SEAFORAGER.COM
Hi everybody. Kirk here. Time for yet another belated coastal update! Better late than never. Let's see. Lots of stuff going on in fish biz. My new seafood company (Seaforager Seafood) is going to launch any day now (I swear it by gum!) Just getting things together with my supply chain(s), licensing, web merchants... etc. Yikes, never realized how much stuff goes into starting a business! Anyway, we're pushing the launch par-tay back to the end of August or maybe early September. This will likely be an epic event--with sea chanties, passed fishy h'ors deouvres and a meet and greet with local fishermen. All of this at a very cool Mission District pub. Thanks to all of those folks who have waited patiently, and sent e-mails of support. It's much appreciated and actually gives us a good sense of how many people will be signing up, at least initially.
I was planning on promoting our upcoming event at The Marin Headlands Center For The Arts, but the durned thing sold out in less than a week! Bummer. I mean, that's kind of a gold-plaited problem but still, it woulda been cool to have some of my own peeps in the crowd. Oh well, next time I'll advertise it sooner.
Now all we have to do is catch enough fish in three days to feed a hundred people... the pressure is on!
KQED
By the way, everybody should turn on to KQED on Thursday morning at 10:00. I'm going to be on Forum, with Michael Krazny. Only thing is "the Kraz" is on vacation so it's someone else interviewing us. Hank Shaw and the folks from Forage SF are also on the show.
Now for the literary foragers out there...
A Good Read:
I just finished reading Bill Heavey's incredibly funny look at the nouveau foraging (faux-raging) movement: It's Only Slow Food Until You Try To Eat It. Frog gigging in the bayou, back yard cross bow squirrel irradication, and yes, even an up close look at the SF hipster foraging scene. Including a very spot on assessment of yours truly. This book has now become my favorite read on the subject of hunting and gathering. Steve Rinella be-damned. Bill is the best outdoor writer in the country. For my money. Check out his book here: It's Only Slow Food...
Near Death Experience
Not really but it sounds better than "near painful encounter with a seldom seen Bay Area fish experience." So I was doing a city tour the other day and one of my customers yelled: hey there's a skate! Everybody was standing up on the Marina Green wall, and I was down on the water and didn't have a good angle on the so called "skate." So I grabbed my aluminum handled net and scrambled along the rocks hoping to get a chance to scoop him out of the water. I was poised atop the sewer duct which will one day no doubt bear my name, when suddenly it occurred to me that I had never seen this species of ray before. I had thought all along that it was a California thornback, but on closer inspection I could see it was way too big for a thornback and not really shaped the same way. Too circular. Too many black spots on its back.
Why You Should Consider Reading Milton Love
Don't tread on me.
Well, the thing is, I spend so much time with Milton Love's book, it's not like I'm going to be fooled into netting an electric ray. And even though it did not look like all the pictures of the species one sees online, I'd glossed over his electric ray chapter enough times to have a sort of sub conscious recognition of the species. 7 years as a fish checker, 23 years as a Bay Area fisherman and I'd never seen an electric ray. Then a 4.5 footer swims past me in 18 inches of water in the middle of one of my tours. Go figya! Anyway, here's some footage from one of my tour goers, Charlie Hale. Thanks Charlie!
The estimable Dr. Love tells us that this species delivers a charge of around 45 volts. Not enough to kill but certainly enough to knock out a guy with an aluminum handled net, standing knee deep in the water... maybe knock his fillings out and maybe send him to the emergency room. These things all have deeper significance to a person who has no health insurance. Feel me?
Salmon
Not sure if I posted this already, but I love this picture, so even if I did I don't care. My dear friend and commercial salmon fisherman Sharky von Sharkenheimer holds the happy end of a great white's lunch. No one in the fleet had seen one up to that point and yet on two consecutive days Sharky lost a salmon to great whites. Of course "Sharky" got his nickname from surviving a brutal mauling off South Africa back in the eighties. You can ask him all about it when you buy salmon from his boat, Miss Larene, in Half Moon Bay: Sea Forger discount: 5 percent!
It should come as no surprise to anybody that I am somewhat loath to go on at great lengths about salmon. The infer-web is exploding with salmon info right now. Just as the seas are exploding with big fat hawgs. The numbers have been great because we've been so deprived (remember the season was closed 3-4 years ago), but according to several old timers, we still aren't even approaching the numbers that were caught in bumper years like 2004. I haven't had time to confirm this by looking at catch statistics, but it was interesting to listen to a few old pros at the wharf talking about "big years" in days gone by. Not that anybody is complaining about this amazing season. Although the action has dropped off a bit in the last two weeks, just remember the fish that are scattered north of the bay are all headed towards the Golden Gate at some point, (something like 99.9 percent of the fish in local waters spawn in the Sacramento) and when they do, there will be some fairly cool shore fishing options. Especially from the cliffs at Yellow Bluff and further up bay at Rodeo, Ca.
