Petrale Sole

I’m pretty sure I caught a couple Petrale Sole in Mendo last trip. DFW flatfish identification site didn't even list them, so I was unsure. I caught them on large frozen sardines trying for halibut in about 120’ of water. I released them but should have kept at least one- you can fillet them like halibut to get small clean fillets. I imagine they must be like sand dabs without dealing with the bones. I think bouncing smaller anchovies would probably be the way to go to target them specifically. The larger 19” one fought like a shaker halibut. These seem like a worthy fish to target.

Very cool!

Petrale are one of the very bestest-eating fishies in the ocean!

I've never figured out how to target them specifically, and have only ever caught a few as bycatch. Next time I go fishing, I'm going to head out to deeper water and see if I can find any...

I've never caught one of those, but looks tasty!

We targeted them, and dabs at Albion a couple of years ago, and did pretty well using squid on 4 smaller hooks. I think we were over sand in 140'-160' of water. We were catching lings, and rockfish so we switched gear to big swim baits, and started catching big lings, and rock fish. We did much better there than over the reefs. I'm guessing that they were out feeding on the dabs.

Also, according to the regulations (T14 CCR §28.47 (b)) at
https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=220187&inline
"There is no limit on petrale sole or starry flounder." So if you are fishing for them,  bring a big cooler...

I got a few sand dabbing past weekend. I used a custom upsized sabiki with the bottom 2 hooks fitted with a 5 inch keitech tipped with squid.

Very cool, those are just about my favorite eating fish and I'd love to get on them in my yak. Found this document on them with a bunch of relevant facts, thought y'all might be interested:

“...petrale sole concentrate for spawning in deep water during winter and, shortly after spawning, disperse inshore and northward through the spring and summer months. During fall and winter, they show an offshore and southerly movement again concentrating on local deep water spawning grounds. Seasonal landing distributions show the same pattern. During winter, a targeted fishery occurs in deep water and large catches and landings of petrale are made, while during summer, they are caught in association with many other groundfish and individual petrale landings are relatively small. Within California, four spawning populations of petrale sole have been delineated by tagging experiments and by locating spawning sh. These are in the Cape Mendocino, Point Delgado, Point Montara, and Point Sal areas.”

 https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=34323&inline

I have been catching Petrale sole off my yak before they made them legal to keep since they used to be under groundfish regulations.  Now it’s no size limit and no bag limit.  A 19”er is a good sized one.  I have caught them up to about 22”.  Most tend to be in the 15-18” range.  They at one of my favorite to eat.  If you’re careful you can filet them into 2 big filets instead of 4.  Then get som crab and stuff it with lump crab meat.  Petrale sole is usually one of the most expensive at restaurants.

Here are few photos of my past petrale sole catches as well as a pic of speckled sand dabs and rock sole.

Yums

https://japan.recipetineats.com/simmered-flounder-karei-no-nitsuke/

https://www.thespruceeats.com/japanese-simmering-sauce-for-fish-sakana-no-nitsuke-2030879

...
Here are few photos of my past petrale sole catches as well as a pic of speckled sand dabs and rock sole.

Great pictures. Are you able to reliably target these? I want to go after them and the best I can figure is sandy bottom as deep as possible. Any tips to add?

I’m pretty sure I caught a couple Petrale Sole in Mendo last trip. DFW flatfish identification site didn't even list them, so I was unsure. I caught them on large frozen sardines trying for halibut in about 120’ of water. I released them but should have kept at least one- you can fillet them like halibut to get small clean fillets. I imagine they must be like sand dabs without dealing with the bones. I think bouncing smaller anchovies would probably be the way to go to target them specifically. The larger 19” one fought like a shaker halibut. These seem like a worthy fish to target.

Here is the flat fish identification information I carry when I target them.

Paul