The Monkeyface News

March 2012 Coastal Update

 

 

      I'm in today's SF Chronicle (Mar. 1st 2012)!!!!!

                  Click Here:  SF Chronicle

                                                          Also:

                                 I'm in Field and Stream!

  

                             
                                   Me, me, me on page 88 (print version only)

 

I was gonna cut it there... but I figure what the hell.  Might as well post the March update from seaforager.com  Anyone who wants to school me on how to catch whitebait smelt is welcome to. Anyhoo, have at:

 

 March 2012:

 

                                                             Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig evidently fishing cod in the 1920s

 

If you will all grant me a baseball analogy: March is like Babe Ruth.  Not only does it bat #3 in the line up, it has April (Lou Gehrig) batting #4 behind it.

But really the most notable thing about March is the return of this worthy beast to local waters:

 

California Halibut

 

                                                            A "worthy beast."

 

I must take a moment to thank Poseidon for the Cali hali., and really, this is now the premier game fish of SF Bay.  And one of only two major commercial fisheries occurring inside the Golden Gate bridge (with all due respect to commercial perch fishermen, mudsucker trappers and bay shrimpers). I get a lot of questions about the advisability of eating bay-caught halibut.  The 5-year Health Dept. study that came out in 2011 is the most comprehensive analysis of local fishes ever conducted.  Here's what they recommend for children aged 1-17 and women in their child bearing years:

 

Safe to eat     2 servings per week	Safe to eat              1 serving per week	Do not eat
Chinook (king) salmon                Brown rockfish                Jacksmelt                  Red rock crab	California halibut                           White croaker (kingfish)	Surfperches                             Sharks                                 Striped bass                          White sturgeon

 

For men over 17 years of age and women over 45, two servings of local halibut per week is considered to be okay.  {Lombard's Editorial Machine:  I should point out that the surf perch data for this study were compromised because they included shiners in it--shiners that were ground up:  heads, gills, guts and all. All the other samples in the study were of fillets only.  Black surf perch, (aka: 'pogies'), taken without the inclusion of whole shiners, scored even better than halibut as far as mercury and PCBs were concerned.  You can check it all out here: OEHHA Health Advisory).

For those of you who are new to halibut fishing, know this:  halibut can be caught from shore, from pier or from small boats (kayaks are perfect).  Halibut, despite the "bottom feeder" reputation are voracious predators that will hit jigs, lures, swim baits, live baits, dead bait, cut baits or flies.  Yes flies!  I once caught a halibut on a streamer fly fishing inside one of the water containment ponds at the PG & E power plant at Hunter's Point. (Talk about inner city fishing, that was it!)

 

                                My former honey hole.  I caught 10 halibut here in 2002

As every fishing website in California will tell you, the best way to go with halibut is live bait.  But since the live bait receivers are not going to be up and running till at least April or May, be prepared to familiarize yourself with the art of catching this guy:

                     Shiner perch (food for halibut, not people.  Also: see "topsmelt" below)

 

 

To catch shiners, get yourself a Sabiki rig (they sell them at Gus' on 38th and Balboa).  Bait the hooks with tiny pieces of shrimp (squid won't work).  And fish around any pilings in SF Bay at high tide. (3 hooks maximum inside SF Bay). I don't care what anyone tells you, you will catch more shiners at high tide than any other time.  The problem is... this is exactly the same time you want to be fishing for halibut. So you gotta keep your shiners alive!  

To keep shiners alive make sure you have one of these air pumps in your bag of tricks:

Battery powered air-pump

Celestial Happenstance 

 

                     The best tide book money can buy.  To order go here: Tidelog

 

I'm sure some of you have looked at your tide books already and determined that this month does not offer you a whole lot by way of mega-minus tides.  There are a few -0.2 and -0.1 tides.  But on the whole no minus tides worth writing home about.

 

                                                                              The Pacific littleneck clam

 

I beg to differ. Look again.  March is remarkable in that there is a poke-polable tide every single day! There may not be any huge horseneck clams or sea urchins (both of which require big tides) in your immediate future but mussels, limpets, cabezon, grass rockfish and monkeyface eels should be pretty much daily occurances. Seriously. Any tide +1.4 and lower is good for eels, rockfish and cabezon.  And most local mussel beds can also be reached on those tides. So there's no excuse!  And remember, horse-neck clams are not the only clams on the coast.  A 0.0 tide is actually perfect for cockles and littlenecks.   

 

Smelt 101

1. the true smelts

 

        Longfin smelt.  Kinda similar to a delta smelt aint it?

      
    Delta smelt (the fish of a Ca. water manager's nightmares)

 

I have been fielding an inordinate amount of e-mails lately concerning the old issue of what constitutes a true smelt.  In our area there are a bunch of true smelts.  But only 2 of these are commonly fished for: night smelt (S. starski) and surf smelt (H. pretiosus).  Formerly, we had abundant stocks of longfin smelt, delta smelt and even eulachon (candlefish) in Northern California but all these have more or less gone the way of the dodo bird.  

