Newport Report from 4/17 Thur

[EVERREADY]

My fishing parteners and I went out of Newport yesterday hoping to make a run to the Rockpile. We crossed the bar about 0830, and immeditly got hit by a wind blast and a big downpour. We all kind of looked at each other and said now what? With the wind waves 3-4 feet it would take us a long time to get there and back. With the prediction of the weather getting worse we decided to just fish the inner reef. So we threw some traps out and headed south over to the inner reef instead of making the trip out. The mini front did pass and the sun actually came out. We used a drift sock to slow the drift down and it worked great. At 1300 we felt the wind get colder and could see more rain coming in so we decided to call it and headed in. We kept 4 Lings, a few other rockfish, and 3 crabs. It was much better than working.

The lings we kept were all a bluish-green color even the meat. Anyone know why?

[Snapset]

That means they are extra tasty. Most of the lings I catch have that color. I think it is more predominant in the males. They are smaller than the big beer belly females.

[bait boy]

congrats on a good day on the blue how was the Crabbin'?

The nearshore lings eat lots of crabs and there is iodine in them and it colors their skin and meat...

At least thats the rumor I heard.

[ 04-18-2003, 10:32 AM: Message edited by: bait boy ]

[sturgn]

I was always told this was from the ling eating Dungenous crab, somthing in the crab meat changes the color of the ling to blue. True or not? not sure, but thats the story I go with!

[fish assassin]

The color of the meat has to do with two things: 1) diet 2) habitat.
You will usually get the blueish colored fish from areas where there are
a lot of big rocks (not reef material) and you will usually get the green
meat cod out of areas that are heavy with kelp.

There are folks who *SWEAR* that the blue or green meat is better than
white fleshed fish! :grin: :grin: We *have* noticed over the years that those
with the blue flesh have fewer incidents of worms.

BTW, when you cook 'em, they ALL turn white!

-assAssin-

[WP]

Hey EVERREADY,
That must have been you that showed up to clean your fish just as we finished! I wish we had spent some more time talking to you. We were the Hewes craft that fiswhed the same general area as you did (3 guys...two younger and me, the fat old fart!) It looked like you had a good score. We had 5 lings, including a 19 lbs beauty. Other than that hail/rain interlude, we had a beautiful day. I am sore and still smiling today! Maybe we will see you out there again sometime. I fish mostly during the week.
WP

[ 04-18-2003, 02:40 PM: Message edited by: WP ]