[ucscrab]

Went fishing on the Wharf last night and last thursday around 10pm - 1am

A lot of white croaker out there if anyone eats that stuff.

Between the two days I caught around 20ish white croaker and 7 big big bullheads probably 5-7in each.

I used small croakers 1-3in as bait, but nothing hit them.

Some guys were catching rockcrabs. I didnt see them but they said they were legal.

Not sure where they caught them at because the only thing I got in my net was one 3in slender crab and a 3-4in dungeness crab (a first). I knew it was a dungeness cause it had that weird design on its back, the legs werent purple and there was hair on the back of it's legs. I do pray that someday there will be legal size dungees on the wharf

A couple of people took about a bucket full of croaker (yuk.) home to eat.

Also caught one sanddab about 9inches. Some other people were catching sanddabs as well but at most 2 in a night.

I had a real big problem with the fish swallowing the hooks, so I used a couple kingfish as fresh crab bait. Maybe they were swalling the hooks because it was hard to see? hooks to size 2-6.


The fish that werent sacrificed were released.

I would post pictures but my phone doesn't have flash and it's pretty dimly lit there.

[perchhead]

[Sin_Coast]

Thanks for the report! That's better than I've ever done there lol. Cool deal on the dungie too!
I think white croaker are kinda gross too. I'd use tiny ones for bait and toss back the rest, just like ucscrab did. I imagine the ones there are full of pollutants, just like in some of the harbors in socal.

[MisterWoodstream]

[ucscrab]

[CatchinKelp]

^ I'd expect any of them from south of Oxnard to be awful-tasting and probably toxic. But what else is new...

[Louis]

I've caught many croaker out of the capitola area and have eaten them, pretty damn good in my opinion.

[dowaito]

i love pan fried croakers!!
too bad i can't catch and eat the ones down here. =/

[seabass_seeker]

Filleted a larger one the other day, coated in cajun fishfry and deep fried. Very very tasty, reminds me of the "seabass" that I had at a restaurant. I'd second the notion of not eating them in high industrial areas though. I believe they get a bad rep for being "wormy" also, although I believe rockfish to be even more wormy. The thing with croakers is that the worms in the stomach cavity are easily seen compared to fish with black stomach wall lining (jacksmelt, opaleye etc).

[dkkim]

Kingfish, the other white meat.

[surfsamurai]

[kchoo]

Here's an actual first hand report on how a SC Wharf croaker tastes like if anyone is interested.

I was on the SC Wharf on Sunday 5th Feb. I fished from around 11-12:30 near the end and caught one croaker. I'm fairly new to fishing so it was my first croaker. Anyways, I decided to bring it home for dinner since it was only one fish (=moderation).

While frying, the croaker gave off a very slight weird smell. Iodine? When I tried the meat, it tasted normal and fairly flavorful, and the strange smell was no longer present, although it was a little tougher than I would have expected for a fish this size.

However, at two different places, when I pulled the skin off the meat, I was able to easily pull free long, dark brown strings about one half to an inch long. Were those worms? They came out quite easily and were right under the skin (as opposed to embedded in flesh), so I didn't think they were blood vessels.

The thought that those might be worms made me lose my appetite and defeated what pride I had from my ancient lineage of fish eating ancestors. I thought I could eat anything, but...

Hopefully this info is useful for others who catch croakers at SC Wharf in the future.

[Ken Jones]

First off, the kingfish in the Gulf are not the same as what we call kingfish out here. White croaker aka kingfish (in Central California) aka tomcod (in SoCal) aka roncador (in Santa Barbara) aka Pasadena trout (in the olden days in LA) aka sewer trout, etc. are typically fine to eat if caught in the open ocean in Central California. The water is colder, the bottom areas are not too polluted, and the fish typically have a decent taste and texture (if you like croaker). What gets them in trouble is the fact that they are bottom feeders that love to eat around sewer areas and thus are unhealthy to eat in many areas including much of SoCal and most bays including SF Bay, San Diego Bay and San Pedro Bay. Same fish but different flesh if it's from the Santa Cruz Wharf (OK) or Cabrillo Pier (not OK).

[ucscrab]

[Sin_Coast]