Hello NCKA, it's been 12 years!

Our daughter asked me today to 'tell her a story about a sea creature' so I told her about an encounter with a sturgeon in SF Bay in 2008.....
That sent me down an NCKA nostalgiahole. Even remembered my password and logged in. Good to see so many familiar names doing so many familiar things. Missing the Norcal coast. We are still fishing and foraging - The Madness never leaves you.

I hope you are all well, and that the Gopher Rockfish finally has the respect it deserves.

NB

Hey there NCKA
Here's a genteel report from sunny west Wales, where we do not have anything as uncivilised as White Sharks. We do have dogfish tho. Leave a nasty scratch will an 18 inch doggie. Watch out Adam.
I've been doing a fair amount of fishing recently, mostly for mackerel. While these are my favourite eating fish of all time, I haven't bothered posting reports 'cos they can become a bit repetitive (went fishing somewhere pretty, caught loads of mackerel, they were delicious, etc).
This weekend tho' I tried something different. I have wanted to get out and try and bag some crustaceans. However, most of the edible crustaceans here (Lobster and our brown crab, different to those you find in California), are rock-dwellers. This generally means that they are not targeted by recreational fishermen since some heavy-duty pots are required. There is also a long-standing sustainable commercial fishery for them, so the risk of getting both your gear and everything else tangled with the commericals is quite high.
However in recent years the southern and western shores of the UK have seen an invasion of spider crabs. These are completely ignored by UK consumers but are still actively pursued by the commercial fleet for the Mediterranean market. They key thing about these spider crabs is there abundance and the fact that they can be had over sand. Well that and they're reportedly delicious. This seemed to me to be perfect for a spot of Californian hoop-netting. I had bought a couple back with me and decided to try and give it a shot this weekend at Stackpole Quay.....



The cockpit of the old drifter was pretty loaded


I had been meticulously saving fish carcasses and heads from recent trips, putting them in specially coloured, labelled bags in the freezer, all in preparation for this trip. As I was about to launch I realised I needn't have bothered, all the bait I could ever need was waiting for me in the quay.


(This is what we call a Tope, what you call a Soupfin. This one probably got mangled in some commercial nets. I'll probably break out the Ugly Stik and target them one day, but they're not Good Eats).

Anyway, I set out the nets and waited. No point in wasting time, so while waiting I jigged for mackerel. Did pretty well on those, had 11 by the time I got in.



But after 4hrs, checking every 40 mins or so, my nets had produced only 2 small, barely legal, spiders. Of course I was also getting very ill by this point, as usual. So I gutted the mackerel and chucked the guts in the bait cage for one last drop.

As so often on my trips, the hail mary drop came up with the goods.


Captain Phil would be proud. Kayaker Phil was very happy.


Job done, I headed back in to the family.


I took the monsters vital stats before chucking it in the steamer. The carapace was 20 cm (spiders are measured nose to butt) and it weighed in at a scratch under 2 kilos. That's almost 5lbs.


It was indeed, absolutely delicious. As good as the Californian red crabs but with the bonus of some amazing "brown meat", basically crab butter. I could feel my arteries furring up in real time. I'm definitely gonna go and get some more before they head back to the deeps for the winter.

The little one says hi.


Your friend in the Old Country
NB

http://www.yakass.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=327&catid=3&Itemid=50

My thoughts are; everyone who opened this thread to post an opinion on the subject should refrain and, instead, post a fishing picture! Lets spread some peace around the NCKA'ers and get back to fishing  .

Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.

How do my dear NCKA'ers?

Tis Eastern Boy here.

I hope you are all well and filling your tankwells with rockies!

Thought I would drop in and say hello. Well, I say drop in, but of course I have been reading the reports every day. It's a habit thats hard to break. Especially when you're not even trying.

Life in Wales has so far been an unabated torrent of joy. It's really good to be home. It will get even better when the yaks arrive and I can get out into some Atlantic waters.

I have been shore fishing a few times. Caught a few mackerel but have not yet had any joy with anything more challenging.

We did get out for some clamming during this weekends big tides. Bought back many fond memories of Tomales. Clamming here is a little less work tho'. No spades required.

I made a video;




Of course the first thing we did upon arrival in the UK was go to the pub. It was a little more challenging than strolling down to the Mission........... (it rains a lot in Wales. It has been a particularly wet summer............)




NB

Anyone interested in HMB this Saturday?

I've got a window in the morning to go out and catch my last rockies before The Old Drifter gets shipped to The Motherland on Tuesday.

WX looks good.

Saturday: Variable winds less than 5 kt  becoming W 5 to 9 kt in the morning. Sunny. WNW swell 8 feet. Wind waves 1 to 2 ft. 

Gonna launch as early as I can (6am), Mavericks parking lot.

             

I am proud to announce I have lost 0.4lbs since last week, down to 196.6. Yay for me.

I want to backup the contents of my aging laptop. I am thinking that one of these online backup/storage sites might be the best way to go rather than CD's or an external hard drive which are likely to be destroyed/stolen at the same time my laptop is.

Do any of you folks use these? If so do you have any recommendations/criticisms/advice?