Red Cebezon?

This is an important one to get right. That is legal size for a greenling but short for a cab. If you got caught retaining it you would face an expensive ticket. Because that is 1000% a cabezon.

In my experience Greenling mouths don't get much larger than a ping pong ball at most. This is why I believe that I don't catch many of them off the kayak due to using larger gear.
Throw out a size 1 hook and a strip of squid off the rocks up here and you'll be up to your ears in greenling, rock and kelp. I love the different color schemes they can have.
It definitely is important to be able to identify the two out on the water. The two species are really quite different.   

calling BS! (bsteves) 

Boom.

 

Amadeo literally wrote the book on fish ID.

http://studio-abachar.myshopify.com/products/pacific-northwest-fish-id-guide

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Awesome fish none the less. Cabby. No es greenling.

But....would you kill it? I personally would not, like I said, I would get a replica, let it go. No hard feelings or judgement if you keep it. If it is genetic, be kind of neat to see more, but nature would cull them if it was a defective trait. Isn't red the last color in the spectrum to disappear? Maybe they aren't hiding as well as they think they are, and reds get eaten? Areas with low ling pop lets them get a little bigger? Wild ass guess carried to second decimal.

I cant tell you its a cabby 100%. Perhaps 98%.  But i can tell you, by actually holding it and looking at it for a while, that it is 100% not a greenling.

The dorsal is much thicker and the spines are different lengths, tapering.  Greenlngs have thinner more even dorsal fin.  Head size in proportion to body points to cabbie.  Photo shows small mouth, but i can assure you its a pretty big mouth, not lingcod big, but same proportion as cabbies ive caught in the past.  Also read somewhere that the growth on its head by the nostrils and above its eyes also point to cabbie.

I caught 2 of them that day, so im  thinning its a variant or color morph natives to that particular hole, either that or, whatever its eating turns them red.  Or..... fukushima...

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Awesome fish none the less. Cabby. No es greenling.

But....would you kill it? I personally would not, like I said, I would get a replica, let it go. No hard feelings or judgement if you keep it. If it is genetic, be kind of neat to see more, but nature would cull them if it was a defective trait. Isn't red the last color in the spectrum to disappear? Maybe they aren't hiding as well as they think they are, and reds get eaten? Areas with low ling pop lets them get a little bigger? Wild ass guess carried to second decimal.

When I took a submarine tour in Hawaii red was the first color to disappear, at about 80'.

More devil cab info...Tim's the master at catching them, I think he's gotten a few more since then too? http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=31513.0


This is a rock greenling.

Awesome fish none the less. Cabby. No es greenling.

But....would you kill it? I personally would not, like I said, I would get a replica, let it go. No hard feelings or judgement if you keep it. If it is genetic, be kind of neat to see more, but nature would cull them if it was a defective trait. Isn't red the last color in the spectrum to disappear? Maybe they aren't hiding as well as they think they are, and reds get eaten? Areas with low ling pop lets them get a little bigger? Wild ass guess carried to second decimal.

When I took a submarine tour in Hawaii red was the first color to disappear, at about 80'.

Makes sense I got it back asswards!

heard back from my neighbor..the biologist  said 100% Cabby 

heard back from my neighbor..the biologist  said 100% Cabby

Yea i was pretty convinced it was a cabby.

Fished the same spot again last saturday for the derby but didn't get any more of them. Wouldve taken better pics.

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calling BS! (bsteves) 

bsteves also confirmed...cabby.......I knew it all along. 

heard back from my neighbor..the biologist  said 100% Cabby

I saved a lot of money on schooling with no degree but dive enough for instant positive ID........never doubted it was a cabbie. 

never doubted it was a cabbie.

X 100

Yeah you guys should have just trusted DG...and me...and crash...and Amadeo...

 

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Cabbie for sure. Here is one that was caught in Carmel Bay on one of the rockfish survey trips.