How to Broil Whole Cabazon.

Sixteen inch long Cabazon caught off Cambria, California

    If are fishing on the west coast and you hook something that pulled like a freight train for it's size and has a face that only a mother could love--you caught yourself a cabazon. The cabazon is a bottom fish found off the Pacific coast from Mexico to Alaska from just off the shore to over 250 feet deep. In Spanish, Cabazon means 'big headed' or 'stubborn, which is a good description of this giant member of the sculpin family. If their looks weren't enough, they also are armed with poisonous spines. The poison is not going to kill you, but you are going to be in pain for a while if you get stuck. 

Cut slashes in the meat to speed up cooking and get seasoning in deep

     This guy hit a small swim bait, but they are often caught on: squid, anchovies, cod flies, octopus and just about anything that happens to get in front of their faces. For their size, even a small cabazon can put up a great fight. They just keep their heads down, and do not give up. Once your fish is in the boat or on shore you have a decision to make. To get to it's firm, yet slightly oily, delicious white meat you must figure out how you want to clean it. Filleting the cabazon like a rockfish or perch will leave large pin bones deep in the meat. Plus cutting through the thick bones will quickly dull your knife. You could use the bones as a guide to cut off 4 fillets, but that is better for larger fish. I chose to leave mine whole with the skin on; a good choice if you want to deep fry the fish or broil it whole. I just gutted the fish and set it on ice until I got home. After the trip it got rinsed off the put in a brine of with sugar and salt until it was almost ready for the oven. 

Too bad cooking didn't do anything for his looks...

       
      About an hour before dinner I pulled the fish out to bring its internal temperature up a bit so I wouldn't have to cook it as long. I cut slits in the sides to help get my seasonings in deep, and to help it cook a little more even. For seasonings I used: Kosher salt, pepper, Old Bay, Garlic Salt, and dried chives. I turned my ovens broiler on high and slid in the fish. after about six minutes I flake checked it with a fork (this is where I wish I added a little aluminum foil to the top to protect it). It was not quite done enough so I let it go for four more minutes. The meat was flaky white, yet still moist. 
   

Dinner is served

      This is a fish that really benefits from leaving its head on, because its cheeks are too large tasty to leave behind. You can see the muscle bulging out of the skin in the photo above, and it makes sense; most of what cabazon eat are crab and mollusks like abalone. this tough food means big cheek muscles, don't miss out on that. Then just flake the meat off the skeleton, you will want every little bit. I just added a little fresh green onion and served it up with mixed greens and rice. If you are serving someone who is squeamish around whole fish hiding in foil might be the way to hide its ugliness under foil. 


        If you end up with one of these ugly fish on the end of your lines I hope you will look forward to giving it a chance under the broiler. I know a few people who prefer it to lingcod, halibut, or even salmon. 

       One word of caution about the roe, it is poisonous. No caviar from these guys. A buddy of mine named Bobby told me about an incident where cabazon caviar was served at a get together. He said it was better than any caviar he had ever eaten--until he went to the emergency room. 

Thanks for reading, 

Dan

   

More From Opening Weekend: Campfires and Fixing Guitars.

Joe in action mode

       Things have been busier than usual due to finals, but that is behind me now, so I can focus a little more energy on my other projects (at least for the next few weeks). I had suck a blast on the two day camping trip we took at San Simeon State Park I have to share it, so here is some more form the opening weekend.

       My buddy Ryan took some pretty awesome footage on the water. Blogger is giving me problems embedding this video, so I will just have to give you the link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IO7dMbO7iIY&list=HL1368676704&feature=mh_lolz

       The man holding that lingcod in the first few seconds is Joe Koenig, a gifted musician, proud father and all around nice guy. Here is some video of Joe. Sitting around the campfire listening to this guy belt out tunes made the night. Joe's music is full of passion and soul. It is the type of music that people stop and listen to no matter what their taste. So as we sat around the campfire digesting fresh caught we were allowed to get sucked into Joe's world... Until he broke a guitar string. Unluckily for us he did not have any on him, so we did what guys like us do.  We tried to rig it back up.

