New species at Fogarty! 11/10/2022

Hit Fogarty solo yesterday. Beautiful ocean, with gentle 3 foot swells dropping to under 2 feet as the day went on. 53 degree water, 20 feet of vis--clearest water I've ever seen out there! Even had a couple humpback whales come by.

I mostly fished for lingcod, and the bite was steady. Released a handful of 24-30 inchers, harvested a 33 and 36. Released a few incidental yelloweye too. I also did some rockfishing, as there were schools of rockfish suspended 40 feet down over 110 feet of water that were really intriguing. I couldn't buy a bite from these suspended fish with jigs, but I convinced a few of them to grab small cut-plug herring. There was the typical black, then a blue, and then two new-to-me fish: widow rockfish. I'd only seen widows brought in on the long-leader boats, so this was a really cool surprise. ODFW says they're seldom found inside the 30 fathom line. The black on the anal fin is a key ID feature on these guys.

Both of the widow rockfish filleted up worm-free. Poached a few of the fillets in a white wine/cream sauce with caramelized onions, dill, and a medly of wild mushrooms: chanterelles, porcini, Pig's Ears, and hedgehogs. Granted that most white fish taste great with this recipe, and the widows were no exception. Fillets reminded me of yellowtail/olive RF.

Been a minute since I'd caught a new species, let alone a tasty one. Will be keeping widows again the next time I come across em  .

Very cool. As always you are the guru of bottom fishing!

Good job man! Hoping the ocean and my schedule, will let me out one more time this year...

And the culinary description so poetically rendered.

Thanks fellas. I cooked up the last widow fillet tonight, but just with a simple pan-fry. White and flaky, great flavor. I'd put it right up there with yellowtail RF.

Re: “ Poached a few of the fillets in a white wine/cream sauce with caramelized onions, dill, and a medly of wild mushrooms: chanterelles, porcini, Pig's Ears, and hedgehogs.”

Pics or it didn’t happen

Sounds incredibly delicious!

I'll take some pics the next time I run that recipe. Maybe not with widow RF since I'm out, but it works great with lingcod too  .