Down At The Fishin' Hole

 

 

 

Towards A More Urban Definition Of "Fishin' Hole"

 

(Yes I know I'm holding the ancient baitcaster upside down.  I reel lefty and its easier for me that way.)

(Click the link to Youtube if it won't play)

 

{MFN Editorial Machine: Well folks... I originally had this movie at the bottom of the page, but as it is sure to be a popular one, I figured I'd move it up here to the top, so that the non-fish contingent wouldn't have to wade through an excessive amount of 'pogeyhood' in order to get to it. So for the usuals, please excuse the bass-ackwards nature of the rest of the post... oh yeah, BTW: to get rid of the advert for the Slim Harpo album--the only way I could use the song was to allow the advertisement--either buy the album, which you won't regret, or click the little x on the right of the ad box}.
 

Inspiration

Well, you may have noticed my posts have been a tad uninspired of late--at least as far as fishing is concerned.  What can I say, the paltry sturgeon numbers and the apparent disappearance of the Pacific herring have contributed greatly to my melancholia.  And then it started raining... and raining... and raining... and with each cold, dioxin saturated droplet, I found my hope returning.  Non source-point pollution?  Toxic runoff?  Sure, but regardless of all this, we've got to have rain.  Lots and lots of rain. Days and weeks of rain.  And guess what? We're getting it.  Praise be to Tlaloc! Someone must have found a virgin to sacrifice.




     There's gotta be an easier way to get some rain.
 
     

And so with ebullient, if slightly dampened spirits MFN Head Honcho #1 jumped onto his mighty white steed (of the Fixed Or Repaired Daily species), and made a beeline for the shores of our fair city.  As I have said in the past, no American city is more beautiful and mysterious shrouded in mist and dappled with moisture than San Francisco.  And so I brought a camera, a good book, a bag of harmonicas, The Slim Harpo Excello recordings (I've been trying to learn a few of his harp licks), and figured that if the herring failed to show again, I'd just pull up somewhere with a nice view of the bay and work on my harmonica chops for a few hours.   

And then... strangely... I looked in last year's MFN tidebook/diary and noticed that lots of good things happened in late January 2009.  Most of those things involved surf perch.  So on the outside shot that I'd feel inspired to stand in the rain and soak a hook for "pogies," I stopped at the Irving St. fish market en route to the aforementioned "shores of our fair city" and bought 70 cents worth of "head-on shrimp." 
 



 
A Prime Specimen Of Embiotoca Jacksonii 
    

In the print edition of the MFN (all you have to do is ask and I'll tell you how to get one) you can read voluminous articles on the subject of the black surf perch, (Embiotoca jacksonii) or "pogey," a species of which I am greatly enamored.  It is no secret I am fond of "pogies."  They are tough, voracious, adaptable, and strong like bull.  If pogies were the size of groupers, no one would be able to pull them in.  In fact, no one would ever go near the water. I know I wouldn't.  Imagine being gummed to death by a giant pogey! (Finesmell, get to work on that one). When feeding they have a habit of sucking up mud and other debris, and then spitting it out repeatedly. Maybe this is why they taste so gawdawful.  I've actually seen their filleted carcasses--stomachs oozing with black sediment. 

I imagine I will now hear from the pogey contingent, all of them swearing that pogies are the best eating fish in North America.  I will say this: 99 percent of the people who target pogies deep fry them (they also tend to have neck tattoos, sagging pants and missing incisors). But as we all know, deep-frying doesn't really count. For instance, deep fried sneaker probably tastes pretty good too.

  

                          Tastes a little better than pogey.

  

Where was I.  Right.  I was extolling the virtues of the pogey (none of which are culinary). Catching pogies is, for me anyway, all about the fight.  This is the Sugar Ray Robinson of SF Bay fishes.  On light tackle he is simply a brute--a very beautiful brute, mind you, one with a dark mustache, butter colored lips and iridescent blue spots on his sides.  

In any event... I got to the shore.  But the rain just kept on keeping on.  And the Slim Harpo sounded so good. And despite my rainlust, and my rekindled desire to test my piscatorial skills against the ranking welter weight contender of SF fishes, I could not quite get myself out of the car...

