Can you name this fish?

[fish brain]

Can anyone tell me what this is? We caught a bunch of them off Maquina pt this July. They had skin like a shark and were about eight inches long. I snagged this one in the side. all the rest were hooked in the mouth on a 6" Irish cream spoon

 

[TheBigGuy]

Looks like a small Sablefish to me. I've only caught Sablefish over 300 ft deep. Very strange if it is a Sablefish to be in shallow water. They are usually deep water fish mostly caught in northern waters. I have heard they are sometimes caught on the west coast of the island.

 

[fish brain]

I was dragging the spoon on a 6oz weight on my middle rod, so they were maybe 20 ft down

 

[TheBigGuy]

Wow, if it's a juvenile Sablefish I'm a little shocked they were that shallow. In Alaska they are usually 900-2000 feet deep. On the north island I've caught them 300-450 ft deep. I won't fish any deeper than that. Although if I was finding big ones I might make an exception for them. Best fish for smoking in the sea. In Japan they will pay far more for Sablefish than Salmon or Halibut.

 

[fish brain]

Thanks BG it looks like you are right according to fishbase.ca http://www.fishbase.ca/summary/Anoplopoma-fimbria.html
Young-of-the-year juveniles are pelagic and found on the surface and near-shore waters
We must have caught at least 10 of them. I stopped running my top line because thats all we managed to catch on it...........Not that there was much more out there anyways...........

 

[chris73]

Yup, looks like a sable to me too. I caught only one myself some years ago while hali fishing in 250' in the JDF. It was maybe 25" long.

 

[ziggy]

I may be wrong but I believe we used to call sablefish black cod? In the late 50's early 60's we used to pull Black Cod up by the dozens on the wharves of Butedale. They fed off the discarded Halibut heads that were dumped from the processing table and generally puked up their rotted dinner once on the jetty. Then the were generally considered garbage fish, but the long liners would use then for bait and we would happily turn over our catch to them.

 

[Dogbreath]

There were lots of juvenile Sablefish off WCVI up shallow this year it's been mentioned here a couple times already.

 

[ziggy]

In keeping with Google is your friend. A quick glance tells me the term Black Cod is applied to multiple species, so perhaps although they look similar, we weren't actually catching sablefish.

 

[hambone]

Young sablefish for sure. I've caught some in less than 40' jigging before.

 

[Bag-Juan]

I also caught a few of these jigging this summer in 40 - 60 ft. of water, never have before tho' - The ones we caught were 9-12 in. - Don't they catch bigger Sable fish at Swiftsure Bank , pretty sure I'v seen 8-10 lber's come in at Renny. Are they also known as Tommy Cod?

 

[TheBigGuy]

I also caught a few of these jigging this summer in 40 - 60 ft. of water, never have before tho' - The ones we caught were 9-12 in. - Don't they catch bigger Sable fish at Swiftsure Bank , pretty sure I'v seen 8-10 lber's come in at Renny. Are they also known as Tommy Cod?

They are also known as Blackcod when smoked commercially. Smoked Alaska Blackcod was very common in grocery stores and restaurants when I was a kid. I guess the Japanese pay so much for it now that it is all sold for export.

 

[Birdman]

100% juvenile Sablefish as mentioned by others. An uncommon but not unheard of catch off the west coast, back in the day I caught lots in Quatsino, including once actually getting one on a surface trolled bucktail targeting northern coho! We also used to get them in prawn traps sometimes.

Good halibut and lingcod bait if they are too small to smoke!

 

[Pippen]

In keeping with Google is your friend. A quick glance tells me the term Black Cod is applied to multiple species, so perhaps although they look similar, we weren't actually catching sablefish.

Both are often used to describe the sablefish....which is the correct name. "Alaskan Black cod" or "black cod" or "smoked black cod are often referring to the same fish. I have read and heard a few different times that black cod was the culinary name given to sablefish when smoked...but largely culinary centric and adopted as a more common name for sable. If that makes sense?

 

[Dogbreath]

No need to export them for Big Dough they're bringing high prices right here @ home you'll easily pay $30+/plate downtown.

 

[TheBigGuy]

Well I guess you might see them on the menu in high end restaurants, but I haven't seen smoked Alaska Black Cod in a local supermarket in over 25 years. I recall eating it fairly regularly when I was a child in everyday family restaurants or at home from the local Safeway.

That's why I was so happy to catch them on northern Vancouver Island and to get to smoke some up for myself. One of the best fish for smoking by far.

 

[outback]

Caught one of these guys on my last trip out for Coho out of sooke. neat looking fish.

 

[Pippen]

Well I guess you might see them on the menu in high end restaurants, but I haven't seen smoked Alaska Black Cod in a local supermarket in over 25 years. .

Still see it in fish stores and on menus with the "Smoked Alaskan" name on it. I prefer sablefish not smoked as I have found quite often it is a bit too smoky for my palate.

Hands down my favourite west coast fish by a landslide though.

To quote a buddy who owns a fish processing business in Tofino....."sablefish is the new gold".

 

[nicnat]

they've had fresh sablefish in chinatown the last 2 times I was there (yesterday) and they were a pretty decent price, can't remember exactly but it was under $10 lb gutted head off.

 

[Bag-Juan]

Yes, Smoked Black Cod! Mom used to boil it up when i was a twerp in the 60's - Good stuff!! Yum-Yum!!