Mini-tuna (WTF?&%!$#) @ ARW - Non Yak 9/11

Fooling around from the shore again for afternoon low-commitment fishing. The goal was to make bait for tomorrow morning at the wall.

I've been having luck casting a trout spinning outfit rigged with two hooks of a size 14 sabiki & 3/8oz. drop sinker lobbed at the tires located at the mouth of the condo-marina I've caught barred surf perch. It's worked several times anyway, however the size variations are vast. In other words smaller bait sized ones are there but recently kept catching larger (too big for bait) ones only.

Today I went for the last hours of the flood tide ending at 5PM (fished from 2 to 4:20). I've had better luck at low tide in the AM, but just foolin' around as I said; having fun trying the accurate-casting with the light wind, avoiding snares on the tires, and working the current to drift under the tires where these perch seem to hide.

Caught only one perch, nice size for bait but didn't get anymore so tossed him back at the end of the day.

But now that I have your attention... something very unexpected happened. Here's what it felt like: hmm dee dumb deee, oh man this perch is actually ripping on my drag, not pulsating like normal, wo wait that's swimming all strait and darted, looks longer and spotted (real small leopard shark?), HOLY MACKEREL!

It was a 10" long & very fat mini-tuna, healthy, bright, & wide-eyed. I've never known these to be in this area tho I'm no seasoned vet. It was exciting for me.

I put it in my bucket, mind racing... do I fillet the one to bait the possible & hopeful other macks as Bassmanben suggested for Tomales, do I take it home and eat it, or do I try to keep it alive 'till tomorrow for bait? What would you have done??

In the end the sea made the choice for me. The tide rolled in quick, the bucket tipped, and I watched the mack return to freedom. All the better probably, but I must say it was a beautiful fish that put up a fun fight. I definitely had more fun than the popsicle-bait-soaker-riff-raff across the way! 

Surprising o see them there. Pacific Mackerel are great fun on light tackle. Keep threatening to bring a 5-wt fly rod along for when I find some, but when I do I don't and when I don't I do

Probably good the sea took it back--I doubt a Mackerel would have lasted over night and been in good shape for bait the next day--they need to move fast to stay healthy. They are little torpedoes.

They are good eating very fresh--full of Omega-3 oils which is what makes them so fishy tasting. Like Sardines, I like them fresh caught.

Macks can make awesome bait for halis and lings but they are also delicious on the grill. A little minced garlic in some evoo with some coarse ground salt and pepper on a hot grill is hard to beat. Squeze a bit of lemon on at the end add a small bowl of steamed rice and you got yourself a meal!

-Eliot

Surprising o see them there. Pacific Mackerel are great fun on light tackle. Keep threatening to bring a 5-wt fly rod along for when I find some, but when I do I don't and when I don't I do

Probably good the sea took it back--I doubt a Mackerel would have lasted over night and been in good shape for bait the next day--they need to move fast to stay healthy. They are little torpedoes.

They are good eating very fresh--full of Omega-3 oils which is what makes them so fishy tasting. Like Sardines, I like them fresh caught.

How do you fix them?

Macks can make awesome bait for halis and lings but they are also delicious on the grill. A little minced garlic in some evoo with some coarse ground salt and pepper on a hot grill is hard to beat. Squeze a bit of lemon on at the end add a small bowl of steamed rice and you got yourself a meal!

-Eliot

Dang it Eliot I so freaking hungry right now it's dinner time and that sounds awesome!!

B.shadee great read...I'm bad I would've munched it down like Eliot was describing 

Surprising o see them there. Pacific Mackerel are great fun on light tackle. Keep threatening to bring a 5-wt fly rod along for when I find some, but when I do I don't and when I don't I do

Probably good the sea took it back--I doubt a Mackerel would have lasted over night and been in good shape for bait the next day--they need to move fast to stay healthy. They are little torpedoes.

They are good eating very fresh--full of Omega-3 oils which is what makes them so fishy tasting. Like Sardines, I like them fresh caught.

How do you fix them?

Grill them whole with salt, pepper, rosemary, olive oil, etc (be creative), or make sashimi out of them. Keep them alive until you absolutely have to kill them, then rip the gills and ice them. I made sashimi a few weeks ago that theoretically could have made 10 people sick but didn't, so I think mackerel is pretty safe if reasonably treated.

You're supposed to salt it and then soak in rice vinegar for sashimi - I did neither and we all ended up ok. If you know how to make sushi rice and roll up nori, this would make PRIME SUSHI!

In fact, I intend to go to Tomales on Sunday for exactly this purpose.

Heads up Andrew I think the kind of sick you get from mackeral will not show up for quite some time. They often have lots of parisites like round worms that can live in a human host but won't give you any problems untill they embed themselves in your guts. That is why the freezing and vinegar treatment is advised for saba.

Not trying to scare you but I would do a little more homework before you eat too many raw. I have deffinitely seen lots of worms in the guts of some of the mackeral I have eaten which is why I tend to grill them.

Albacore on the other hand make awesome sashimi but you won't be catching too many of those at the rockwall!

-Eliot

yeah my wife and i were out in the bay with light gear and got a bunch of 10 to 12 inch sardines and macs this evening. there all in a bag ready to be ling bai

I heard the macks are thick at TI in the yacht basin........

nice job.  macks are almost impossible to keep alive overnight unless you have a very large bait tank.  they need lots of oxygen and room to swim.  something large and circular with fresh (salt of course) water would possibly keep em alive but i would just say keep it and eat it or freeze it for bait later.

  setting the record straight: I've been reporting that I've caught Barred Surf Perch... the real ID is Walleye Surf Perch. Based on the presence of black on the fins, made clear thanks to Kirks's bait fish key provided on the DFG's sight as a PDF (THANKS!). Sorry to have misinformed.