10/7 LJ AM
 

Beautiful starry morning when I got to the shores to find Andy heading out. I joined him up north looking for bait. Took a little effort but they were around. Caught what look like large sardines minus the spots and with a different fin structure. Loaded with roe. Are female sardines different than male? Trolled out towards the kelp. Saw one good spot of fish but they were out of range and diappeared as quickly as they showed. That was it. Epic conditions but the swell was picking up at the launch when I landed. May be rough this weekend.

Ditto for me. Had two snickers sized spanish in the water at grey light--out and back for nada. Epic beauty of a morning, just no fish.

jumbo deens without the spots are Jack Smelt, or so I've been told.

Shhhhhh

Brad I saw one of your mystery baits on the beach. Definately not a jack smelt. This is a jack smelt.

http://www.zenflyfishing.com/photos/...26June2003.jpg

Brad's baits had a very bright blue stripe and the mouth and head looked just like a sardine. The scales were more pronounced than a smelt. No pix Brad? I am looking. Nate commented that it looked like a flying fish minus the winged pectoral fins.

What's even more queer about that fish is even the seagulls didn't want them.

Could it be a small version of whatever was in the waves?

I love interweb-guessing fish identities with no pix.
I'm guessing topsmelt.

The shot Iceman has is definitely a jacksmelt. I don'y know about pelagics, but FYI halibut love those things. Just put a trap hook in the peduncle or they will usually spit it before getting to the nose hook.

OK, here's the picks. From the description I thought it might be a jack smelt, but it in no way looked smelty. Looked just like a sardine, except for being a little chunkier and the coloring.

Top is mystery, bottom sardine.

http://www.bloodydecks.com/gallery/f...0/DSC09658.JPG

Order inverted
http://www.bloodydecks.com/gallery/f...0/DSC09660.JPG

http://www.bloodydecks.com/gallery/f...0/DSC09661.JPG

Also, you can't see it in the pic, but the anal fins were much more widely spaced on the mystery fish. I had two of them and the one I dissected was full of roe. My off the cuff guess is some variation or related sardine species, but there was enough difference in the overall anatomy that I'd believe it if it was a diferrent species altogether.

It's obviously a baby yellowtail. Hope you got a weight and tape shot. :P

That was the first thing Andy said on the water when I asked him. You guys are funny :lol: . But I'll take a point for it :? .

Did a sardine image search and found these.

http://www.afcd.gov.hk/fisheries/Por...to/Sardine.jpg

http://www.bamba.co.za/images/Sardin...ver-low-kb.jpg

Similar, but not the same fish.

Is it a large Saury, I've seen them outside but not tight to the beach unless the water is REAL clean blue.

Pacific Herring? Cousin to the sardine?

The sauries that I have seen offshore are long and slender like this one.

http://students.washington.edu/lowry/fish/S_saury.jpg

I tried to find a pic of a saury with no luck, but the descriptions sound close. Seems they glide out of the water when chased similar to flying fish. There seems to be some arguement as to precisely which branch of the fish tree they are on, but they seem close to flying fish and needle fish.

Apparently, they are delicious. At least in the hands of an Iron Chef.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show..._20490,00.html

Pretty interesting.

thanks iceman!

Sounds reasonable. What ya think Andy, herring?

I've used herring as bait for sturgeon in the SF bay and they don't look like that fish.