Dynamic Duo

Mysterious waters of the San Fran Bay area. 2007

Here are some hero shots from Jon and Wing. Masters of 4 different species! Keep em coming guys.

Leopard shark
Rock cod
Striped bass
Ling cod, catch and release ;-)

Pristine waters

Coquihalla River, British Columbia, July 2007

Evan did a little scouting trip up to the fly fishin only Coquihalla river, in search of the rare summer steelhead. This beautiful river has been closed to fishing for several years in effort to preserve the steelhead stock. Paradoxically, the hatchery found that steelhead returns were stronger when the river was open to fisherman. Turns out that fly fisherman are better conservationists then they think. Their presence keep poachers away from the river.



Not a steelhead but maybe one day.

Triploids

Tunkwa and Leighton Lake, Near Merritt, British Columbia, June 2007.

All the reasons were right to "hit theee rrroad". The cousins were in town.

The Tiff-ster had a severe case of senior-itis and needed a break before college (sigh).

The Cyn-ster finally got away from her busy touring/recording/partyin' with the stars schedule.

And of course, our crazed fishing addiction was slowly being assimilated by Jon. Hehehe. . . and the plan was coming to fruition.

We left home shamefuly late, and brought with us none of the items we needed for camping (as we would later discover). But hey what an adventure when you've got eating utensils, and more than one cooking pot?

After setting up tent city, we raced down to the water to behold the most beautiful sight. The elusive rainbow trout were jumping everywhere. And they were large enough to make me salivate.

I had heard that the lake was stocked with triploid trout, genetically modified to have 3 chromosomes instead of the usual 2. What? you say. Well, allow me to explain.

(Boring science part, omit if necessary) "Normally the female egg donates 2 sets of chromosomes (X and X) and the male sperm donates 1 set (X or Y). One chromosome sets gets kicked out during the development of a normal fish, but that step is missed sometimes. Triploidy actually happens in the wild, but scientists can induce the event by putting the eggs under pressure or heat-shock. "

Anwyays, the reality is that tripoid trout are like trout on steroids. Large in mass but poorly endowed. They spend all their energy on growing but not reproducing (in fact they are sterile). Didn't Michael Crighton warn us about this? Something about frog DNA and life finding a way. Ahhh but from a fisherman's standpoint, I say "Yeehaw!, they sure is fun to catch!."

Let the slide show begin.

No Time to Sleep

Blacks Beach, March 2007

Oh man, this post has been a long time coming.

We all know that the predators come out at night. William, John and I set out to the beach to see what leviathans lurk in the night. Armed with our Home-Depot Special PVC rod holders and 2 bucks worth of marginally fresh squid, we trekked the km down to a twilight high tide.

Our first visitor was a pregnant perch. Williams somewhat blurry face is filled with delight. Perch are live bearers, meaning that little baby fish squirt out if your not gentle.



Our second fish was a bit of a surprise, a Spot Fin Croaker. These fish normally snuff through the sand looking for crustaceans.




Right before we had to leave, guess who decides to play? A baby guitar fish. An odd looking fella with a shovel-shaped head sand a elongated tail like the neck of a guitar.






There's a lot happening in the surf in the moonlight.

Fishing Frenzy

March 2007, Point Loma Fishing

I'd say that the lab fishing trip turned out to be a success. Let's check out the tally:

- 8 adventure seeking scientists
- 8 dramamine
- 1 Jon Driscoll green around the gills
- countless lives of small baitfish
- 1 croaker
- 1 scorpion fish
- 4-5 short barracudas
- 3 mackerel
- 1 jack-pot winning sand bass (nice one Dave)
- 1 round of beer that Dave has promised to buy with winnings, but has yet to be seen
- all girls outfishing guys
- 8 dead tired scientists

The Taste Test.
- panko bread crumb-crusted scorpion fish. Two thumbs up. Who knew that such a poisonous looking fish would be so delicious. Nature, you can't fool us.
- grilled mackerel. Mehhh. . . too bony too fishy. How do the sushi chefs do it?
- poached sea bass with ginger and scallions. The best tasting of all the fish we caught. The bass tasted like tilapia but with way less dirt flavour and more texture.

The Phillipino Market

Mar 11th 2007

Well fishing season is back in full force with the coming of Spring. That's good for winter weenie's like me, all soft from the golden California sun. Pshhhh.

