Stillwater Carmel 06/10

Anna, John, Jim and I went out of Stillwater Carmel today looking for halibut.  We did a couple of drifts at 60 ft and then went out to 140 ft to get sandabs for dinner.  we ended fishing for sandabs for a couple of hours and having a great time.  Jim caught what we thought was a 17 inch halibut in 100 ft of water and released, but that was the only halibut we saw today.  I think we could have had a lot more luck if we had focused on the halibut in shallower depths.  Overall we had a great day with great company!  I am hoping to get out to stillwater next week to try for halibut again.

Ed

Hey Ed, Good luck with the Sanddab garage sale.  . Glad to hear you have great time. Stillwater cove is one of my favorites. Can't wait for rock fishing season openning.

Nice catch! Those Dabbers are sure are tasty




Alex 

Been hearing alot about stillwater cove, and not just from kayakers...  Where is it?

Great pics, I've got to try sand dabs soon.

Craigh

Oops,  forgot to ask.  How do you prepair sand dabs?

Craigh

We ended up cutting the heads off and deep frying them.  They turned out real well.  Stillwater Carmel is off 17 mile drive at the pebble beach country club.  We had great luck with sabiki tipped with large chunks of squid.
Ed

Too cute on the mini-but.  Cool to hear that the dabs are at the same depth on that side of the peninsula as on the Monterey side.  When Randy and I first wanted to find dabs we were told they were at 400'.  I'm glad we learned better...........

I'm defenetly going to check it/them out.
Thanks for the info

Craigh

Sounds like a great go-out, guys!

Looking at those little guys lined up reminded me of cooking them up.  Here's my recipe.

Cut the heads off at an angle that also takes the gut sack.

Quick scrape against the grain for scaling.  You can remove the fins if you want, but I usually don't bother.

Rinse in cold water.

Pat dry

Put a sheet of aluminum foil out and place butter patties across the length.

Place the dabs on top of the patties, and the more butter patties on top of the dabs

Squeeze a lemon or two of juice on top, and about 1/2 cup of dry white wine.  Salt and pepper to taste.

Cover with another aluminum foil sheet and crimp all the edges to hold the liquid

Cook above charcoal or on the grill for about 3-4 minutes.

Viola-----best tasting dabs this side of Gilroy.  You eat them like trout.  Eat one side, pullthe bones, spine and all out, and then eat the other side.  Yummy!

Hi SCAllen,

Know of any sanddab beds out in the Santa Cruz area

In case you were wondering... the larger 17" fish is neither a halibut (mouth too small) or a very large sanddab (eyes on the wrong side of the head)...my guess is that it's probably a sole of some sort but it's hard to tell from the picture.

Brian

Thanks we were not sure.  The lateral line did have a bump in it if that helps
Ed

Whatever it was, it pulled better than the sand dabs.   

Jim