Mali-Boo

[ODOGFISH]

man Austin sure has grown sense I frist started reading your reports on G.B. ... nice catch'n you two ... how were the sand dab tacos

[sterling]

Someone once told me that if there are orange dots/circles on the brown side you can rest easy that in fact it is a Sand dab. Can anyone confirm this? Looking closely it kind of seems there is this orange coloration in the pic.

[Amish Ed]

That's the biggest sand dab I've ever seen. Nice job.

[wiredantz]

i didn't know sand dabs got so big!

[danjor]

That's def a dab cause a butt has a high arch in its lateral line where as dabs do not. Lateral line on that fish is not arched like a butt so its a dab. A damn big one at that great job!

[fishsouthcounty]

Originally Posted by danjor

That's def a dab cause a butt has a high arch in its lateral line where as dabs do not. Lateral line on that fish is not arched like a butt so its a dab. A damn big one at that great job!

there are other flatfish besides dabs and halibuts....id go with Jim on this one.

Either way nice day of fishin out there. Looks like pretty perfect conditions.

[Fiskadoro]

Originally Posted by fishsouthcounty

there are other flatfish besides dabs and halibuts...

Yep people don't realize the number of different flatfishes can catch around here especially north of PV. People generally think that anything big is a halibut and anything small is a dab.

. The mouth is too large and the wrong shape for a sandab. The eyes are to small and the wrong angle but most importantly Sandabs are in the family Bothidae (Left-eyed flounders) Just like halibut where that fish is in the family Pleuronectidae (Right-eyed flounders)

Here's a pic of a Sandab for comparison:


Notice the size and angle of the eyes, and how they are both on the left side of it's head.


There are a number of family Pleuronectidae (Right-eyed flounders) around local, over the years I've caught most of them fishing Santa Monica Bay. In SMB we get both the warmer water flatfish from the south and the colder water ones in the winter from up North.


Like I said it could be a Petrale Sole:


but the body is too long and Petrale soles eyes are slightly larger and tilt out to the side almost like a Arrowtooth flounder:


It's not and Arrowtooth as they are longer and have a more pronounced Jaw and teeth.

It's definitely not a Starry:


Our local Starrys' are much darker then that one almost black with less orange on the fins but they still look nothing like his fish.

The only other common family Pleuronectidae (Right-eyed flounder) we catch around here is a Sand Sole:




That's definitely what it looks like to me, though I suppose it still could be a long skinny Petrale Sole with a straighter lateral line... lol.

Like I said there's a lot of flatfish around. Over the years in SMB I've caught all those fish plus a few others which I could not identify. One of the coolist was a 2 pound fish that had reddish brown tone, white, black and orange spots, was shaped like a small halibut but had a oversized glassine mouth like a crappie with no teeth. Never could figure out what it was. Summer caught fish might of been up from Mexico.

At any rate it's definitely not a halibut or dab. Like In said probably a Sand Sole. They are more common up North but do come down as far as SMB so that's what I'd guess.

Very cool. I love catching weird flatfish and they are always so good eating.

Jim

[blackcloud9]

Nice stringer of brown rockfish.

As Jim Day pointed out above, there are a whole host of flatfishes out
there, not just halibut and sand dabs.

Please also see this page for more:
http://www.dfg.ca.gov/marine/mspcont8.asp

Note the newly updated lingcod minimum length is now down to 22".
http://www.dfg.ca.gov/marine/mapregs5.asp#lingcod_open

[Aaron&Julie]

Nice haul for some good eats.
I'd go with Jim, too, some type of sole. Definitely not a halibut, so you didn't take anything illegal. But Jim, halibut can be either right-eyed or left-eyed.