 

                                                               Whitebait smelt

 

I heard a strange report this year from a DFG biologist that quite a few whitebait smelt were caught by one of the herring trawl boats used to collect data in SF Bay.  But there is no one in our area who actually targets whitebait smelt--not yet anyway!.

                                                            Night smelt

The true smelts (or Osmerids) are notable for the fresh cucumber scent they tend to give off.  They also have adipose fins (like salmon) and do not need to be scaled the way jacksmelt do.                                                                 Surf smelt

 

The true smelts are in the author's humble opine, among the best tasting fish on the California coast. Though the market demand is mostly for night smelt, really, the best of the osmerids is ol' H. pretiosus (the precious smelt), pictured above.

 

                                        Eulachon, aka:  "hooligan," or "candlefish."

 

 

2. Silversides (Lombard's "false smelts")

And now for the imposters:                                                        Jacksmelt
 

Ironically, despite all that I've said in the past, I will probably end up fishing this species commercially this summer.  The demand for them is increasing greatly. Despite the nasty scales and the worms and the black stuff in their guts.  Sometimes you've just gotta give the people what they want! 

 

Jacksmelt, topsmelt and grunion are not smelts at all.  They are silversides belonging to the family: Atherinopsidae, (new world silversides). So a jacksmelt is actually more closely related to a flying fish than it is to any of the true smelts. 

Jacksmelt are notorious for containing prodigious numbers of worms.  These worms are, of course, harmless, but they are rather horrifying (and unappetizing!) to behold.  Nevertheless, you will notice in the OEHHA chart at the top of this page, jacksmelt scored in the green area for mercury and other toxins! Anyone who has spent any time at all fishing in the bay will also tell you that these fish are mainly targeted by ethnic groups and nationalities that have very advanced cuisines.  There is no doubt in my mind that, despite my own anti-atherinidae prejudices, the old Cantonese ladies on Pier 7, or the Vietnamese anglers at Candlestick Park, etc., turn their teeming buckets of jacksmelt into something quite delicious.  No doubt in my mind at all.

 

          
                                                         Topsmelt

Actually, I've never heard of anyone eating topsmelt--other than halibut. To be perfectly honest they make a better live bait than shiners.  That's my opinion on the matter anyway.  Strange to me that live bait stores always have shiners but seldom carry topsmelt which are quite easy to catch (throw nets people), and are common from April to October in the bay.  I have noticed that topsmelt tend to be found in little backwaters and ponds inside the bay.  And also in the channels that lead to those places. So, Brisbane Tubes, Brisbane Lagoon, Burlingame Lagoon, Kincaid's Lagoon, Lake Merritt, many of the channels in Alameda, Bayfarm Island etc., all seem to hold a lot of toppies.  

Okay.  Hopefully that clears a few things up.  I'm not going to get into grunion here.  Grunion is a So. Cal thing. However, I will say this... grunion, contrary to popular belief, do in fact spawn inside SF Bay. Hopefully I will get some footage of this at some point this year.

 

                                                        Pacific sand dab

Actually, just got a tip on sand dabs.  So I'm heading out the door right now to see if it's true.  Keeping fingers crossed on this one.  It's been at least 6 years since sand dabs showed up in any kind of abundance inside SFBay.  Hopefully I'll have some encouraging sand-dabbery to report for March!                   

Until next month, see you at, in, or near the water.

--Kirk-out Mar 1, 2012

 

Full Immersion

                     Pile perch sashimi.  That's right.  I ate this.  And lo: it was great.

I went fishing for pogies today.  Only problem: there wasn't any crowd. Seriously, I'm getting to the point where I fish better with people watching.  

I wonder if this is a dilemma that porn stars are familiar with?

 

                                                      "...better with people watching."

 

Anyway, I got two hawg pogies.  Love the way pogies come out of the water all weirdly tan and blue. And pile perch. What fun pulling in pile perch all day.  Fahgettabout pogies, pile perch are the 747s of the Embiotocidae.  Plain and simple.  What fun!

Okay, no secrets here.  So now I'm commercial surfperch fishing.  No great success as yet, but still, catching 20 surf perch in one day is a wonderful thing to do.  And finally... a use for them!  Brought in a sample load of pogies and pilies to our sustainable fishmonger par excellence Kenny B.  And had them cooked up four different ways:  grilled, pan roasted, deep fried and raw. (Yes my people. I have now eaten raw pile perch--we are talking full immersion at this point).

 

                                              Full immersion: the author eating pile perch sashimi

 

It helps to have a willing restaurant/receiver and some adventurous restauranteurs at my disposal. Having presented to the folks at Fish the essential dilemma of surf perch: what to do about the mooshiness?  We learned several things:

1:  Don't eat them fresh (unless you're doing sashimi).  2 days in the refrigerator does wonders for a surf perch. I'm just saying.

2:  Pile perch makes for some damned good sashimi.  Do you want to eat this more than once a month? No.  But there's no denying it.  Four fish-obsessed men sitting around a table objectively agreed that pile perch was not just good as sashimi... it was great.  Seriously.  Three top of the line Bay Area chefs can't be wrong.

