Help ID this fish please

[A9]

Caught this crazy looking fish out bottomfishing this weekend. Have NO idea what it is, all I know it was plucked from about 90 feet of water and managed to get on my 4 oz. Crippled Herring. Anyone know what the heck this thing is? Looks like it's something from more tropical waters, but nah, caught in Area 9....

[zen leecher aka Bill W]

kelp greenling. 90 feet is kinda deep for them.

[A9]

kelp greenling. 90 feet is kinda deep for them.

Really? I have caught those before, I guess now that I look back at pictures of them on Google Images they look familiar, this one was just sporting some real bright colors.

Released by the way...

Thanks.

[Rollin with Rolland]

i have noticed when me and some buddies catch a bunch of greenling some are brighter or have different coloration patterns. i always assumed male/female.

[PokerAddict]

any good to eat? :P

[Jake Dogfish]

Nice catch Sam.
I don't know what that is, it doesn't look like any type of greenling that I have caught. I don't have my Northern Pacific bottom fish book with me. There are so many different fish that swim in our waters that are not caught often.
It could be a greenling, perhaps of a different variety or in spawning colors.

[A9]

any good to eat? :P

Some say they are, but I threw it back. I'm in search of other bottomfish out there....

[christopherbeebe]

yup yup you got yourself a female kelp greenling the males are bluesih black with bright blue spots GOOD eatin.

[big fish lite line]

definetly a kelp greenling, its rare but once in awhile you'll catch on down deep most the time I catch them in 10-40ft

for some reason the deeper they are the more whitish they look

[Dave]

Nice fish Sam. Keep the next one and let us know how it cooks up.

[A9]

Nice fish Sam. Keep the next one and let us know how it cooks up.

I guess I'll try it out. Didn't look like it would have much meat on it. I was after these: 2 Rockfish and a Cabezon me and my dad pulled from the similar area. These are great eating....



On a side note, I'm seeing a TON of bait and salmon jumping out here. Looks like a promising sign for a good salmon season....Threw out the carcasses of those fish right off our beach, an eagle nabbed one of them but about an hour after they were in there, right around 8-9pm there were hundreds of little baitfish jumping off the beach in front of our place. Got a video of it, not super clear cause it was a video off my digital camera, not video camera, but clear enough nonetheless that you can see the schools of little fish boiling and rising....

[big fish lite line]

nice copper and brown rockfish watch out for those spines its a pain you wont forget!

[A9]

nice copper and brown rockfish watch out for those spines its a pain you wont forget!

I get em in my fingers all too often when filleting em....Stings for a while too..

[big fish lite line]

I knew someone who would cut them off w/pliers before filleting rock fish

[Derrick-k]

I cooked up one of them before, good eating, definatly a greenling. NICE FISH!

[Rollin with Rolland]

On a side note, I'm seeing a TON of bait and salmon jumping out here. Looks like a promising sign for a good salmon season....Threw out the carcasses of those fish right off our beach, an eagle nabbed one of them but about an hour after they were in there, right around 8-9pm there were hundreds of little baitfish jumping off the beach in front of our place. Got a video of it, not super clear cause it was a video off my digital camera, not video camera, but clear enough nonetheless that you can see the schools of little fish boiling and rising....

very good...thanks for the observations. i will be out all week gunnin for salmon and dungies.(starting the 1st and 2nd respectively) it sounds like we might be in for a good season (both).....

BTW...those KG are alright tasting in my book. i'd say 3.5 outta five. used to keep them, but not so much anymore. (maybe if i'm camping on an overnight on the water). they can get kinda "chewy" in the summer with the warmer water, just my opinion. that looks like about a 13-14"er...not bad. biggest i've seen is 16".

[A9]

On a side note, I'm seeing a TON of bait and salmon jumping out here. Looks like a promising sign for a good salmon season....Threw out the carcasses of those fish right off our beach, an eagle nabbed one of them but about an hour after they were in there, right around 8-9pm there were hundreds of little baitfish jumping off the beach in front of our place. Got a video of it, not super clear cause it was a video off my digital camera, not video camera, but clear enough nonetheless that you can see the schools of little fish boiling and rising....

very good...thanks for the observations. i will be out all week gunnin for salmon and dungies.(starting the 1st and 2nd respectively) it sounds like we might be in for a good season (both).....

They could have been salmon smolt, I don't know, but I've seen a lot of salmon jumping out in Area 9 just north of Possession and I'm seeing a lot of bait near the shore and around the kelp beds in certain places....

[Rollin with Rolland]

in certain places....