Capitola slow today

There was a bit of a swell today that slowed the fishing down. Plenty of bait around the wharf and off the beach at New Brighton. Could not hook up a halibut to save my butt. Landed 2 small sharks and a small but delicious Skate. Cooked the Skate wings then bathed them in a buter caper lemon wine sauce....mmmmm good.

did you hear of any white seabass taken. did you see the seiners working? seems like the bite has opend up.
http://capitolaboatandbait.com/fishing-report

A few small butts caught was all I heard, no seabass. Not many boats around Capitola fishing today. One other Kayaker fishing, caught a small butt. I hooked a sealion right before I headed in. Best action I had all day....lol  If you see him with a 5" hex bar and trebble hook, thats the guy. He stripped half my spool before the leader broke off. I had swithed over to a bar to get a few RF at the end of the day. That sealion got my bar on the drop, thought I had a seabass on at first.

hey man, that looks like it's actually a Thornback Ray rather than a skate. They're supposed to taste like a$$! You say it was tasty? That's good to know for the future.!

I'll take your word for it.

I caught two thornback rays several years ago off the Santa Cruz Wharf.  They were pretty tough to kill and barely had any meat on them.  They didn't taste horribly bad but were a bit slimy (this was after skinning & cooking).  You caught a nice big one and your dish looks awesome. 

We see them all the time when scuba diving.  They're really easy to catch by hand and you can hold one by it's tail and watch it wiggle like crazy.  Then you point it at your dive buddy, let go, and the ray will charge your buddy's face with its mouth open.  I always get a kick out of it.

I talked to a boat coming in yesterday that said they were fishing around Capitola and caught a couple of seabass, but thats all I heard.

I think there were 5 of us who went out of SC Thursday and fished off Black Pt and near the Mile Buoy.  I never heard of any decent fish caught on the radio.  The swell was up and it was mixed.  No wind, even after I got in at noon. Foggy, but you could see a few hundred yards, gradually getting brighter.  I jigged up some small macs to soak.  Got the skunk off with one 12" blue near the lighthouse, sent him back.  I went out to some pb's about a mile south of the buoy, then over to the lighthouse where a pb lost a ling at the boat.

I caught two thornback rays several years ago off the Santa Cruz Wharf.  They were pretty tough to kill and barely had any meat on them.  They didn't taste horribly bad but were a bit slimy (this was after skinning & cooking).  You caught a nice big one and your dish looks awesome. 

We see them all the time when scuba diving.  They're really easy to catch by hand and you can hold one by it's tail and watch it wiggle like crazy.  Then you point it at your dive buddy, let go, and the ray will charge your buddy's face with its mouth open.  I always get a kick out of it.

Yes, it is a Thornback, but they are not really a ray, closer relation to the Guitar fish like the more common skate. Wings are edilbe and tasty although they are a job to skin.

I think there were 5 of us who went out of SC Thursday and fished off Black Pt and near the Mile Buoy.  I never heard of any decent fish caught on the radio.  The swell was up and it was mixed.  No wind, even after I got in at noon. Foggy, but you could see a few hundred yards, gradually getting brighter.  I jigged up some small macs to soak.  Got the skunk off with one 12" blue near the lighthouse, sent him back.  I went out to some pb's about a mile south of the buoy, then over to the lighthouse where a pb lost a ling at the boat.

Im sure the swell had a lot to do with it Tom. Even the RF weren't in an eating mode.

on eating skates, sharks etc, it seems that the method of prep and cooking really makes a difference.  My son caught a dogfish shark that we kept.  I did gut it shortly after catching and it had non of the ammonia smell I have heard about.  I tossed some on the grill like I have larger shark steaks, and it was really fishy and kind of sour.  NOT good.

I had read that they use them for fish and chips so tried buttermilk fried, and while still not my favorite, was quite edible.  So not a bad idea to try different methods before ruling out a fish as edible or not.

Also decided that halibut are the new steelhead, thousands of casts before you get one.