Unusual fish in Alaska
yak2you2
2010-01-24 19:19:50
An older troller told me one summer there was an unusually warm current passing by S.E. Alaska, and with it came misguided schools of tuna. He said all summer it was a common occurance to catch a few each day offshore, and some days according to him you'd catch more tuna than you would salmon.
He said they'd bite on coho gear, but unfortunately they weren't allowed to sell them, so they ate a lot of tuna that summer.
Sounds good to me, I could eat sushi every day.
I was a gillnetter in those days and hadn't started trolling yet, so I don't know anything about it. I have been trolling for 15 years now, and have yet to catch my first tuna and I want one bad. I'm thinking about dragging around a little feathered jethead for a while this year, just to see if maybe I'm missing the boat.
Unusual fish do wander into our waters from time to time though, I do know that. A couple of summers ago a few of these tropical fish called Pom--somethinger-other, showed up along the coast, a friend of mine caught a couple of them and showed them to me. Round bodies, long whippy fins and tails, no question they were tropical by design. I was out that day, not far away from him in fact, but he caught his down deeper than what I was fishing.
A couple of times turtles have wash up on our beaches, one was even alive for a little while. Great whites have been sighted in these waters from time to time. I know a guy who caught a few skip jacks in his gillnet one summer.
Nothing wierd or unusual for me though. Anybody else got any wierd ones to tell about?
tacorajim
2010-01-25 00:01:50
It's unusual, but a couple times my late friend John Kristovich came in to Pelican on the
Then last year I was coming in to Ilwaco from the offshore tuna grounds and the meter showed solid with species and feed for 6 miles, during which I caught 4 cohos on tuna jigs (7-8 pounders @ 7 knots). Same area 20 miles out where a salmon troller friend caught 300 coho/day 2 weeks prior. Either species can do fine in 57-58 degree water.
Each year off the Washington coast someone spots a swordfish. These waters are home to what used to be off Monterey and Morro Bay, teeming with anchovies that spawn locally. Lots of sardines in recent years.
It's a bitch for the salmon trollers when that 60-degree water moves in to the beach. No salmon, yet there's tuna, squid, shrimp etc. I keep hoping to catch a mackerel or barracuda just to prove that the entire south-central California species have migrated a thousand miles north over the past 40 years.
salmon4u
2010-01-25 14:17:13
Interesting, I think there's some cycling going on for sure, but I remember old timers also telling me about the amazing catches of albacore off of Westport in the 40's.
The way the price of salmon has been, maybe I'll just have to go out and catch tuna/swordfish.. : ) Is that your main fishery?
hunterh13
2010-02-02 00:23:32
Those Pom fish you mentioned when i was working as a deckhand on a craig troller a few summers ago we caught a couple of those down deep weird looking fish. Also have seen sun fish (i think thats what there called) floating around off of noyes. Ive heard of seiners catching sea turtles as well and it died in the net and they got in some sort of trouble. A great white washed up on the beach by the craig ball park once too. Its always fun seeing different looking sea creatures.
yak2you2
2010-02-02 06:41:57
Yup, I know a guy who says he saw a sunfish floating on the surface off of the Fairweather grounds back in 2004. Tacorajim says those fish are called Pomfret. Jim you see the current mass invasion of giant squid into California made the headlines today? Following the warm currents the news said.
Thinking back on it, I did catch one unusual fish for Alaska. Caught about a 40 lb. sturgeon in my gillnet one summer when I was a kid. I know of about 8 or 10 that have been caught around here over the years. Always in nets, never by hook, which seems odd, they gotta eat right?
gumpucky
2010-02-02 12:59:54
[attachment=0]pomfrit.JPG[/attachment] Pomfret
yak2you2
2010-02-02 15:24:11
How did he taste Gumpucky?
John Murray
2010-02-02 16:13:17
They make really good fish tacos.Small fillet so maybe two fish for a meal for two.The taste is kinda tropical.
gumpucky
2010-02-02 16:27:32
I don't know. I had a couple but a Filipino gal at the plant snagged em away from me. I guess they are a treat back in the islands. At that time some of the guys said they were shaking them regularly so I figured I'd have another shot at cooking one up but haven't caught one since.
yak2you2
2010-02-02 17:32:09
That's what I'm talkin' about, grilled and topped with a mango chutney, island style. mmm!
I didn't eat my one lone unusual fish either. I was 15 years old at the time, and honestly, I didn't even know I had a sturgeon, I thought it was some sort of ugly shark. I gave it to an old fella on the dock who told me what it was. Never have tried sturgeon, and I here it's pretty good. I'll be eating the next one if I ever get the chance.
tacorajim
2010-02-03 01:01:55
Wait a sec, Yak
There's sunfish roaming with albacore . . . and there's pomfret, that lurk deeper in the same semi-tropical thermal surface layer shared with albacore. That anomaly off Yakutat of 60+ degree water clear into the beach in August of 2004 is the hottest on record. If I was a salmon then, I'd been totally freaked come spawning time.
Sturgeon on the other hand are abundant locally (Columbia River), commanding $$ almost like fresh Alaskan halibut when we can get it. But like big lings, they rarely bite your higher spreads.
As far as that CA squid report on the news? Huh-uh. ABC cooked up that Strong El Nino story.Bullshit! NOAA shows we're in a neutral phase between El Nino and La Nina on the West Coast (I smell politics here), I witnessed it here this year and last when the CA tuna guys didn't make it this far up as in the past. Our WA tuna landings declined, while Oregon's ruled.
yak2you2
2010-02-03 03:02:58
I can personally only attest to the Pomfret and the Surgeon, the rest are dock stories, but from believable sources. In fact, there's another post here of a sunfish sighting. There's a few different guys who tell albacore stories, which makes it hard to dismiss. With water that unusually warm who knows what you might see. One of the turtles that wash up here was documented by F & G. I suppose a salmon would start to feel a little out of place.
I guess I don't get how the politics of the whole squid thing works, I just saw it headlined on Yahoo. I do know that Calamari doesn't sound to bad either. 8-)
davidtettleton
2010-02-07 02:51:27
Some call that the starwars fish. The black pomfret. Good to eat and fancy restaurants buy them in hawaii. Usually catch them down past 140 fathoms or deeper while trying to catch snappers in hawaii. I didn't know they moved so much!