                                                        Before

 

 

                                                            After

3. If cooking... pan-roasted works better than frying or grilling.

Why did it take me so long to realize all this?  Honestly I've always been kinda squeemish about eating bay perch.  But I mean at this point, I've eaten raw monkeyface eel and leopard shark ceviche so what the hell.  Might as well go for full immersion.  

(A note to Mike Chinn:  Mike there's no need to point out the OEHHA report on surf perch to me.  I know all about poly aeromatic hydrocarbons and whatnot... this goes to anyone else who wants edu-ma-cate me on the advisability of eating surf perch out of SF Bay.  In short, I fall back on the "something's gotta kill ya," argument.  And it's true you know).

 

Further Reflections On An Unorthodox Life

 

Ummm... to all ye eelmen out there. Don't care how great you guys think you are.  This was a friggin hawg. 7.2 pounds.  Biggest eel I've ever caught.  And I caught it with 20 people watching me, so I figure that adds an extra pound.  Relax people... of course, I threw it back. Looked like a gravid female so why kill it?  Anyway, at this point, I'm open to someone else succeeding me.  I've held the crown long enough, no reason to be greedy.  Anyway it was lip hooked--and barely lip hooked at that--so I'm sure it lived.  

                                               The small eel weighed 1.8 pounds

 

10 years as an actor in NY.  15 years as a (what was I really?) underground musician in San Francisco. 5,000 fucking hours on stage and what do I have to show for it?  A smattering of people who have heard of my band. 623 people who saw me in some play or other.  And now... one year since I gave up the idea that I was a performer I've got a thousand people on my mailing list, sold out tours till April.  A TV show hangin' like 50 pounds of rock crabs in a box at the dock and a possible book deal in the works. What the hell is going on? Absolutely no strategy for this and look...  I will ride the monkeyface eel to world renown. Ha!

And when the day for my demise at last arrives... the entire biomass of monkeyface eels will rise as one and dance a slimy dance to celebrate my passing.  

But until then...

 

Really?

 

 

What else?  Nothing for now.  Heading out for nighties tomorrow.  Not too promising with all this heavy surf.  But what can I say?  This is what I tend to do when the quarter moons arrive at the end of Feb.  

What the hell am I listening to right now?

1500 albums of toothless old men singing the blues and strumming guitars in my collection.  Blind Willie Johnson to Harry Parch to Nuzrat to Ivo Paposav to obscure mento and son jarocho cds and all I want to listen to lately is this chubby, 20 year old, pop diva from Britain, who sings ridiculous songs of adolescent heart break and betrayal.  What has become of me?

                                           Harry Partch, Nusrat and... Adele?  What has become of me?

Okay... when Adele rears her wonderfully zaftig visage on this blog it's time to call it quits. Anyway, I gotta start working on my March update.  Something I look forward to with great relish.    

From deep in the heart of the beast... this is Lombard of the Intertidal, signing out.

Kirk-out

 

 

 

 

The Big Event

 

And so it came to pass... that the dream became a reality.  I had my night.  I got the peeps to see that you don't have to eat the same seafood everyone else is eating.  You don't have to drag the oceans with nets, you don't have to travel miles offshore, you don't have to fish for species that are getting slammed by every other commercial fisherman in California.  You can actually go down to the local pier/beach/tide-pool and catch things worthy of a gourmet meal.  Lucky for me I found La Trappe, and it's owner, Mike. I've been trying to make this concept happen for over a year, actually two years.  But it keeps falling through (I take full responsibility for this).

But Mike decided to make it two things: affordable and fun.  And having it coincide with beer week wasn't a bad idea either! (A happy marrying of two of my favorite things: fish and beer).  Anyway affordable and fun was exactly what it turned out to be!

 

Goddess of sustainability Bea Johnson gets up close and personal with Cebidichthys violaceus. Please check out this link to see the awesome stuff Bea and hubby Scott are doing in Marin:  Zero Waste.  {Beyond just being very funny, I think this photo illustrates the kind of wild energy and exuberance that was going on Tuesday night).

 

It also didn't hurt to have a hard working wait staff, and an awesomely talented kitchen that treated the surf smelt, manilla clam, rock crab and monkeyface eel with profound delicacy and playfulness.  I mean seriously. It was a dream come true to see all those items on a local menu, but to see them honored with such skill and originality almost turned me into a weeping mass of snot and tears.

 

                                        The author presents the eel

Anyway, here's the menu:

 

                                                                                                                                 The menu for the big event 02/14/12

 

Not sure if anyone out there has ever had to catch fish for a big event but I will say this:  it ends up putting a lot of pressure on a fisherman.  I mean at this point I'm pretty good at monkeyface eels... but 20 in one day... that was a serious challenge.  Luckily I have Mikey D., to follow me into all my crazy misadventures.

