Launching at Baker with a kayak full of crab traps with a solid swell is tough.   The only times I've flipped in the surf have been doing exactly that.

I watch the sets closely and wait for a lull.  Then walk my kayak in to about waist deep until I'm sure there is a break in the swell keeping myself between the waves and the kayak, lifting the bow over each wave.  Then paddle like crazy.

There are times when a new set will roll through when I'm waist deep and I'll head back in to reset and wait a for a new lull.  The key is to have patience.  There will be a break in the swell, you just got to wait for it.

I launch from the West side of the beach as it's smaller there.

Amazing deal!

I actually needed to replace both of my wheels and this was cheaper than that and I can keep my old pair.

Looks good!

Similar to what I did, I filleted them cut out the pin bones.  Marinated in soy, sesame oil and broiled on high flesh side up.  Ate with coconut rice and veggies.  Very good.

I was trying to target them at HMB but it was really sporadic where I'd find them.  Wasn't able to find large schools just passing fish.

I'd love to be able to catch a boat load of them and smoke/can them.

I've been using this one, pretty simple and quick

250g salt
150g brown sugar

Coat and put in fridge 40min for small/medium pieces or collars and up to 1hr for larger fillets.  Rinse and dry under fan for a few hours then smoke 150-170 degrees till 145 or so. 

I've been experimenting with pulling them early or letting them really dry out.  These ones I was running out of time and tired so ended up cranking it to 200 to finish them off for the last 30 minutes.  It was about 6 hours of smoking.

Posting fishing videos online and receiving revenue for doing so is a fishing video production business.

These businesses need to be held to a high standard and not knowing fishing regulations is just not acceptable.    The whole "I didn't know" excuse doesn't cut it.

It's so disappointing how common the rule breaking is on these fishing videos. 

I wish the DFG would crack down on these blatant rule breakers but it appears they don't.   This is not the time for DFG to be giving warnings, this is where they should be taking action.  Thousands of people watch these videos for instructional purposes and will follow these illegal practices. 

This has been going on for years and nothing seems to come from it.  I stopped watching these local fishing videos a while ago and at the time there were so many poachers it made my head spin...and I'm sure most videos are still up and creating revenue.

The past season I was doing good with a wire-baiter herring and Gamakatsu big-river bait hook.  I got pretty fast at threading them up and they always stay on and spin great.    I think I'm using 4/0.

For drifting I would do a hard tied 2 hook set up with same hook in rear and a smaller octopus hook for the head.  I think it's a size 1.

Whichever way you do it, tying it yourself is way better as you can use stronger line.  I also reuse hooks all the time.

Thanks for the warnings for mushy, I’m going 10lbs of pressure for 100 minutes.  Andrew, can you get Alistar’s timing or pressure lbs. measurement if he recorded it?  Seasonings look like a hot sauce flavoring, mustard, shoyu lemon, smoked, salt, and tomato based, stay tuned…

For smoked fish it should be 110min at 10psi.  This is a good resource

https://ucfoodsafety.ucdavis.edu/sites/g/files/dgvnsk7366/files/inline-files/208607.pdf

You want a light smoke as the smoke intensifies during the canning process.  When I can smoked salmon it's not fully cooked prior to canning usually I pull it around 110 degrees.  When I did fully smoked herring it came out really dark and really intense.  The lightly smoked herring was better.

With herring it really comes done to mushiness which I just haven't been able to fix.   The trick should be removing as much water as you can, but not too much that it turns to jerky.

I think brining and having a long drying time followed by a cold smoke could help, but I've also been buying lots of canned herring/sardines to research and I've found that some brands are just mushy and maybe that's just how some species are.  Pacific herring from my understanding have less fat than other species so that could be a factor.

I prefer salting herring over freezing them as I find the texture much better.

I hope you find a way to firm them up, at this point I've given up and either smoke and freeze or salt them for use throughout the year. 

Edit: One other thing is that if you are not smoking prior it's probably a good idea to cook the fish prior to canning.

This video goes into the process



I think this helps with taste and texture. 

I run the Scotty Laketroller and it works just fine for me. 

I run up to 60ft in the ocean and have done over 100ft in a lake.  I wouldn't want more than 4lbs as a downrigger weight.

It's lightweight, cheap, needs no modification/extra mounting gear at all, just stick in the Scotty holder and you are good to go.

My Scotty holder is in the mesh pocket area of my Revo.

I can almost always see my weight on my fish finder.  If it does disappear it's not hard to figure out roughly how deep you are because 1 turn = 1 foot.  Also I use colored braided line with depth marks on it so even if my fish finder isn't working it's easy to see how deep I am.