what we fish for and How

• California King Salmon

  • Troll caught: Hook and Line
    • May-September

King Salmon is our primary fishery. We usually go out on 2-4 day trips, anchoring along the coastline at night. The salmon are most likely to bite at sunrise and sunset, making for long hours especially earlier in the season. We carefully clean and flush our salmon with sea water as they are caught, removing any traces of blood in the flesh and ensuring the highest quality product. We then store them suspended in extremely cold slush ice until we pull them, beautiful and fresh, from the fish-hold on sale day. 

• Black Cod (Sablefish)

  • Bottom Longline: Hook and Line
  • Traps
    • year round

We fish for Black Cod with two methods, although we currently favor trap fishing as it requires much less time and effort. The traps are similar to a large crab pot, baited with squid and set in around 1500 ft. of water 10 miles offshore. (It actually tends to be surprisingly calm out there as the swells just roll right under you on their way to the more tumultuous shoreline.) We usually pull the traps 2-5 days after setting them, icing the fish as we go, and then bring in our harvest for a sale. Our Black Cod are sold whole (dressed) but with the head removed. The consumer yield is very good as the head has already been removed when the fish are weighed on sale day. 

• Nearshore Rockfish

Multiple Species: Sebastes- Gopher, China, Grass Bass, Black & Yellow, Vermilion. Also Cabezon, Lingcod, and Kelp Greenling.

• Hook and Line
  • Jan-February, May-December

Rock fishing requires a smaller boat as the depth of the water we are fishing in is usually less than 60 feet, literally amongst the rocks. The weather must be fairly calm as capsizing becomes a real possibility while fishing so close to shore. We fish with fishing poles and/or run an "obstacle course" of weighted gear equipped with 4 baited hooks apiece and a buoy line that floats on the surface. Rock fishing is a blast but we seldom have the opportunity to participate in this fishery.

• LING COD & VERMILION ROCKFISH

  • Hook and Line

    • Jan-February, May-December

Ling Cod and Vermilion reside in the rocks but also deep enough so that we can fish for them on the Animal Fair and in a little rougher weather. We occasionally encounter Ling Cod while trolling for Salmon, but usually fish for them with fishing poles and rubbery "scampi" lures or squid. Ling Cod are interesting because they sometimes have bluish green flesh which turns white when cooked. Vermilion are a larger Sebastes rockfish, brilliant red in color.

• Sea Urchin (Uni)

  • Diving

    • year round

Sea Urchins are harvested by divers using modified air compressors that supply them with unlimited air. They are tied to the boat by 300-400 feet of air hose, which determines their scope of harvestable area. All applicable scuba laws apply, ie: 60 minutes @ 60 feet. Their dive computer, worn like a wristwatch, tells them when they need to return to the surface and decompress. Custom wet suits are 3/8- 1/2 inch thick when new, and less than 1/4 inch when eventually discarded. They carry large mesh harvest bags and a flotation device that lifts their haul to the surface once full. Sea Urchins are removed from the rocks one at a time by a tool called a rake that acts as a metal extension of the diver's arm. Uni, the edible product of Sea Urchin, is most popular as Sushi but also has a presence in some of the more adventurous gourmet restaurants.