 

But unluckily for both of us the weather turned foul the day before the event and we were forced to endure some nasty stuff out there (see movie at the bottom of this post).  This is why it's a lot safer for a small boat fisherman never to make promises.  The ocean doesn't give a hot damn about anybody's sustainable fish dinner.  

I'm not sure I really gave Mikey D. his props.  But the truth is there wouldn't have been any dinner without Mikey.  He busted his ass for me and I am forever indebted.

And another person I need to thank is Kenny B., our beloved fishmonger and lender of "the boat." Without his continued generosity we'd be dead in the water.

There were a lot of cool things that happened that night but for me, the eel skinning and smelt de-boning demonstrations were tops.

                        The lovely "Katie" debones her first smelt

 

If "the lovely Katie" ever reads this post, I want to offer my apologies. "Knead" was the wrong word.  You want to simply press the spine into the palm of your hand. Kneading, done by someone who's actually kneaded bread, (unlike me), will result in a mooshed smelt.

Another lovely attendee learns some basics of fish preparation: skinning the eel.  Note the curious red mark on face of instructor.

 

I dunno, I'm sure there's some disgruntled old fisherman or fishmonger out there who scoffs at all this. Making a big deal about twenty eels and 70 pounds of rock crabs.  Oh well, that's fine with me.  I'm perfectly happy being the guy who makes a big deal about small quantities of under appreciated fish. And anyway, I'd like to see any other fisherman on the planet stand up in front of packed house and sing Molly Malone without getting thrown out on his face.

 

 

And so now I go to bed feeling pretty damned good about life.  Happy visions still dancing across the inner vault of my eel-obsessed brain. Although it doesn't make sense outside the context of the event, I thought I'd include the following video (see below) which I showed at the beginning of the night.  (Yes, several years ago I used Henry Thomas' Fishing Blues in a video about drain fishing, but I figured for my own event it was excusable to use it again).

                        Molly Malone statue, Dublin

 

Looks like we're going to do one of these events for every season... ooh think about what wonders await us in April! July! October!

Anyway, thanks to everyone who attended. It was a truly wonderful night.  And every single person contributed to it.  

From deep in my happy place this is Lombard of the Intertidal... signing out.

 

 

Pennies From Heaven

 

The rain as it appeared outside the author's window at 6:47 Tuesday, Feb 7th

5:30AM and it's raining.  Drip drop drip.  Not the torrential downpour predicted, but rain nonetheless. Huzzah!  Sturgeon milling about in the bay.  Salmonids suddenly perking up.  The last herring getting squirrelly again.  And me sitting here with cup o' joe and a rare sense of optimism.

 

  "... with cup o' joe and a rare sense of optimism."

 

But even so... wow, what a miserable winter rain-wise.  Just spent ten minutes looking at my New Year's resolutions... which have always been more of a January to-do list than anything else.  Anyway, I was thinking about it and it dawned on me that I ought to write up my New Years fishing resolutions.

Recreational:

1.  Get off butt and catch a friggin white seabass!

2.  Get off butt and spend more time halibut fishing in the bay!

3.  Make a trip to Jerry's secret lair of goliath clams

4.  Master extracting gonads from purple urchins

5.  Make a new A-frame net for S. starski season... and overhaul old nets.

 

 

Commercial:

1.  Get off butt and catch a friggin white seabass!

2.  Get off butt and spend more time halibut fishing in the bay

3.  Hook and line sand dabbery.  Can it be done inside 3 miles?

4.  Coon striped shrimp--in earnest.  What could be done with 200 traps?

5.  Attend Fish and Game Commission meeting to propose regulatory changes to the herring fishery.

6.  Continue to develop the market for underutilized species.  Rock crab?  Jacksmelt anyone? Yellowfin gobies?

 

Seriously tho.  The Japanese are way into this species.  They have party boats for them and what not.  I even found the following slogan from the annals of Japanese fishing lore:

 

 ‘A saltwater fisherman’s life begins with goby fishing, and ends with goby fishing’

 

And of course, the Japanese aren't the only ones:  Remember this picture from several thanksgivings ago?

 

                                                                Not bullheads, gobies.

I mean, you want to talk sustainability?  Let's reduce the population of invasive gobies through commercial fishing.  Who's in?

Funny, I totally forgot about these old posts (see below if you want more goby-hood).

Thanksgiving Gobies

Byczki Cigarettes and Tales of Old Odessa

Gotta go poke the shores.

--Kirk out

 

Herring 2012

Stephen sends this picture of pickled herring.  He caught his fish on Pier 32 after my tour was over. Yum yum.  

 

Okay.  Time to put the fork in this puppy and call it done. I'm officially herring-ed out.  It was too bad about the commercial fresh fish permit, but hey, you can't win 'em all.  Nevertheless, it was quite a banner year for net throwers.  McCovey Cove/Embarcadero, Coyote, Kincaid's, Paradise, San Quentin and even Point Richmond have all had some pretty good spawns. Only thing I didn't see was a nice Sausalito run.  And what's up with Candlestick?  Anybody know?  I'll never forget the biggest spawn I ever saw was four years ago on Super Sunday.  So hopefully that will be repeated.  Though at this point I am only a spectator. 