Scenic Rodeo California. You too could catch a salmon here.
But don't forget the party boats. One of the best boats in the whole fleet is Sausalito's Outer Limits. I won't lie. The boats I promote on this site are all the boats that didn't hassle me and give me a pain in the ass when I was a fish checker. You guys have no idea how much it sucks to be on board a CPFV where you are made to feel unwelcome. That was never the case with the Outer Limits, and all the other boats I mention on this blog. In addition, everyone knows that the Outer Limits and the New Rayanne are the top dawgs in the fleet. And launching from Sausalito this time of year, you've got the shortest trip to the salmon of any harbor in the bay. As I've said before, I'm also a big fan of The New Captain Pete, The Huli Cat and the Queen Of Heart's down in HMB.
Goodbye Big Tides
It's a bummer, but what can you do? Complain to the moon? Lodge a protest with Poseidon? The big minus tides of 2013 are gone till November. Nevertheless, if you want to eat clams during the quarantine, littlenecks are reachable on anything +0.5 and lower. And my best cabezon days are always on tides between 0.0 and +1.3... Not sure why, but cabbies sure seem to like these tides. Grass rockfish too.
Sea Weeds
Real wakame! Note the stipe down the middle of the blade.
Man the late spring and early summer this year was absolutely busting loose with nori. And despite the fact that we're deep into the summer, I'm still seeing some nice patches along the coast. Nori starts to whither and decay towards the end of summer, but lots of it is still holding strong as of this writing. I am also quite happy to report that my favorite little inner city stand of wakame has returned with a vengeance. Lots of fear and loathing for the invasive wakame in these parts. In fact there was a group of people going around the bay for a while eradicating the stuff. I have not read anything that states invasive wakame is particularly problematic. Yes it fouls the bottoms of boats and docks (grows 6 feet per month), but it sure is delicious. I plucked some from my favorite spot and roasted it in the oven for a few minutes... came out crunchy and salty. Awesome stuff. Thing is, picking wakame and other seaweeds from under a busy boat dock is somewhat problematic. Kind of like picking raspberries from a bush located in a toxic dump site... or worse. Since seaweeds do pick up heavy metals and radiation from the environment. But I did it anyway. Only ate an ounce or two. If you want to see what real Japanese wakame looks like in the wild, go to Pier 1.5 in SF (between Piers 1 and 3). If you decide to pick some, don't go crazy. Only eat a few ounces.
Forage Fish
Well... what really can be said? It's all about the lizard fish and anchovies right now. Unfortunately most of the latter are of the pinheaad variety. And as far as the former I have as yet found no way to turn them into something even remotely palatable. And I know this can be done! Please send me a lizard fish ecipe somebody!
Right now there is a school of 'chovies stretching from the middle of HMB to Ocean Beach. OK maybe it's several huge schools, but the water is just crawling with 'em righ now. Mostly pinheads though.
Day and Night
The joys of smelt jumping. No more trips for 2013, but I'll be offering them again this spring.
Once again not much to report on the day fish (surf smelt), though I finally succeeding in catching my first two pounds of 2013. Unreal this is happening in August. I mean damn. Last year they ran from April through September. The night fish ran great all month and frankly my guided trips were a blast. Only 1 night out of six could have been called a skunk, and even then everybody had enough for a dinner or two.
Surf Perch Season Opens
Halibut
There have been a few decent bites in the East Bay, but the south bay (where I fish halibut) has been awful. I watched a literal ton of cali hali unloaded at Fisherman's Wharf recently, so we know there must be a few out there past three miles... but damn, I can't catch one to save my swim baits.
Albacore: A few fish have been caught out at the 601 and The Guide Seamount. More on this next month.
Stripers: Nothing to speak of... the bay has been dead and the surf casting crew is starting to get a little frustrated. Again more on this next month!
Parting Shots
I'm afraid I've got to cut it short right here. Looking forward to the salmon moving closer to the gate in the next month. The fact that I got one pound of day smelt today is encouraging... Look out for the big launch party for my Seaforager Seafood business at the end of August.
Anywho, until September... see you at, on or in the H20.
