Hake Fish from Penasco

[Jungle Jim]

Anyone ever hear anything about catching Hake, AKA: Merluza, out of Penasco?

Saw a current story in RP 360 stating that currently up forty boats are bringing in twenty tons of them per trip. Real Hake are relations of the true Cod from the north Atlanctic.

Never seen or heard of them before.

Any thoughts?

JJ

 

[brokenwave]

JJ,
If you order fish and chips in South Africa it will usually be Hake. Pretty tasty white fish.
Hake tastes like similar to Cod, but all the Hake fillets I ate in South Africa last month, were smaller than any of the cod fillets
I've eaten in the USA (if it was Cod)

 

[Jungle Jim]

Wave........

The article said forty boats out of PP were getting 20 tons or more per boat. I don't think forty commercial boats could fit in the port. I did a search on Hake in Mexico but it didn't mention PP. They are some fugly little shits with a mouth full of teeth that look like those on a snake. Mexfish.com's site don't mention em as a Sea of Cortez species. Twenty tons on one boat is a real haul, especially time forty. I wonder how they get em, and what kind of by-catch is involved, and where they process em?

JJ

 

[brokenwave]

I'll ask my local buddies if they ever catch them when I'm down next month.

 

[Jungle Jim]

I did more research and there is in fact a Cortez Hake in the Gulf of California. A deep water type that comes up at night to feed and is caught commercially with trawls. I'm surprised that our fishing boys that hit the deeper offshore rockpiles don't ever bring any up. They get up to a yard long and with their mouth full of snake teeth must be bad asses predators. Most if not all are ground up into meal and pellets to feed chickens and farm raised shrimp.

JJ

 

[LOUDMUSIC]

Not a lot of information on this species.

http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/155045/0

 

[JoseAz]

The fish we received in the restaurants last week was not the usual thin flounder. We asked the waiter. He said flounder was too expensive right now. the fillets were thicker not as wide and frankly tastier. Probably Hake?

 

[mondone]

Unusual to find this far North. I thought they were found more commonly in the southern end of the Sea of Cortez in deeper, colder waters.

 

[Stuart]

I've never caught one and I've caught practically everything you CAN catch in the Northern Cortez at one time or another. Even cutlass fish. Talk about a mouth full of teeth! I'll go a step further and say that in over 35 years, I've never seen one in the fish market, either. Hake are a deep-water fish. Deepest spot in the Northern Cortez is only about 600 ft., a hole east of Consag Rock.

My guess is 360 got the location completely wrong, because it certainly isn't Penasco, especially with that many boats and that kind of tonnage. We'd know about it.

The "mysterious Penasco Hake!"

 

[Jungle Jim]

Hey Stu.........

I've been looking at RP 360 for a few weeks now and I see a trend: FAKE BS IGNORANT NON-NEWS. Seems that their writers aren't really able to translate the issues from Spanish to English. Examples lately being the Hake story, the recent Pronghorn story and the Red Tide killing whales off of San Felipe BC story. While doing some searches about Hake yesterday I read that Hake are the preferred prey of the Humbolt Squid and as far as I know those deep water squid don't live anywhere near PP. The most northern place that I've ever caught a Humbolt Squid was off of Bahia Gonzaga a few years back. We were live lining live Macks in about 400' of water mostly getting big Yellowtail, an occasional Totoaba and then the squid showed up. That was the end of fishing as all we could get was more squid.

Those squid are delicious eating. I found one washed up alive and injured on the beach at San Franciscito BC a few years ago that we ate for about a week and kept me in fresh cut bait for shore fishing.

The photo in the story has a hill in the background that looks like Whale Hill but I'm sure that the fleet mentioned was actually down at Guymas where there is deep water.

JJ

 

[Stuart]

I hear ya, JJ. Not the first totally out of context story from 360.

I've caught Humboldts out of Rocky Point on a couple of occasions. Was heading to the 51 (maybe 30 miles out) when we came across something odd-looking on the surface. As we got closer, we could see it was tentacles. LOTS of tentacles! Huge school of Humboldts picking at something tiny on the surface. But, what we were seeing on the surface was only the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. On my sounder, it was the single biggest biomass I've ever seen. You could clearly see the ones on the surface extending down to the main school at about 100 ft. -- and that school showed bright blue as about 40 ft. tall and went on for well over a mile! We threw jigs at 'em and boated about six of the vicious bastards. You'd get one hooked up and start reeling it up and dozens of other from the school would start attacking it, trying to steal the jig from it. Never seen anything like it.