 

Kent sends this picture of his herring in mid grill.  Learned a lot about grilling small fish this winter.  The secret folks, is in wood chips and super high heat.  I mean, like 900 degrees and whatnot.  Haven't ever had much success pan searing Pacific herring.  They always turn to mush. But a super hot grill works like a charm!

 

Anyway, nothing major to report here, just thought I'd share a few pix from the herring tours and crazy days in pursuit of small fishes.  

 

 

Even taking into account that the folks pictured below were fishing totally irresponsibly, taking way too many fish, and possibly even selling them somewhere (what else do you do with that many fish?  Feed an army?), let's stop and consider for a moment how many they actually took in two days... a robust estimate would be 1 ton.  Okay maybe one and a half.  3 thousands pounds.  That seems like a lot until you compare it to what a single herring boat catches in one day.  Somewhere between 5 and 15 tons. And the total herring quota is what? I forget, 1,900 tons or something.  At least these folks are eating them here, (males and females!) not shipping 'em all off to Japan for 200 bucks a ton.  Not that I begrudge those guys their quota.  At this point they're only fishing 5 percent of the projected biomass. I'm just saying... to not allow a limited commercial throw net fishery is... well... ludicrous.

Anyway... here's what it looked like out there:

                                                         McCovey Cove Jan 2012

 

                       Same day.  Pier 32,  Jan 2012, Champion de la Banana on the prowl

 

Speaking of the Champion here's 25 seconds of him (below). Which should illicit a few smiles from the regulars. Oh yeah, and BTW, that is in fact a fish checker (Ed) on his knees counting herring (in photo above).  So at least part of the day's catch was entered into a database somewhere.

 

 

 

And that's going to do it for my herring posts.  I'm done.  February is four days off and you all should know what that means... 

                                                        C. sordidus

 

 

And (towards the end of the month) this little guy:

                                                             S. Starski

 

So stay tuned!  And remember there's plenty of other websites out there if you want to read about sexier game fish like Marilyn, Ava, Rita and Lana.

Kirk-out

 

 

 

Productus

 

 

Haiku # 2,765

Cancer productus

Intellectual of crabs

And yet so macho

 

Got pinched again last week by a large red rock crab.  The feeling can only be likened to having a car door slammed on your finger.  The scream that emanates from my mouth when a rock crab gets me is the loudest un-amplified sound I have ever produced.  And for those who have heard me sing or play the tuba that's saying something.

 

         Now I finally know why he's screaming.

 

Reinventing the crab trap this week.  I mean seriously.  If you are a rock crab anywhere in the Bay Area you are in deep trouble.  When I say "reinventing the crab trap" I am being inaccurate. I myself reinvented nothing.  What I did was something I should've done long ago.  I handed the project over to the Leonardo da Vinci of metal.  Jerry Bonnafair.

 

Jerry Bonnafair in his Oakland Studio, with daughter Isabella and the Sabbatinni column wave machine we built for my puppet troupe several years ago.  Note Jerry's hand made banjo leaning against the wall.  In addition to playing and building banjos, Jare is a talented old time fiddler and a disciple of the great NC old tyme legend, Tommy Jerrell... oh why not... here's part of Les Blank's tribute, a beautiful little film in the opine of the MFN editorial machine.

 

 

 

Those of you who have read the print version of Monkeyface News #4 will remember Jerry as the unfortunate machinist/welder who gets to bring all my half-baked ideas to fruition.  So several years ago when I was starting out in night smelting, having no idea what an A-frame net was, I went to Jerry and had him build what I thought would be the ultimate smelt killing device.  The Lombard-Bonnafair Knuckle Breaker (AKA: The Blue Meanie).  So Jerry built exactly what I asked for: a horifying 50 pound tool with a scissor hinge perfect for breaking knuckles, and an 8 inch spike on the bottom for piercing human feet (I mistakenly thought that an A-frame net would need to be anchored in the sand!).  I caught a total of 6 smelt with this miserable device--and nearly crippled myself in the process.
 
 

                              The Bonnafair/Lombard knuckle-crusher, aka Blue Meanie

Again this is all explained in great detail in the print versions of the MFN.  The ridiculous sand crab trap (Marilyn Death Hammer) I designed, the steel clam tube (AKA: Lumbago Death Tube) that still juts defiantly from the mud of HMB, like excaliber unsheathed! Not to mention the mudsucker trap otherwise known as the Lombard-Bonnafair Shin Wrecker!  (They say the echoes of my screams are still heard in the Dumbarton salt ponds).

     Not very good at capturing mudsuckers, but if you need to lose a little blood, this is your baby.

Anyway, where was I?  The problem is, that for all his metalurgical skills Jerry Bonnafair is not really a clammer or a night smelter or a mudsucker fisherman.  And so he just went ahead and followed my instructions (to a tee).  Of course, I have no business designing anything made of metal when I am standing within 100 yards of someone of Jerry's genius.

 

 Marilyn Death Hammer.  A sand crab trap to end all sand crab traps.  Breaker of human spines.

