Seal Beach 7/24/21

fish-ninja

Well-Known Member
#1
Fished with a friend during 8am-6pm in the mid pier section mostly. Annual summer camp children swimming around the pier made us busy not to snag big accidental by-catch. There was a capsized boat nearby which was the talk of the day.

There were plenty of bait fish but could not find halibut on livebaits nor seen anyone else finding one. Some small rays were caught by neighbors on squid. Yellowfin croaker action was constant throughout the day on high-low rig with shrimp or mussel.

By-catches on sabiki rigs were the funnest part of the day for me. Topsmelts, anchovy, and occaisional pacific mackerel were there all day. A school of salema hit the midsection in AM. In PM, a different type of anchovy hit a sabiki rig. Are these deepbody anchovy (Anchoa Compressa)? Used for halibut bait but they did not stay alive long...

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fish-ninja

Well-Known Member
#4
The ID is correct at least to the genus level. Sizewise, deepbody anchovy (A. compressa) does seem to be a better match than slough anchovy (A. delicatissima). Unfortunately I can't make out any meristic characters (fin ray counts) due to photo quality. Very cool catch regardless.
Thanks for your confirmation! I just texted me to my friend whom I gave those to see if they are still intact and can count the ray spines. Was reading up FishBase for the both species this morning so know what to count. If I hear anything positive, I report back!
 

fish-ninja

Well-Known Member
#6
The ID is correct at least to the genus level. Sizewise, deepbody anchovy (A. compressa) does seem to be a better match than slough anchovy (A. delicatissima). Unfortunately I can't make out any meristic characters (fin ray counts) due to photo quality. Very cool catch regardless.
I caught my friend just before he fries them up! He scaled them already but we could count the anal ray together in high res photos he took. The top specimen was with the ray count of 28 - 30. The bottom one was 26-27. It seems we have two A. compressa or a mix of A. compressa and A. delicatissima.
 

Fishman Fishman

Well-Known Member
#9
Fished with a friend during 8am-6pm in the mid pier section mostly. Annual summer camp children swimming around the pier made us busy not to snag big accidental by-catch. There was a capsized boat nearby which was the talk of the day.

There were plenty of bait fish but could not find halibut on livebaits nor seen anyone else finding one. Some small rays were caught by neighbors on squid. Yellowfin croaker action was constant throughout the day on high-low rig with shrimp or mussel.

By-catches on sabiki rigs were the funnest part of the day for me. Topsmelts, anchovy, and occaisional pacific mackerel were there all day. A school of salema hit the midsection in AM. In PM, a different type of anchovy hit a sabiki rig. Are these deepbody anchovy (Anchoa Compressa)? Used for halibut bait but they did not stay alive long...

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Thanks for the report! 👍