I've eaten them before, but you have to tenderize the steaks a bit before cooking them. We used 'em for bait at the 51. Cut big, long strips and slammed huge white seabass with them.

We were going to camp at San Lucas Cove near Santa Rosalia one year, but the panga guys right next door on the beach had turned it into a squid camp. They'd fill the pangas at night, and clean them all in the early morning, and pack them off in freezer trucks. You could not stand the smell of the place -- rotting squid guts everywhere! We went further on down Baja to Punta Chivato. If I remember right, they were selling it to the Japs for like 20 pesos a kilo. And they were selling it by the tons, for sure.

 

[jerry]

For 3 years nearly no squid in area so China is brought in to solve the problem overfishing for the Asian market caused!!!! "Chinese and Mexican scientists will begin on Monday, November 6, an investigation into the giant squid to find out better ways to capture it and the displacement it makes along the Sea of Cortez.

The president of the National Committee of Giant Squid, Juan Pedro Vela, informed that in the first meeting the researchers will share mollusc data to begin with the study program that they will carry out in Guaymas, Santa Rosalía and Ensenada.

He pointed out that in this study the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Commission (Conapesca), the National Fisheries Institute, the National Squid Commission and Chinese researchers will participate, which will also provide knowledge, their technology.

"I want to emphasize that the Chinese will only participate in the investigation, they will not come to fish the giant squid to our Mexican coasts, their task will be to participate in research activities only," he added.

The National Commission of Giant Squid, he said, chose Chinese scientists in this survey for the technological equipment available to carry out this fishery in Asia.

"Someone out there questioned him why we had included the Chinese in this program, and I would like to remind you that it was for them and the Koreans that we knew how to capture the giant squid," he said.


Juan Pedro Vela recalled that for 3 years, the mollusk has been completely absent from the coast of Guaymas, and although there has been production in Santa Rosalia, the volumes are not the same as they were when they began to market it.

 

[Stuart]

Volumes not the same.... says it all. Too late for me to get into details on this fishery, but having stayed in Santa Rosalia and San Lucas Cove a few times, the ocean was a galaxy of lights at night and morning brought overflowing panga of Humboldts. The stench was incredible. No escaping it.

 

[asprinkles]

About 4 or 5 years ago in Lobos, they had a bunch of pangas going out before dark. They would come back loaded with Squid and it would be gone on a semi in a few hours. It was crazy how much they pulled out of the ocean. Couple of fisherman disappeared one night ,when they over turned as they were overloaded and the squid took them down ,the other guys told me . I can't imagine those bastards bitting you as they are pulling you under. Not my way to go Lol.

 

[Shawno]

I've never caught one and I've caught practically everything you CAN catch in the Northern Cortez at one time or another. Even cutlass fish. Talk about a mouth full of teeth! I'll go a step further and say that in over 35 years, I've never seen one in the fish market, either. Hake are a deep-water fish. Deepest spot in the Northern Cortez is only about 600 ft., a hole east of Consag Rock.

My guess is 360 got the location completely wrong, because it certainly isn't Penasco, especially with that many boats and that kind of tonnage. We'd know about it.

The "mysterious Penasco Hake!"

Hey Stu,
It gets 1350' deep offshore from Libertad. The pangaros catch the merluza (hake) on long lines there in 600' of water or deeper. Coyote caught a few when fishing for baqueta. I tasted some deep fried breaded at Capones and it reminded me of a McDonald's fillet o'fish.

 

[Andrew Furstenberg]

that picture above looks very similar to a spanish mac.....i used to catch those all the time in South Florida....great for grilling skin is awesome tasting

 

[Stuart]

Hey Stu,
It gets 1350' deep offshore from Libertad. The pangaros catch the merluza (hake) on long lines there in 600' of water or deeper. Coyote caught a few when fishing for baqueta. I tasted some deep fried breaded at Capones and it reminded me of a McDonald's fillet o'fish.

Interesting! When your down at Libertad, you're pretty much in the Midriff at that point and it is a lot deeper. Don't doubt they catch them if it's that deep. Different league than in Penasco (north). And a long run in a boat. I think Lobos is about 90 miles by boat.