 

    {For the full story behind all these misbegotten fishing tools, order your copy of MFN # 4 now!}

 

And so after my early failures in rock crabbing I ended up at Jerry's shop in Oakland.  We were there because, well, frankly it's hard to find 3.25 inch rings.  Rock crab traps must have escape rings.  And those rings can be as small as 3.25 inches.  Too many medium sized rockies were escaping from our dungy traps.  So Jerry made a template to bend steel rod into perfect 3.25 inch rings. Then he set about welding cross bars and weights on all the doors of our modified dungy traps.  Then we went out on the water again and discovered that even with weighted doors and 3.25 inch rings rock crabs tend to pull a Houdini when the bait is gone.  So overnight soaks were useless.  We tried Promars, Danielsons, Octagons and standard circular dungy pots.  All with mixed results.  Then Mikey saw some top entry stone crab pots online last month and so we started thinking along those lines.  I contacted a few rock crab biologists who confirmed that top entry traps worked well for rock crabs down south (where there is actually a fairly large fishery for yellows and browns).  

 

                                Stone crab trap

 

Discussed all this with Jerry and the next day he presented me with plans for a folding, totally portable, top entry rock crab trap.  So I went out and bought a 100 foot roll of 12 gauge PVC coated mesh, and started making traps at Jerry's shop--following his template.  Doing the math on it, including bait trays, cheap line (BTW, cheap cotton line sinks!) pool noodle buoys and zip ties, we can produce one total crabbing unit for 10 dollars.

Bam!  

 

  Jerry Bonnafair builds the template for a folding top-entry rock crab pot

 

Are they easy to make?  No. Is it a lot of work?  Yes.  But I've got the time right now, and frankly the biggest issue with rock crabbing is lost gear.  Obviously, these guys don't live on flat sandy bottoms like dungies.  So it makes no sense whatsoever to fish with expensive gear that's gonna get humg up on rocks all day. And the amazing thing about Jerry's design is that we can easily fit 100+ of these folding gizmos on an 18 foot whaler.

                      Cutting wire, and sorting the pieces... Jan 2012

 

Anyway, got yet another tour in HMB today. Will post some cool footage of the crazy downtown SF herring spawn that lasted 4 days!  Talked to monkeyface inside man Champion de la Banana yesterday (1/20/12)  and he was still catching 'em. 

Go Niners!

--Kirk-out

 

Tour On Saturday 1/21

Not completely sure on this.  Kind of thought it was a brown Irish lord, any sculpin experts out there?

Got plenty of room Saturday for my Mega Low-tide Mussel/Clam Tour down in Princeton CA.  Usually this tour is sold out but I had six cancellations and rather than cancel the tour completely, I thought what the hell, I'll post it here see if I can get a few more peeps.  Here's the link to BPT: Kirk's Tickets

 

 

Pre-Columbian Pogey

 

Not Even Looking To Break Even

 

It's true kids.  No matter what they tell you. Life is occasionally improved by the slow ingestion of quality intoxicants.

 

 

The commercial cast net uber-fresh herring idea is now officially dead.  RIP.  They stabbed it with their steely knives (but they still couldn't kill the beast. The beast rages on. I am the beast. 666. That is the number of herring I could probably ever catch in one day. Pounds now, not tons). And then they e-mailed to tell me I lost.

Hi Kirk,

I just got the word from Captain _______ that Legal has made a decision (went all of the way to the top of the Law Enforcement Branch too).  They gave cast netting a thumbs down (see below). Budget cuts might effect the regulatory cycle but I think that DFG will have to address the fresh fish fishery and that would be the time to introduce cast netting as an authorized method of take for herring.

Sorry for the bad news and the fact that it took so long to get it to you.

Signed ____________________

                                Herring gill netters getting their fish in McCovey cove
 

From Enforcement:

Dear _________________

I spoke with Legal at length last week about the issues of nets and weekend fishing. I also spoke with Assistant Chief __________ after he discussed this with the Chief of Patrol ____________. Although they agree that the impact of the fresh fish herring fishery is minimal, the fishery is still bound by the regulations established in CCR Title 14 Section 163. The only authorized method of take for the fresh fish permittees is a set gill net no longer than 65 fathoms long, as described in CCR Title 14 Section 163(f)(2)(A). There is also no fishing allowed on weekends in San Francisco Bay (noon Friday through 5:00 PM Sunday night), as described in CCR Title 14 Section 163(h)(5).
 

                                                            My Kind of CCR

If Mr. Lombard wants the regulations changed he will have to submit a regulation change proposal to the Fish and Game Commission.

And of course this is exactly what I will do.  However, there is no denying it is a temporary setback. A loss of sorts.

 

But the loss is ours, collectively.  Because no one gets these gorgeous, scale-on, clear eyed, throw-netted herring siting in my cooler. Except me. And my friends.

Instead everybody else gets the shook, sucked, crushed and pulverized variety.  Oh well.  Wait till next year.  A baseball cliche if ever there was one.

