2/19/12 freshwater bay report

So went to Freshwater bay this morning intending to catch blackmouth.  I get there and there are 15 or so trailers in the lot....  Salmon derby.  Largest one caugth while i was there was a little over 8 pounds.  Guys were fishing well pass the rock on the west side at about the 140' line.  Tried going out that far, but was the first time in open water with my wife in the yaks so we stayed in a little bit.  We were still able to go out about a quarter mile past the rock, but it was pretty obvious that the salmon werent there.  To add to that everyone was trolling, and unfortunately i was only set up for mooching with the largest banana weight of 4 oz.  Tried out there for about an hour or so with no luck.  So i switch over to light tackle and head into behind the rock.  Using 3" gohst shrimp and minnow gulp pattern jigs with about 3/4 oz egg sinkers set up carolina style (could have went to 3/8oz, but 3/4 was the smallest i had.)  Fishing the rocks between 15 and 40' we proceeded to catch about a dozen greenling in an hour...  Both of our first fish in the yaks.  Largest one was about 15 inches, and on 8 pound test it put up a pretty damn good fight.  Over all it was a pretty good day.  Goin out again tomorrow fishing over by the hood canal bridge for SRC and maybe try for some greenling or other bottom fish along the north side of the bridge.  Will be out on our to olive pro anglers on channel 14 if anyone wants to join us.  We have caught the yak fishing bug!!!!

Oh yeah i forgot to ask.  Has anyone eaten greenling?  I got quite a few, and some were decent size.  I released everyone i caught, because i wasnt sure what they were exactly.  They are really beautiful fish,  and would think they would taste similar to ling cod.  They live in the same environment and probably eat similar food.

Howdy, Wow you braved it today, good for you.  I fish there often and yes many of us eat Greenling, it is at the bottom of my list but still pretty good.  Deep fried in hot oil is one of the prefered methods.  They are a bit flakey and not nearly as good as Ling unfortunatley.  But the price of fish being what it is, I will put it in the freezer when I have nothing better.

It was a rough day for all the fisherman out here, so you did good.  I ended up boat fishing with a neighbor and we fished 5 hrs with 0 hits.  You can find Salmon along that bluffs there in the right season but they are spotty there this time of year.

Oh yeah i forgot to ask.  Has anyone eaten greenling?  I got quite a few, and some were decent size.  I released everyone i caught, because i wasnt sure what they were exactly.  They are really beautiful fish,  and would think they would taste similar to ling cod.  They live in the same environment and probably eat similar food.

There are 2 species of greenling most commonly encountered, the rock and kelp greenling. Rocks are red, kelps are more yellowish.

http://www.dfw.state.or.us/MRP/finfish/sp/other.asp

Lingcod with their enormous mouth fulls of teeth grow much larger and eat a lot more fish than greenling, which have much smaller and less ferocious mouths. In Certainly more... by Dr. Milton Love, the good doctor states that Lingcod are one of the few animals that actually eat spiny dogfish! Both greenling species are more generalist "bottom feeders" and eat plenty of shrimp, isopods and other crustaceans.

Greenling don't grow very big, but are definitely good eating.

 Another thing you can do with greenling is send them back down rigged up for a Lingcod!

Greenling make excellent fish tacos.  Batter them  in Louisiana fish fry, and enjoy.

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Greenling make excellent fish tacos.  Batter them  in Louisiana fish fry, and enjoy.

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+1

That's where mine typically end up.

Greenling make excellent fish tacos.  Batter them  in Louisiana fish fry, and enjoy.

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Or Pride of the West batter, with beer as your liquid. 

Thanks guys.  Next time...  Maybe today I will keep a couple and try them out.

Nice report. Congrats on the first fishies from a yak! with the wife too, that's pretty cool.

Greenling are great eating!i   not quite as firm as ling are rockfish.

Greenling are GREAT eating! but the pin bones are a PITA.
They have a much finer flake to them than rockfish or lingcod. This means more bones and not as firm a texture. Personally I love the flavor, light and sweet, and if you cut out the pin bones and are carefull when filleting you can end up with boneless fillets. I like to grill them with the skin on and only keep a couple of the larger ones. Being a mild less firm fish they don't hold up to the freezer as well as rockfish.
For their size they are great fighting fish and an absolute blast on light weight spinning gear, but beware you can pick up lings in shallow water on the same gear and have your hands full!
Have fun.

Greenling (Rock and Kelp) taste quite good to me! As noted above though they are bony--but have quite a nice thick fillet for their size. Occasionally I like to exercize them near the bottom and am pleasantly surprised when my 12" Greenling turns in to a 36" Lingcod!!!!