NorCal Kayak Anglers

Kayak Fishing Zone => Fishing Pics => Topic started by: LizN on October 09, 2016, 10:27:32 PM

Title: I caught my first "keeper"!
Post by: LizN on October 09, 2016, 10:27:32 PM
I caught my first keeper today!
Title: Re: I caught my first "keeper"!
Post by: Rc4jw on October 09, 2016, 10:30:08 PM
Nice looking fish! Congrats!
Title: Re: I caught my first "keeper"!
Post by: Tinker on October 10, 2016, 03:46:06 AM
Nice job, Liz!
Title: Re: I caught my first "keeper"!
Post by: VK on October 10, 2016, 04:48:59 AM
Congrats!
Title: Re: I caught my first "keeper"!
Post by: Fisherman X on October 10, 2016, 06:34:11 AM
Cool! The water conditions look like it was great.
Title: Re: I caught my first "keeper"!
Post by: TFM on October 10, 2016, 07:57:53 AM
Congrats!
Title: Re: I caught my first "keeper"!
Post by: LizN on October 10, 2016, 08:00:58 AM
Thanks everyone :-)  Yes, the water was great, the weather was great, and we saw a pod of dolphins and a whale on our way back into the Santa Cruz yacht harbor!
Title: Re: I caught my first "keeper"!
Post by: Sailfish on October 10, 2016, 09:19:49 AM
Congrats on the first keeper and there will be many more to come.  Thanks for the report and picture Liz.
Title: Re: I caught my first "keeper"!
Post by: Fish Master1 on October 10, 2016, 09:21:55 AM
Congrats! Welcome to the madness! :smt006
Title: Re: I caught my first "keeper"!
Post by: NowhereMan on October 10, 2016, 09:33:09 AM
Cool!
Title: Re: I caught my first "keeper"!
Post by: Cabeza de Martillo on October 10, 2016, 09:35:17 AM
Congrats!

Was it tasty  :smt001
Title: Re: I caught my first "keeper"!
Post by: LizN on October 10, 2016, 10:04:45 AM
Yes, it was very tasty for dinner last night, and there's plenty left for lunch today too :-) 

We had hoped to cut it up and pan fry the pieces for fish tacos, but after well over an hour trying to kill and process it, went for baked fillets with seasonings. We'll be watching some videos before our next fishing trip to find out how to deal with the fish after bringing them home. This guy would NOT die. We hit it in the head with a hammer 20+ times, just above the eyes, and it just kept "breathing" (I know it wasn't breathing since it wasn't in water, but it's gills were moving.) We also tried to find the soft spot in the head to spike it, but couldn't find anywhere we could penetrate! Finally had to just cut the head off with a very sharp knife. Gutting it wasn't too difficult, but after that we had a hard time figuring out how to cut it up, there were lots of tough bones; I couldn't even get it cut in half vertically because of all the bones along the spinal column. Finally I just cut through the smaller bones into somewhat fillet shaped pieces and seasoned and baked it. The bones slid right out after baking. I need to get a better idea of how to do this before our next fishing trip!
Title: Re: I caught my first "keeper"!
Post by: yakyakyak on October 10, 2016, 10:08:15 AM

Fresh fish, yum!  Congrats on the catch.

Title: Re: I caught my first "keeper"!
Post by: Live2Fish on October 10, 2016, 10:11:00 AM
Congrats on ur catch!   Try ripping or cutting the gills in the boat.  It'll bleed out and die quicker. 
Title: Re: I caught my first "keeper"!
Post by: LizN on October 10, 2016, 10:21:11 AM
Could you explain "cut the gills?" We read this on the internet but couldn't find any further descriptions or pictures. Does it mean cut the part completely off, the part that opens and closes with the gills inside? Or does it mean put a knife into that part and try to cut up the gills themselves? Or something else? We were kind of lost on exactly what to do and would like to do that next time, on the kayak if possible. Sorry for the beginner questions!
Title: Re: I caught my first "keeper"!
Post by: Live2Fish on October 10, 2016, 10:43:36 AM
Could you explain "cut the gills?" We read this on the internet but couldn't find any further descriptions or pictures. Does it mean cut the part completely off, the part that opens and closes with the gills inside? Or does it mean put a knife into that part and try to cut up the gills themselves? Or something else? We were kind of lost on exactly what to do and would like to do that next time, on the kayak if possible. Sorry for the beginner questions!
Knife to the gills works.  I just hook my finger around a couple and pull. It can get messy with certain fish but dead is dead. 
Title: Re: I caught my first "keeper"!
Post by: Cabeza de Martillo on October 10, 2016, 11:18:04 AM
Could you explain "cut the gills?" We read this on the internet but couldn't find any further descriptions or pictures. Does it mean cut the part completely off, the part that opens and closes with the gills inside? Or does it mean put a knife into that part and try to cut up the gills themselves? Or something else? We were kind of lost on exactly what to do and would like to do that next time, on the kayak if possible. Sorry for the beginner questions!
Knife to the gills works.  I just hook my finger around a couple and pull. It can get messy with certain fish but dead is dead.