 

McCovey Cove

 

521 homers.  1555 rbi.  Rest assured when this man strode to the plate, first basemen were not in their happy place.  Did anyone out there ever witness a Willie McCovey line drive?  I once heard one called by Ralph Kiner in like 1979.  Towards the end.  Solo homer in a meaningless game.  The pitch comes in.  Kiner goes:  "It's a line drive.  It's in the gap.  It's gone... and that my friends was a Willie McCovey home run."  

Today I stood and watched 100 tons of herring gill-netted in McCovey Cove. They are now getting 200-300 dollars a ton. (So let's see, what does the math-compromised MFN editorial machine come up with?) Which means each boat made about 2,000 dollars for ten hours of fishing--if that. And they came down from Washington. And how much is the permit? 2,000 dollars? More? And the deckhand... how much does he get? And gas? Upkeep on nets and winches and motors? Wow. Mooring fees?  The SF herring fishery is not a growth industry. Let's just put it that way. In 1994 they got what?  $2,000-$3,000 a ton?

Then why the hell not let me catch 25 pounds?

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHH!!!

I don't even need to break even. That's what no one understands about me.

I'M NOT EVEN LOOKING TO BREAK EVEN!

All I'm trying to do is show people how a herring might be fished.  Small quantities, high price.  Feel me?

 

The 1 Hundred and 1th Ton

 

         McCovey Cove.  Herring boat.  Gill net set.  Jan 18th 2012.

 

I said it was 100 tons but really it was more like 101 tons.  Maybe 102.  The Chinese and Vietnamese evidently like herring. Would love to find out how they are preparing it!  (A little help from some of my Vietnamese fishing brothers here?)

My crazy MFN operative # 007, the one known as Pissed-off Pete, looks up at me out of this virile mass Asiatic manhood and screams: "C'mon Kirk!  White man gotta stand up!"  This was one of the funniest things I have ever heard. I am still laughing. The absurdity of it. Poor Pete, the first man to throw a cast net on C. Pallasi inside SF Bay, swallowed in a crowd of... very talented net throwers. Led sinkers winging thru the air.  A very funny sight to behold.  

The average guy on that pier today threw twice as many times as Tim Lincecum does in a typical outing. Seriously. The fish were sort of thick and then not thick. 10 pounds and then half a pound. Like that.

 

"I just love this... I just love being near this."

 

I must stop. I must dig deeper here. I must digress. I was standing there today and one of my favorite regulars was standing just beyond me talking to someone else.  His name is Tom.  He's one of those dudes has a very common name but when you're standing somewhere with a lot of '365s' (that's the name we give to people who fish every day of the year, yo), and you say: "Tom says the stripers are running thick at Candlestick" every one knows who you're talking about.

 

 

Anyway, I was standing there in the thick of it all and I heard Tom say something like: "I just love this... I just love being near this." That was it. Milt in the water. Eggs on the rocks. Fish sparkling in the shallows. Herring shakers on the gill net boats tapping their staccato rhythm. 43 some odd people throwing nets. Scales flying. Chinese music from someone's Buick (the trunk open and filled with blue plastic bins). I dunno, it was a wild scene.  And really, when you add up the ton or so that was caught by the net flingers, what does it really amount to when compared to a single boat? 

Lot of people I'd never seen before out there.  Jeez, I even ran into Bubba from HMB. Bubba is a fire extinguisher guy. And is the most perfect embodiment of bubba-hood ever created. Bubba was checking fire extinguishers at the ballpark, and had some weird cioppino wagon he was hauling. Seriously. Big Bubba was trafficking in ciopino. WTF? Anyway. I gave Bubba about 7 pounds or something. He goes: "did you see all those guys on the other side?? {of McCovey Cove}" 

And poor Pissed-off Pete, sighing miserably and trying with mixed success to elbow his way to the prime spot. "Its like the battle of Keh Sanh!" He screams.

Nets whirling through the air.  Fish dying everywhere.  Bad day to be a herring.  Good day to be a herring eater.

  

                                                   Herring eaters

 

Ayala

 

                     Some Miwoks

 

In my dreams tonight I will be sailing through The Gate onboard the San Carlos in 1775.  I will look towards land and see the grizzly munching on the sea lion carcass that they all decribed, and the tule canoes docked where Ghiridelli is now. And, and... the endless forests of tule grass, pintails, canvas backs and geese. Great shrieking clouds of geese. Horizon to horizon clouds. Vaults of geese. And a plump, well-fed populace given to laughter, steamed mussels and interesting head dresses. I must see this. I must know what it was. I want to catch a pre-Columbian pogey!

 

Seriously, this is a picture of the San Carlos, hard to believe they'd have all sails at full spread so close to the shore tho.  Is that supposed to be the Gate?  Pt. Diablo?

 

I want to catch a pre-Columbian pogey!

I want to catch a pre-Columbian pogey!

And if I don't get to catch a pre-Columbian pogey, I'm going to scream and cry!