Crimping the Gibby

Not an easy task, because there was only two wraps around the post, and we did not want to damage his beautiful late nineteen-sixties Gibson acoustic. Justin (one of our fellow kayak anglers) brought out some crimps and wire leader. The problem was each time I would crimp the string would stretch when I tried to tune it, I could only get about three steps below a G. It was a lost cause. The small crowd that gathered to hear Joe disappeared and a few of us stuck around to talk into the night.

     This is not something you can do on the internet, or at home. Meeting up with like minded individuals in nature around a campfire. It is a type of therapy you can not get from any physician. I was less stressed than I had been in months after being around these people and enjoying the scenery. Nothing centers me more than sitting out on the ocean and feeling so small, but combining that with the amazing people I have met through this sport and it amplifies the effects.

     If you are interested in joining in the madness visit www.centralcoastkayakfishing.com and join, the next event will be the Cambria Slam-down on 21 September 2013. Joe will be there playing his tunes, good food will be eaten, and there are bound to be a lot of laughs. Hope to see you there.

Thanks for reading,

Dan

Joes site: http://www.texas-soul.com/

Cambria Slam Down Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/246254802177456/?fref=ts

Check him out. 

Central Coast Rockfish Opening Weekend: Lots of Fish Caught off Leffingwell Landing

First picture of the day, the flash was turned off...

         It has been a hectic week between work, traveling to and from the coast, work, pool problems, school work, and other things popping up everywhere. The article I wrote several weeks ago was published on Kayak Angler Magazine's website, and hopefully I will have a little more to write for the next issue as well. None of that could keep me away from the ocean though. Rockfish season had been closed since January and it was just too long. I split a campsite with my buddy Derrick at San Simeon State Park, splitting the fees is a great way to save some cash for fuel.

    Derrick was running the CCKF Opening Day Rockfish Tournament off Cambria, California, and we were pumped. I did not fall asleep until well after one in the morning, and even then I awoke several times with dreams of hooking big fish and floating in that salty water. I awoke well before my 0515 alarm, so I used the restroom, got organized  and squeezed into my wet suit. I had everything staged so I would just have to back the truck down the ramp, unload the kayak, and drive it back to park it. I was on the water at dawn. To my horror my fishfinder was not working, I checked the battery and fuse, but it was no use. So I had to rely on kelp, feel, and other people's fishfinders to know if I was in the rocks or not. First fish was a small kelp rockfish that hit my swimbait. Two more casts and I had a nice 26 inch lingcod on my Green and blue Swankx Swimbait. 

This guy liked his baits moving

Another one for the Swankx

The Canary Rock fish are making a good comeback.

I got two dogfish, this is the smaller one, by the time I was done untangling the larger one I caught later on it was his time to go

Got this nice frying pan sized flounder while jigging between two reefs

You are going to see this tasty cabezon later, if you know what I mea

Paddling in to Leffingwell Landing in Cambria, California 

        We had over twenty people enter the tournament, and it was nice meeting all the people I met on the water. We had a close call with two whales, they got to about 70 yards away from us before they submerged. While that does not sound like it is close, when two huge whales get near your kayak, you start looking for escape routes. A few seals came near me, but lucky for me they were not brave enough to steal my catch. Perfect weather all day long, no one got eaten by anything, and I don't even think anyone ate it on the landing that day the surf was so mild. The winning lingcod was 16 lbs 7 oz, and the winning rockfish was 5 lbs 4 oz. I was not even close but I had a nice heavy stringer, got to spend some time on the water, and feel fish pull me around for a while. California's central coast is a wonderful, beautiful place that has a feeling unlike anywhere else I have been to in this great country. I am so grateful to be a part of this community of kayak anglers, and take part in these events. Thanks you Jeff, Derrick, Bobby, Joe, Will, Perry, Bob, Mike, Jeff (Seaweed), adn everybody at Central Coast Kayak Fishing and Norcal Kayak Anglers. You all rock.

