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10/23/03 The First Annual Fish Fry for RFA down at Noyo Harbor last Saturday was a raging success. We served about 100 people and raised close to $1000. The money will be used to defray travel expenses for our volunteers who serve on many fish and game advisory committees, to send our representatives to Commission meetings and to the PFMC hearings which set federal fishing regulations. I was very pleased with the turnout, with so many people willing to support giving a voice to people who fish in the public processes that govern our fishery. Most of the fresh fish we served was blue rockfish filets, an abundant and prolific species that is a mainstay of our nearshore recreational fishery here in Northern California. Our beer batter recipe must remain a deeply guarded secret, but a main ingredient was the Scrimshaw Ale donated by North Coast Brewery in Fort Bragg. If I say anymore the fry cooks tell me I will sleep with the fishes. The trimmings included homemade tartar sauce, lemon wedges, cole slaw, fresh corn on the cob and bread & butter. I even got to taste a little of it, and it was great. Noyo Fishing Center donated the space and the Rumblefish (964-3000) and Telstar (964-8770) donated the fishing trips to our expert anglers who donated the fish to the Fry. I want to thank my 13 year old daughter, May, for being such a trooper. She rallied early Friday morning, rose from a perfectly warm bed before the crack of dawn and went with a group of us to fish for the feed on the Telstar. She slayed 'em, and limited before I did, and this was a tough day for rockfishing. I won't mention any names, but some local oldtime fishermen got smoked on the rockfish by my little girl. She pitched in and prepped a lot of the food for the fish fry. As I said, the rockfishing was a little slow, with no lingcod landed, with mid-sized blue rockfish making up the bulk of our bags. I landed a fairly nice vermilion rockfish - they are really gorgeous-looking fish. We were using light tackle, with a two ounce treble hook jig and a shrimp fly teaser tied a foot above the weight. There was a large groundswell, with an average height of twelve feet, which the regulars say sends the lingcod hunkered down in their caves. The waves were about 12 seconds apart, and there wasn't any wind to speak of, which made for a comfortable day on the water. Nobody puked. I'd say we had about 100 fresh fish donated to the event, providing a couple of filets for each diner. For second helpings we dipped into some frozen filets donated by the CENCAL Divers Clubs from one of their competitive spearfishing meets. All the leftover food, including some fish, was donated to the Food Bank. Recreational Dungeness crabbing opens November 8th, south of the Mendocino/Sonoma County line, and it opens in Mendocino, Humboldt and Del Norte counties on November on November 28th. The Rumblefish charter boat is temporarily moving down to Bodega for the crab opener there. The legal limit is ten crabs per person. People are already getting their gear ready. Know-hows offer the following advice to those who are using crab traps from their own boats: remember to add additional weight in your traps to keep them from "walking" in the large swells; add 20% extra scope to your lines to allow for tidal changes and current; use fresh bait, rockfish carcasses work and bait jars with squid should be used in combination with the carcasses; tie the bait at the top of your trap, not on the bottom; best locations to drop your traps are on sandy bottom, near rocks; grab the critters by the bottom third of their abdomens to avoid getting nipped. Randy Fry, redneck Chairman of RFA-NorCal, offers the following advice on crab bait: "Roadkill! We just pick up some dead cats on the drive up to the coast." Meow! Got a fishing report, story, recipe, or a comment? Email: jim@noyoharborconfidential.com. POB 2420, Ft. Bragg, CA 95437, or call 707-964-8326. |