Imagine for a moment the sturgeon abundance in 1775.  Green sturgeon! Green sturgeon abundance. Oxymoronic at this point. Not in 1775. The CPUE for green sturgeon in 1775 was probably like .50 per hour. 12 per day. Imagine the clamming in HMB in 1775. I wonder how hard it would be to reconstruct the tide on August 4th 1775 when Ayala sailed in? August 4th.... hmmm... imagine what surf smelt abundance was on Aug 4th 1775. I think maybe this year I'll throw a party for the bay on August 4th. Who wants to come? We'll regale ourselves with stories about the old days. To hell with the present. Forget about the future. I want to live in the past!

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!

Now I'm sitting here. The phone just rang. Eric Lee's still on the herring. Live Eric! Live!

 

Of Course

 

                         herring otolith

 

FYI:  They've found herring otoliths in 8,000 year old Indian burial mounds. No surprise there.

 

The 1/1000

 

                                                    Yes.  On Montgomery street.

In parting I will say this. I may not know what a summer run of Chinook salmon looks like, I may not comprehend former pintail abundance, Grizzly bears on Montgomery St., or what Aquatic Park was like when it was full of spartina grass, native oysters and clapper rails. But I sure as hell can visualize what a herring run must've looked like. Since I'm intimately familiar with that meagre 1/1000th that's left to us.

Anyhoo, I may yet hold out for time machines and vistas of impossible former abundance but while I'm doing it, I will profess my love for what remains.  Tom said it best:

I just love it. I just love being near it.

Kirk-out.

Jan 18, 2012

The Cycle Of Life

 

                                                            Loren's buckets

 

So we had a major herring spawn in Marin this week.  The spawn lasted two whole days and nights... (might actually have been three!)  The pickling liquid is boiling even as I write this.   Other than myself and a few select friends, there was no one to witness it... no one except of course the 12-15 herring boats who's gill net shakers can be heard in the distance throughout the movie below, and maybe a thousand sea gulls.  It really is such a beautiful thing to behold... hope this very short movie captures some of it!

 

                                                Herring boats Jan 5th 2012

 

 

I have to say, it was quite a trip to show up there and see the pier completely empty.  Had it all to myself. Became like a party for Kirk's friends the rest of the day.  Thanks Mike C. for the call... anyway, here's the latest cinematic masterpiece:

 

 

Niche Markets

 

                                                              Rockies...

 I was talking to a dungeness crab fisherman at the dock in Princeton and he goes: "rock crabs are garbage, I got no interest in that."  

And that's just fine with me, buddy!  

It all comes down to what your particular version of the American Dream happens to be.  Mine is unique, I think, in that it doesn't include a lot of expensive stuff.  And because of that, I can make underground, under-utilized, non-mainstream fisheries work for me.  But not everyone can.  

It's funny though, I have to say, commercial fishing a string of hoop nets! You guys think I'm kidding but that appears to be the best way to capture rock crabs (more on this later). 

Even funnier, since we started doing this with our buyer (and benefactor!) I'm seeing rock crabs all over town.  Copy cats! Got more demand for eels than I know what to do with. Got people talking about the different kinds of smelts (FYI: there's a huge demand for jacksmelt... yes, jacksmelt. Worms and all!)

Anyway, Mikey and I have been dropping pots everyday.  Okay, let me rephrase that.  Mikey's been dropping pots everyday, I've been tagging along occasionally.  But, we are starting to learn a few things:

1.  rock crabs are smarter than dungies

2.  rock crabs are very good at escaping from conventional crab pots

3.  hoop nets work well because you have to pull them up every 15 minutes and so the crabs don't have a chance to escape.

4.  getting pinched by a rock crab deeply sucks (their claws are designed to break clams, yo).

5.  we need a different kind of pot.

It's weird, even with weighted doors and 3.25 inch escape rings we can't seem to keep these buggers in the traps over night.  Drop a few hoop nets on rocky bottom and you catch more rock crabs in an hour than you do with a 48 hour soak.  Very strange.  I think what's going on here is that rockies unlike dungies evolved to deal with getting in and out of holes.  So as soon as they eat all the bait they start searching the cage for a way out... and they figure out the door quite easily.  I have this image in my brain of one rock crab, the leader of the jail break, holding the trap door open while all the others escape... might have to sink a GO PRO down there... anyone wanna volunteer a camera?

Anyhoo... as far as fishing goes, this is what I've been up to lately (see movie).  Nothing stupendous but some nice footage of our little operation, the wonderful 18 foot Whaler that has been provided for us by our crab buyer, Kenny (mensch of the 7 seas), and the foggy shores of the local coastline.  I think it's fair to say that in a month or two we will be able to triple our catch.  

Again, if there are any former commercial rock crab fishermen out there reading this, I'd love to pick your brain for a few minutes... beers on me.

Anyway, here's my first movie since steelheading on the Trinity...

Happy New Year!

PS: if any of you have photos from my tours down in Halfmoon Bay/Princeton/Mavericks I'd really appreciate you forwarding them to me, especially that monster cabezon Mikey got poke poling!