La Jolla 1/7/14

[Southman]

Took the long ride down the 5. Only my 2nd time at La Jolla. Easy launch with no surf and the weather was great. I was targeting YT and halibut, but ended up with a really mixed bag of sheepshead, tiny halibuts, lizard fish, calicos, sculpin and more macs than one would want. CFR'd 'em all. All caught on fresh/frozen squid on the dropper.

Tried flylining the macs but no one wanted to play. A couple of whales tightened my old sphincter muscle as they came up pretty close. Saw 2 other kayakers fishing. All in all a great day on the water.

[JeffB]

Those are sanddabs! Look similar to halibut though....

[StinkyMatt]

Sand dabs....good eating...no size limit


Halibut.....min size limit 22". Good eating...learn the difference and enjoy.

http://fishcooking.about.com/od/meet...ab_profile.htm

Sand dab: Even the name sounds cute. Dabs are the smallest flatfish we typically eat, and there are variants of these little flounders all over the world. While few people eat them in the Atlantic, over on America's Pacific Coast fried sanddabs (sometimes they are spelled as one word) are a regional delicacy.

Sand dabs are generally less than a pound -- sometimes smaller than a half-pound -- and are an abundant denizen of sandy bottoms along the coast. They eat crustaceans and molluscs, and so have a sweet, soft texture that is uncommonly moist and mild.

The fishery in California is sustainable, although most are caught through bottom trawling, which, while better than trawling over rocky bottom, still isn't great for the environment. Most watchdog groups list sanddabs as a "good" choice.

From an eating standpoint, dabs are basically yummy fish morsels. Most are too small to properly fillet, so cooks generally pan-dress them by scaling and gutting, then taking off their heads; some cooks (myself included) remove the fins, too.

This makes the dab easy to eat. You eat them by sticking your fork where the backbone is, then pushing the meat outward. Do it right and you won't get bones in your mouth and you'll have a clean sanddab spine at the end of the meal.

Frying or sautéing are the chief cooking methods for dabs. You could also smoke them (although sand dabs are lean), bake, broil or oven-fry them. I have never seen a steamed sanddab recipe, but I suppose you could steam these little fish, too.

Dabs are almost always sold fresh and whole, so have your fishmonger clean them for you if you can, and eat them within a day or two of buying or catching them.

[kareem korn]

Scale them on the water, it's less messy. At home locate the butthole and cut from the back of the head to the butthole. Staying on the meat side of the stomache. This will give you a clean cut without any blood guts ect... I also fin them but keep the tail to hold onto while dipping and cooking. Some roll in seasoned flour, egg and panko crumbs. I don't like it with the egg and panko. Just seasoned flour and fry in hot 1/4 cup of olive oil and a tablespoon of butter till well done. You can use a fork to peel the top fillet off pull off the fin bones and you have a very tasty piece of meat. Now you can pull off the backbone, fin bones and you have another.

My favorate fish next to sculpin.

[GregAndrew]

The two quickest and easiest ways to tell if your fish is not a Halibut are the shapes of the end of the tail and lateral line. Halibut have a tail that is generally the same length on the ends as the middle. Most other flatfish are longer in the middle of the tail. They also have a very high arching lateral line on their side. Most other flatfish have flat to relatively flat lateral lines.

[Iceman]

Saw 2 other kayakers fishing.

One of em was me I made a tank of perfecto greenbacks, shark bit, a ling and big sand bass on mackerel on the bottom. Yoyo iron only got me a chucklehead rockfish. Whales put on a really good show.

[taggermike]

There's plenty of books, websites, and field guides that will help you learn the local fish. We have a bunch of flat fish around here but most you don't often catch. Sand dabs are one of the most common and are good eating. The way I clean them is to take a pair of kitchen shears and trim around the margin of the whole body. Fins, head, guts all trim right off. Some times you can tear the skin off after this or just leave it on. A quick sauté, just a few minutes on each side, and you're done. Grab the spine at each end, give a little shake, and the top fillet should come off with the spine. Flip that fillet over with the spine up, repeat the shake, lift the spine and ribs up, and you should be left to matching fillets laying side by side. A bit of lime or lemon and enjoy. Once you get the hang of them you can eat a dozen. Mike

[skrilla]

Watch out for those isopods that crawl outta sanddabs mouths. Will make a grown man scream when not paying attention.

[Cbad Mike]

Saw you guys out there while taking an easy paddle with my GF to see the whales. I brought a rod with an iron but didn't try too hard. you should have stayed for the sunset!!!!!!!

PS. Thanks Neill for the great Dab info.

***For my personal up to date fish reports along with on the water reports visit and LIKE my Facebook page "OTW with Michael Weist"***

[Dail14]

Originally Posted by GregAndrew

The two quickest and easiest ways to tell if your fish is not a Halibut are the shapes of the end of the tail and lateral line. Halibut have a tail that is generally the same length on the ends as the middle. Most other flatfish are longer in the middle of the tail. They also have a very high arching lateral line on their side. Most other flatfish have flat to relatively flat lateral lines.

Another easy but possibly painful way to tell is if the fish has teeth. Halibut have good sized sharp teeth while all other flatfish here have none. At least none of any size.