This.....if you have a glove just stick your fingers in and grab a couple and pull till they break. The fish will just bleed out soon thereafter.

Yes, it was very tasty for dinner last night, and there's plenty left for lunch today too :-) 

We had hoped to cut it up and pan fry the pieces for fish tacos, but after well over an hour trying to kill and process it, went for baked fillets with seasonings. We'll be watching some videos before our next fishing trip to find out how to deal with the fish after bringing them home. This guy would NOT die. We hit it in the head with a hammer 20+ times, just above the eyes, and it just kept "breathing" (I know it wasn't breathing since it wasn't in water, but it's gills were moving.) We also tried to find the soft spot in the head to spike it, but couldn't find anywhere we could penetrate! Finally had to just cut the head off with a very sharp knife. Gutting it wasn't too difficult, but after that we had a hard time figuring out how to cut it up, there were lots of tough bones; I couldn't even get it cut in half vertically because of all the bones along the spinal column. Finally I just cut through the smaller bones into somewhat fillet shaped pieces and seasoned and baked it. The bones slid right out after baking. I need to get a better idea of how to do this before our next fishing trip!

 :smt044 :smt044 You will laugh about this post a year from now. Too bad you didn't have a GoPro... footage of this would have been priceless.
Title: Re: I caught my first "keeper"!
Post by: crazyfisher on October 10, 2016, 11:25:19 AM
congrats on the fish. Fresh fish is awesome :)

don't try and pull the gills on a lingcod!! unless you have gloves on. I cut the gills on the lingcod over the weekend and that sucker was still alive after an hour in the water! lol
Title: Re: I caught my first "keeper"!
Post by: rockfish on October 10, 2016, 12:24:53 PM
Congrats on a nice cabby!
Those are not the easiest to process, I gut then throw them on the grill whole and pick the meat off the bones...
rockfish and ling are much easier to fillet and process into smaller pieces :)
Title: Re: I caught my first "keeper"!
Post by: LizN on October 10, 2016, 12:36:19 PM
Thanks for the tips, going to print those out so we have them for next time.

So, we thought it was a black rock fish, based on comparing it to the ID guides we had printed out from CDFW, and because it didn't have any teeth. Another fisherman said it looked somewhat like a lingcod, but it didn't have any teeth. One of my Facebook friends said it's a cabezon, however it had lots of scales and the guide said cabezon don't have scales?
Title: Re: I caught my first "keeper"!
Post by: Cabeza de Martillo on October 10, 2016, 01:12:12 PM
Congrats on a nice cabby!
Those are not the easiest to process, I gut then throw them on the grill whole and pick the meat off the bones...
rockfish and ling are much easier to fillet and process into smaller pieces :)
Not a cabbie  :smt075

Looks more like a grass rockfish.
Title: Re: I caught my first "keeper"!
Post by: rockfish on October 10, 2016, 01:12:47 PM
Dang, I guess the cell phone picture failed me, upon further review, yes looks like a grassy.

I stand by my assessment of cleaning cabezone though :)
Title: Re: I caught my first "keeper"!
Post by: Cabeza de Martillo on October 10, 2016, 01:17:15 PM
Dang, I guess the cell phone picture failed me, upon further review, yes looks like a grassy.

I stand by my assessment of cleaning cabezone though :)

You've been cleaning grassys like this all along  :smt044
Title: Re: I caught my first "keeper"!
Post by: rockfish on October 10, 2016, 01:25:08 PM
Dang, I guess the cell phone picture failed me, upon further review, yes looks like a grassy.

I stand by my assessment of cleaning cabezone though :)

You've been cleaning grassys like this all along  :smt044


 :smt004
Title: Re: I caught my first "keeper"!
Post by: Live2Fish on October 10, 2016, 01:25:26 PM
Thanks for the tips, going to print those out so we have them for next time.