Thanks for reading,

Dan

https://www.rapidmedia.com/gear-kayak-fishing/item/1142-how-to-use-a-handheld-vhf.html

http://www.stankxbaitco.com/products/swankx.html

Kayak Angler Article

I wrote an article about using a handheld VHF radio for Kayak Angler Magazine and they just published it online. 

Check it out HERE. 













Thanks fir reading,

Dan

https://www.rapidmedia.com/gear-kayak-fishing/item/1142-how-to-use-a-handheld-vhf.html

Central Coast Rockfish Opener One Day Away!

I can not wait, the season opens on May 1st. Saturday will be the first trip on the salt this year. Camping out Friday night in San Simeon, and fishing a small tournament at daybreak. If you are interested there are still camp sites available.

Here is the link to sign up:
http://centralcoastkayakfishing.com/cckf/index.php?topic=1733.0;topicseen

CCKF is a growing site here on the central coast and central valley. If you live around the area and kayak fish, become a member and joiun the maddness.

Thanks for reading, there is a lot more to come.

Dan

Organic Pest Control

         A sure sign that we are well into spring around my house is the Passion Flower Plan starts blooming again.

One of the other signs of spring is an abundance of spiders, our house is covered with them. Black Widows, house spiders, wolf spiders, brown widows, brown recluse, jumping spiders, the list goes on. Instead of spraying pesticides, I prefer an organic approach. I don't want neighbor kids or our dogs getting sick, so I got excited when I saw this at a local hardware store.

Over 400 tiny insect assassins, perfect for taking out the bugs that bother my wife.

The light hardened egg cases just need to be left for the warmth of spring to trigger the hatch, then hundreds of tiny mantises will emerge. Some will move on, taking care of pests in neighbor's yards, but some will stick around.

I found this little guy in my back yard last night, and I think it is a good sign. Toads used to be common when I was a child, but they do not seem to be as numerous as they once were. I am glad he has chosen our backyard for his home, and hopefully he stays for a while eating mosquitoes and beetles. Hopefully the mantis eggs will hatch soon. 

Thanks for reading,
Dan

Lake Nacimiento Kayak Fishing Report

Had a great trip out to Lake Nacimiento just northwest of Paso Robles, California. A member of CentralCoastKayakFishing.com, Seaweed, let us launch from a private ramp. It was an especially special trip because I was taking Ed, owner of LBS Tackle, on his first kayak fishing trip. We got on the water around eight in the morning, and it was not long before Ed already had his first fish. A spotted bass caught off a Zoom Fluke rigger on a LBS Darthead jig.

The beauty of this place is almost overwhelming, as we paddled along turkeys and doves called out to us from the shore. Things were relativity peaceful before the jet skis and wake runners took over the lake.

Ed thought he was on a big bass when he hooked this three pound channel cat.

I was sulking about m lack of fish, switching to a dropshot I started to get bit. I missed two in a row, a few casts later I thought I was snagged on a rock. Then the drag on my small 500 sized Abu Garcia spinning reel started singing. To my surprise I pulled in this guy, he is going to make some good dinner.

After the catfish I started getting into the bass, they tended to be off rocky shores that dropped off into deeper water.

Derrick ended up with a ice dark male white crappie that was in full spawning colors and a bunch of rat spotted bass.

For as small as those spotted bass were, they were sure pretty looking and but up a relativity good fight.

Ed seemed to enjoy his first kayak fishing trip, it was great getting out there catching fish and sharing the sport with others. 

On the trip back I saw more deer than I have seen in many years. WE came across a heard of small bucks grazing in a field.

I managed to get a few good photos, I wish I had my wife's D3100 with me. That 200 milometer lens would have done a better job capturing the image.

There were also more turkeys than I have seen in my life, that area is a sportsmen's paradise. I can only hope to some day be able to afford to live in a place like this.

Jeff, thank you so much for letting us use your launch, I had a blast. Ed, I am glad you could make it. Derrick thank you for letting Ed use your spare kayak, you are the man.

Thanks for reading,

Dan

Checkout LBS Tackle on Facebook.