Santa Cruz 8/30/15 fishing report

My brother-in-law and I went out yesterday with Bushy at Santa Cruz and fished for 6 hours.  Weather was real nice and the wind cooperated and didn't start picking up until noon.   Fishing was really slow though.  I was hopeful of catching a halibut, but caught a nice turquoise ling instead.  Bushy caught one small ling as well.  I think I had a couple of Halibut strikes but no hook ups!

When I got home and filleted on of the Ling's the meat was weird.  The texture was all "loose" like it had been cooked.  The fish had been left under a wet burlap sack all morning...  the last picture is of the fillet.  I salvaged some of it, but I'm wondering if it is any good to eat and what would have caused it?  Any ideas?

Looks like some hardcore rigor mortis going on at the end there. Maybe that combined with the meat drying out messed up the filet. As long as it stayed fairly cool I don't see why it wouldn't be good to eat

I had one like that earlier this year. I figured it had been in the sun too long. Usually i cover the fish with a wet sack but had forgotten it that day. It was stiff with rigor when i finally got it off ice.
the raw meat had the same "torn" appearance, not the firm, opalescent look I normally see.
I did fillet the fish, trimmed it judiciously & we ate it, it tasted fine as fried up fish nuggets.

I took a ling from San Mateo coast last week that had a silver dollar sized infected area with a huge white worm in it. Like almost as thick as a transducer cable. The rest of the meat was perfect, but that was the worst parasite I've seen in a while.

cook it well!

It might have to do with the bend in the ling. Also, did you allow fresh water to touch the fillet?

The bent ling was not the weird meat ling.  I had a burlap sack over the fish in my tankful, but I think the tail was sticking out.  (*note to self- put the fish IN the sack! and keep it wet)

I told Todd to feed that part to his brother in law.   

Great day on the water, wind kept threatening but did not really blow till noon.  Mixed nw and s long period swells really put the fish down though.  It was Sllllloooooooowwww.  Kind of disappointing, but that's fishing!

Todd and jarod were great companions though and I had a blast with these guys!

Bushy

The "rigor mortise" fish in the picture was left in the sun on the back of my boat all morning.  I had forgotten my burlap sack so I dunked it in the water every 10 min or so.  The meat was fine though.

Thanks Bushy for a great day on the water, even if the fishing was slow!

SC Redux.  We shall have our REVENGE!!!!!