So, we thought it was a black rock fish, based on comparing it to the ID guides we had printed out from CDFW, and because it didn't have any teeth. Another fisherman said it looked somewhat like a lingcod, but it didn't have any teeth. One of my Facebook friends said it's a cabezon, however it had lots of scales and the guide said cabezon don't have scales?
Fish ID gets easier with every fish :fishing2
Title: Re: I caught my first "keeper"!
Post by: Cabeza de Martillo on October 10, 2016, 01:26:45 PM
Dang, I guess the cell phone picture failed me, upon further review, yes looks like a grassy.

I stand by my assessment of cleaning cabezone though :)

You've been cleaning grassys like this all along  :smt044


 :smt004

 :smt008 :smt002
Title: Re: I caught my first "keeper"!
Post by: Fisherman X on October 10, 2016, 03:06:30 PM
Once you start catching bigger fish (lingcod, cabezon), you won't bother keeping the smaller rockfish. Not much meat on their little (and numerous) bones!

Yeah, maybe - but I think certain species, even thought smaller, have particularly good flavor and texture. I really like Black rockfish tacos!
Title: Re: I caught my first "keeper"!
Post by: LizN on October 10, 2016, 03:24:22 PM
I made fish tacos for lunch today with the left overs; tasted great!

Title: Re: I caught my first "keeper"!
Post by: Eastbay-Joe on October 10, 2016, 04:02:22 PM
Congrats on the fish! wait till you catch a whole limit of 10 fish (plus lingcods) and then trying to cleaning them all!  :smt044
Title: Re: I caught my first "keeper"!
Post by: crash on October 10, 2016, 04:21:45 PM
The quickest way to kill your catch is to perform ikejime.  The spot to spike or ice pick is different in each different species.  The rockfish are easier to spike from the side.  there is a handy ikejime website, here is the link for black rockfish, which will be the same spot on your grassy.

http://www.ikijime.com/fish/rockfish-black/

Bleed and bonk is the most common method though.  Just stick a knife in the gills and cut a few, turn and do it again on the other side, put it on a dive clip, pump it in the water a couple times to get the blood flowing out, bonk it over the head with a club, then put it in a wet burlap sack or fish kill bag.

Both bleeding and ikejime will improve the quality of the meat over just tossing it in the bag and letting it suffocate.  Unstressed animals taste better and fish are no different.

As for how to fillet, youtube has several videos on the subject but its probably best to watch a few people do it since there are several different ways to accomplish the task.  Hang out at a fish cleaning table for half an hour and you'll get an education.
Title: Re: I caught my first "keeper"!
Post by: eelkram on October 10, 2016, 07:47:48 PM
I carry kitchen shears with me.  I find that they're easier to handle than a knife while on the water. I just cut across the gills (the more , the better) on each side of the fish, then dunk them over the side a few times because the blood congeals, and let them hang in the water for a minute or two to finish bleeding out.

Then whenever I feel the bite has slowed, I'll gut the rf with the shears while floating around. Just cut the bellies open and a couple of snips around the gills, and then just yank everything out.

BUT, this is usually dependent on where I fish. If there are sea lions about, I don't soak them long unless they're covered in burlap. OR, if I get that "uneasy feeling," I'll hold off on even bleeding them until I get closer to shore.... because sometimes blood in the water is not good.
Title: Re: I caught my first "keeper"!
Post by: MontanaN8V on October 11, 2016, 09:12:37 AM
I recall back when we first started ocean fishing, all the fish looked different. It took several trips to be able to ID the variety quickly. Even now, once in a while, I get stumped. I always take a pic, and the kids and I would research the fish ID, part of the fun! I have tossed back some fish I have not caught since, but I have the pic and the memory, minus the tacos.....
Title: Re: I caught my first "keeper"!
Post by: boogieman on October 15, 2016, 07:59:22 PM
There you go - nice job
Title: Re: I caught my first "keeper"!
Post by: LBSteve on October 15, 2016, 08:08:16 PM
Awesome!
Title: Re: I caught my first "keeper"!
Post by: Fishing_Folsom on October 15, 2016, 09:48:17 PM
Awesome job!
Title: Re: I caught my first "keeper"!
Post by: set_the_hook on October 19, 2016, 06:41:48 PM
Those tacos look great. Congrats!