 

And Then I Remembered "The Hole"

 

We are about to get into a type of fishing detail that is very, very deep, my people.  Bear with me.  I promise the accompanying movie will be well worth the verbiage (see what I mean about bass-ackwards).  Anyway, I mean seriously. This detail I am about to share is some very hardcore fishing information.  There are maybe a handful of human beings that have any idea what I am about to speak of (and at least one will surely be pissed that I'm sharing this).  For I speak of fishing holes--but in a totally literal way.  

San Francisco's shoreline, or I should say, most of it, is built on landfill. Because of this there are various holes... I'm saying actual holes, or drains, in the asphalt or concrete, near the water.

    

The author, pictured here with an extremely nice grass rockfish... especially when you consider that he pulled it from the drain pictured below (the cute downtown girl who captured the earlier stages of this dramatic event (with the video function on her iphone) after being accosted on the street by a lunatic fishing in drains, in the rain, while passing by on her lunch break, has not yet e-mailed the exciting footage to me... if she ever does, rest assured, I will post it and then, perhaps, nominate her for sainthood).

  

These holes can be fished in much the way an average ice fisherman fishes Lake Ontario in the winter. In other words, one can actually sit in one's vehicle, with the heater on and the radio blaring and fish from the cozy confines of one's driver's seat.  Because many of these holes are actually located on piers, they offer the urban angler access to fish habitat that doesn't get a lot of pressure.  The truth is, most sane people feel slightly uncomfortable pulling their dinner out of a drain.  But for barbless catch and release of small and medium sized fish this type of urban angling can't be beat!  

I know of at least 8 of these holes in the downtown/China Basin stretch of San Francisco alone. I'm sure there's more.  Anyhoo, due to yesterday's inclement weather, the sweet music of Slim Harpo, and my subsequent decision to stay indoors, I decided to head for the best of these holes--a sewer like drain off China Basin, and try my hand at fishing from inside my car.  The rest is captured in the following video (which you've already seen... hey wait I'll put the tail end of the footage of the large-ish grass rock fish I pulled from a drain a little while later).  We here at the MFN continue to hone our cinematic skills in a never ending effort to further the filmic arts. But unfortunately, batteries do run out.  But at least you'll get a better picture of the drain... and the fish:

This drain is located near a loading dock next to that terrible bow and arrow sculpture downtown, (adjacent to the SFFD pier) and while one can not actually fish it while sitting in one's car, there is an awning hanging over the dock which will keep one nominally dry while fishing the drain.

 

 

 

 

 

 
And that's it.  Time to go.  From somewhere near the hard concrete shores, this is Lombard Of The Intertidal for The Monkeyface News, signing out.

Comments

[Scott P]

That was just amazing. This is going right up to the top of my list of "favorite monkeyface articles". :) Now makes me wonder if I drop my fishing line down some of these storm drains all over Fremont that have "drain to bay" posted all over them what I'll pull up...

[niko]

Kirk, youre crackin me up!!! CLASSIC!

[Bethany]

Seriously. That was just about the coolest video ever. I can't believe I never knew about urban fishin' holes!

[BigNoa]

Unreel, brah...

[esmonde]

Extraordinary! Brilliant!
Urban geography / ichthyology at its most inspired!

[Johnski]

"Fishing from inside your car............."

I have got to MEET this guy!

The link to this post & video is already circling the world(wide web).

[craig davis]

DUDE! Lets fish! Call,Sharky lets have a derby. Craig. aka ravensblack

[kat m. davis]

Always so good to see you in your element Kirk! Love you much, long time without seeing you, kat

[HamachiJohn]

When the fishin is slow (or the only fishin I do is from a computer reading other people's fishing reports), I always come back to this post and read again. NCKA loves your blog, bro.

[jeremy]

that is ghetto fishing at it's finest! Nice work!!!!

[Mike seven gill McGill]

This ia awesome your my new BFF

[erik shurtleff]

Wow I thought I was the only one that did this!cool video I used too work at Bauers limosine on Pier 27 and I dropped a line once in one of these holes in our shop and Landed several BIG Grass Rockfish and perch,no joke I have got to find the pictures sometime and show them, this made my day!