know you did Angel, there's a class of strange people out there! I was on a boat in Maui and one of the passengers landed a 458lb black marlin, It was an amazing fish, I steered the chair for him. When we got back to the dock and hung the fish to weigh it people were asking to take their picture with the fish, some of them wanted to hold a rod for the picture? Claiming to have caught a fish of a lifetime not only discredits the angler who caught it but also deprives the person making the claim of the joy and experience of ever actually catching a fish like this.
That is an awesome catch Angel, one of a very small group ever to have caught one in our local waters.
I guess I just expect more from people...
Sorry to hear that Angel, great catch though! I've never seen one in person or eaten it.
The meat is Delicious! !!! :o, the red meat I Seared really quick and ate it raw with soy sauce, the white meat was cooked in a pan with butter and minced garlic :o
Looks tasty indeed! Guess I'll have to add that fish to my bucket list. Congrats again
It is one of my favorites. The first time I tried it was on a shore call at Pearl. As it happened, it was my first wedding anniversary and I got the whole week off. Alison and I had Opah at a place in downtown Waikiki. Fantastic fish, sort of like a halibut and a yellowtail had a baby.
Ron
Congrats on that Catch Angel. We know you caught it.
You are the one eating it, so that should be enough for the ones that claim your catch.
Good Job my Man.
Any Friend of Alan is a Friend of mine. ;)
That wasn't the only Opah caught that day Steve-O.