Monterey Dabbin'

What a great day for my first time in a kayak.  Brian G, Ed, gatohoser, Seabreeze and I headed out from San Carlos beach to find some dabs.  Picked up a few 3 inchers near the red bouy and finally caught a "keeper" in about 130' of water.  Fishing was SLOW.  I ended up taking home only 2 dabs.  I don't think anyone else kept any.  Brian G headed in first and on his way caught an undersized halibut..Way to go Brian G!  That got our attention so we all moved nearer to shore on the edge of the kelp.  We all caught some rockfish as we tried for halibut, but there were no more to be had.  The weather was awesome and the fishing was good, it was just the catching that wasn't so hot.

BrianG gave us all something to be excited about since the dabs were really  scarce!

The fishing was good and the company excellent.  There were also a number of mackeral caught.  Gatohoser won that derby.  I on the other hand sewed up the octopus competition with 2, each with bodies about 5 inches long..........

Something sure chewed up the anchovies that Ed and I dropped down but nobody wanted my trolled mackeral.......oh well.  Sorry there are no pictures, my camera didn't feel like taking any.........

It was REALLY nice to have a lovely day on the water.  Thanks guys.

Pat

I am glad you guys had a good time sorry i could not be out there. wow mackerel!! how big? very good halibut  bait..MMmmmmmm . your right  it was a nice day!  what was the halibut cough on?

Steve/chef

Brian is probably not yet home................  He got it on squid.  I got no joy with my mackeral..........you needed to be there chef to make it all come together!

Great, you had a good day. How about ocean condition -waves? Does the wave get bigger afternoon?

That's great to hear you caught some fish, even though they were under size. Still sound like fun to me!

Brian i like to hear more details on your baby butt!!!

Where should the butt story start....at 3 in the morning when I got, drove 3 hours. Launched in ZERO surf with good company and a box of frozen squid thanks to Nomad. Paddled out to the bouy and drifted along dragging bottom with a whole squid on the standard nose and stiner hook. Also drug a sabiki and squid. No loving in the deep water. Started to get queezy after a little while. So I headed back in to towards the beach. On the outside of the kelp line I dropped in the whole squid and sabiki again, drifted in to the kelp. The sabiki got two kelp rock fish loving on the squid tippers. Quickly released them. Paddled back out for another drift back in. The wind was blowing at a perfect angle that would drift the edge and not push in to the kelp at this point. Put the sabiki away as I didn't want to harrass the rockies ( really I didn't want to catch all kinda of fish after not fishing for MONTHS....blah blah the whole thing about harrassing an out of season fish...etc, just couldn't justify the sabiki at that point ) I drop the whole squid back down ( guessing about 80 ft depth from the line counter). Get the little tap tap tap tap tap.....not the hard hit like the rockies....feed a little line....fed a little more then loaded the rod up and set the hook. Could tell ight away it wasn't much and I thought it was another rockie. Came to color and I got all happy,   but then quickely realized it was way undersized      At least this year has already been better than the ENTIRE halibut fishing season last year.     I think everyone managed to catch a decent number of rockfish around the same spot but no more flattie loving for this trip.

I stopped by the forebay on my way home and it was glassy in most spots. I was going to fish it but was too lazy and tired to unload my gear.

-Brian G     

It was nice to meet you all out there and I had a lot of fun even though we didn't catch much. I'll keep in mind the idea about switching rigs if you're harassing an out-of-season fish. I didn't know about that. I'm dying to go out again already!

Seabreeze,
I cooked up my mackerel a little different this time. I filleted them, left the skin on, covered them in honey teriyaki and layed them on aluminum foil without wrapping them and barbequed them til the teriyaki was carmelized and then I finished it off by grilling the fillets on the grill for a few minutes. I like to really cook mackerel because they just seem like a dirty fish

gatohoser, did you like that method better?  Funny, I view mackeral as a "healthy" fish.......I eat them in sushi all the time.........

I wonder if sushi mackeral are special?

If I get out next week I will try to get a couple and improve my mack cooking experienece.  Thanks for the tips.

Pat

I think the sushi mackrel and the big ones, different species I think. I know of at least a few,

Family Scombridae

Atlantic mackerel Scomber scombrus
Atlantic Spanish mackerel Scomberomorus maculatus
Blue mackerel Scomber australasicus
Broadbarred king mackerel Scomberomorus semifasciatus
Chub mackerel Scomber japonicus
Australian spotted mackerel Scomberomorus munroi
Double-lined mackerel Grammatorcynus bilineatus
Indian mackerel Rastrelliger kanagurta
Indo-Pacific king mackerel Scomberomorus guttatus
Island mackerel Rastrelliger faughni
Japanese Spanish mackerel Scomberomorus niphonius
King mackerel Scomberomorus cavalla
Spanish mackerel Scomberomorus macula
Streaked Spanish mackerel Scomberomorus lineolatus
Spotted Spanish mackerel Scomberomorus guttus

Family Trachuridae

Atlantic horse mackerel Trachurus trachurus
Blue jack mackerel Trachurus picturatus
Cape horse mackerel Trachurus capensis
Cunene horse mackerel Trachurus trecae
Greenback horse mackerel Trachurus declivis
Japanese horse mackerel Trachurus japonicus
Mediterranean horse mackerel Trachurus mediterraneus
Jack mackerel Trachurus symmetricus

Family Hexagrammidae

Okhostk Atka mackerel Pleurogrammus azonus
Atka mackerel Pleurogrammus monopterygius

Family Gempylidae

Black snake mackerel Nealotus tripes
Blacksail snake mackerel Thyrsitoides marleyi
Snake mackerel Gempylus serpens
Violet snake mackerel Nesiarchus nasutus
White snake mackerel Thyrsitops lepidopoides



-Brian G

  Nice Brian.

The ones I caught and ate yesterday were Pacific (i think, i get these two confused) and I've had the Spanish before (I caught a real little one yesterday but didn't eat it) and I didn't notice a difference in flavor between those two. But the ones for sushi are huge. Kingfish is actually a mackerel even. I would think the bigger fish wouldn't be as oily as they are higher up the food chain but its just a guess.

Seabreeze,
Any food I have after paddling gets devoured but I did like them. They aren't halibut but I've moved them up from bait to lunch.

I've never eaten a lot of the smaller fish because of the bone factor. Do you guys eat the fish whole or do the bones pull out? That is why I only keep large trout even as I hate picking through the little pin bones.

-Brian G

gato, kingfish here are white croaker. not even baitfish, just bait stealers to most people. 

only on the atlantic are king mackerel known as kingfish.

here's a big atlantic sierra (spanish mackerel, but atlantic spanish, not the baitfish) about 6 lbs and a small
kingfish (king mackerel) about 9 lbs. They look similar but they are different species. but both mackerel.
caught in wilmington north carolina. pretty good fishing there btw.



I guess in new zealand kingfish are yellowtail (hamachi).

common names suck, but at least everything isn't a cabrilla...

Yup... I first learned that King Mackerel were called "Kingfish" while watching OLN.  There was a big money Kingfish tournament on the Atlantic coast.  I was floored by the size of their mackerel and how hard they fight.

Maybe we should have our own kingfish derby.  Wouldn't that be hilarious.   

Huh! I didn't even know the Pacific had its own "Kingfish" much less two! Ya I was referring to the Atlantic guys like you had there. That's one of the biggest tournament fish in Florida as odd as it may seem to us Pacific guys. Are they as oily as our smaller Spanish and Pacific mackerels?