Depoe Bay sunday the 25th?

So i went and fished a couple different spots in Yaquina bay. Started off with a decent copper rockfish then things got too windy to stay on the spot so I moved up the bay a bit. I caught a few striped perch and a few greenling but the biggest surprise of the day was catching two monkeyface pricklebacks!!! I caught them on back-to-back casts. Those things fight like demons on light tackle intended for perch and small rock fish! All in all a fun day, next time I hope some Nwka members can tag along!

Isn't that one fish over limit?  Rockfish + greenling + monkeyface all fall under the general marine limit of 5 I thought?  I could be wrong.

 

Isn't that one fish over limit?  Rockfish + greenling + monkeyface all fall under the general marine limit of 5 I thought?  I could be wrong.

I read the bag limit the same as you - but we could both be wrong.   

You would be correct but my son helped catch some from a dock. They are all just on the stringer! Good observation!

Nice bay work!  That's way cool that you caught the monkeyface on regular fishing gear.  Did you get them on jigs?

There are some truly monster-sized MFEs in the bay--couple friends of mine poke-poled a few over 30 inches last spring.

quite the variety; Well Done!

Clayman I actually picked them up on sand shrimp. That was about the last thing I ever expected to find! That’s what in-line about saltwater fishing, you truly never know what you are going to catch!

Looks like you had a great trip! I’ve been fishing there since I was little and have never caught a monkey face anything. Most trips to the bay we cast crappie jigs at night with ultra light gear and catch limits of rock bass pretty easily, but I’ve never limited there during the day. Great job!

Very cool. I may try that today, as the ocean has turned to full blown BS. I am pretty bummed to have hauled the yak over for no reason. What does a person do with a monkeyface?

Catching one of these is on my list.  Heading that way the second week of April and might have to give it a shot.  Here's a couple of interesting links:



You can skip to about 6:30 to see how to clean them and the demo of cooking on the jetty.

What does a person do with a monkeyface?

This.....

What does a person do with a monkeyface?

Fillet em up!  White, flaky meat that's great for a Panko coating and pan-fry.  The flavor makes me think of how a small channel catfish might taste if it lived in saltwater.  They're a bit more work to process than other species.  They can live out of water for a very long time, and their slippery skin makes them difficult to hang onto for filleting.  You also want to make sure you don't spill any of the gut contents onto the meat, as it's very foul-smelling.

Sometimes the really big MFEs can have a slight iodine flavor to them, so if I'm harvesting MFE I'll only take the 18-24 inchers.  Poke-poling is the most common way to target them.

Poke-poling is the most common way to target them.

You just triggered my PFIC PTSD.

Nice haul! Way to get a salt fix - I really need to do more bay fishing.

Next time I’m going out I will make a post, I would be more than willing to share my knowledge. I want to learn more about the ins and outs of kayak angling/rigging. Hopefully some of us can meet up for a bay trip. Yaquina bay has a very large variety of species and many many different places to fish. Lingcod fishing in Yaquina bay can be absolutely insane here in the next month or two.