Well, winter wasn't a complete write off because I discovered a great seafood market in the Mira Mesa area. "Seafood City" sees swarms of fish-crazy customers walking out with a bags full of tiliapia and mackerel. Needless to say, the quick turnover of fish allows the market to have the freshest stuff in town. The variety to choose from is incredible: Atlantic salmon, local yellowtail, beltfish, milkfish, snappers, croakers, bonita, pompano, pomphret, golden thread, moonfish, mexican white shrimp, and all sorts of little guys you can grab a handful of and fry on the spot. I decided to try out a fresh looking Pomphret $4 a lb. and a bagful of white shrimp at $3 a lb.

Super Simple Spice Rubbed Pomphret and Shrimp Recipe:

Ingredients:
salt
pepper
onion powder
garlic powder
chili powder
paprika

Fire up a grill (I used a simple outdoor grill with Kingsford charwood). Take a paper towel and douse it with vegetable oil. Place it in the grill and build a tower of charcoal around it. Light the paper and then wait for the flames to subside. This avoids the use of lighter fluid, keeping everything au natural. oui oui.

Cut slices into the side of the fish but stopping at the bone (top to bottom). Cut all the "whiskers" off the shrimp and shell if you prefer.

Salt and pepper the fish and shrimp. Mix all the other powder ingredients together. The ratios are kinda arbitrary. If you like it hot add more chili, if you want to scare you friends away add more garlic powder.

Then rub the mixture into the fish and shrimp really well. Let it sit in the fridge for 15 minutes

Skewer the shrimp and throw it all on the Q.

The shrimp will cook quickly so keep your eyes on it. I'd say 3-5 minutes on each side. The fish takes longer, and you will know when it's done when the thickest part of the fish (next to the dorsal fin) comes away from the bone easily. The fish needs to be flipped once which is exciting in itself since it could crumble into pieces. Worse case: it falls off your balcony. That's adventure. The fish should be done after 10-15 minutes on each side on top of nice calm coals.

Mmmmmm

Squamish Dogs

Squamish River, November 25, 2006

When better to go fishing than right after a snow storm? Evan and I headed to the Squamish to check out the Chum Salmon runs. We arrived to find that many of the fish were still happily shooting through the system despite the rapid drop in temperature. A couple weeks later and these fish would be completely spent, littering the riverbed with their corpses. In the spring, their bodies will feed the river ecosystem and the fry that emerge from their eggs.

Salmon have lived in B.C. since the dinosaurs were around. Sadly, even in my short life-time I've seen some salmon species, such as coho and sockeye, disappear in our rivers. The chum remain strong and resilient probably because of their relatively poor food value.

It's gettin coooooold!

Black's Beach, November 2006

The water is getting chilly and the wind is starting to bite. The two months of "actual" winter in San Diego has finally set in. Boooooo. Two lucky sights today though. First, I experienced a beautiful sunset at low tide that lasted no more than five minutes before darkness. At about the same time I connected with the largest and most vocal croaker I have ever seen.

A day in the Wack

Late Sept, Vedder River, Chilliwack


Yayyyy! Finally a day of fishing with Fiona. The lovely fishtress was dressed in her new waterproof elven garb. It was a beautiful day by the river-side. Croissants and prociutto for lunch made it even better. We fished the crap out of a couple places, but to no avail. The chromers were flashing in the water teasing us. We headed up to the hatchery to admire all the fish we "could" have caught. And then lazily made our way home. Ahhh tis a good life.

Man I love this time of year. Coho, White Spring, Sockeye, Chum, and Pinks (every other year) are all in the river at the same time. Next time we'll get em. ;-)

Poor boys at Pacifica

Early September, Pacifica Pier.

Jonathan and I awoke at 5am to make our trek out to the sleepy town of Pacifica to try our hand at a little fishing. If there was ever a fishing central . . .this was it. Pacifica was a bustling wooden dock dominated by crusty old fisherman, used tackle and bits of fish. All were drawn by the plethora of fish in this area and and the "myth" that salmon could be caught from the dock.

It was a beautiful day. A day with many firsts:
- first 10 min, lost a bucket trying to pull up some water.
- first hour, caught some smelt and various prickly fish
- first live bait rig, Jon caught a freakin seagull!
- first seagull rescue, pulled the dazed bird up using a crab trap and got pecked during hook removal
- first sabiki experience, 3 mackerel on one line!
- first time I fell asleep in a pizza parlour during lunch. Sorry Jon. Hope you had fun with the arcade games.