Poke Pole Debut and Monster MFE, San Mateo Co Coast June 23.

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giantbrookie
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Poke Pole Debut and Monster MFE, San Mateo Co Coast June 23.

Post by giantbrookie »

Taking advantage of low surf (forecast at 1-2' for the area) and a relatively low tide (+0.2 feet) at a reasonable time of day (930 am), my son Lee and I headed off to a jetty on the San Mateo Co. coast. After hiking to a promising position, we set up to do normal fishing on outer side but then went to try out a single poke pole which Lee had expertly constructed from a saltwater rod with a broken tip. This was baited with a chunk of market shrimp on a 1/0 Gamakatsu hook. Lee began poke poling at about 910. I tried a few placements and handed the pole back to Lee; I had been hit in only one of my placements (with bait stripped). I then tried a few normal rod and reel placements (with some strikes and strips but no fish). Lee quickly sleuthed out how to identify prime holes and placements. He had quite a few hits but no fish, and was considering going to normal rod and feel fishing, but he stuck with it. Then, at about 1030, he revisited a hole that I had a strike in earlier. I had come back to see how Lee was doing then planned to leave for (regular) fishing, but Lee said I should stay and watch because he had a feeling he was going to hook something nice on his next placement. I watched and within seconds of his putting the pole in, it started getting knocked. I was viewing his pole from off to the side through a different viewport in the boulders but I could clearly see the periodic sharp knocks-- a very different reaction than the slower ebb and flow buffeting from wave pull through the rocks. After a few of these, Lee said "I've got one" and pulled his pole out of the hole. We might have expected a more average first monkey faced eel, but instead his first one was very long and very beefy. Lee scrambled out onto the mud/sand flats below the rocks so as to have a secure place to unhook the fish without fear of losing it. I couldn't find my tape measure, so I did a ballpark estimate of the length using my hand span and estimated it was between 25 and 27". Clearly a top end monkey faced eel, but a full appreciation of its size did not come until I photographed Lee holding the fish. Whoa, what a monster!
0306bigMFE.jpg
0309MFEinbucket.jpg

Lee's hot streak continued for perhaps another hour, with lots of knocks and bait strips. Lee would get hit and stripped repeatedly in one hole, but eventually he'd hook a fish. He lost a really nice MFE of >20" that flopped off his hook as he pulled it from the hole. He caught a 16" and then a 15" MFE, a small (8") grassy rockfish, and a very large rock crab. Only the big MFE and 16-incher were kept. At home Lee filleted the eels, after we confirmed the length of the monster with a tape measure at 26".
2255MFEsBeforeFilleting.jpg
Only the 26-incher was needed for the meal for the family of four. With their comparatively short head, relatively short abdominal cavity and minimal tail, the amount of meat from an MFE is amazing: the fillets were 22" long!
2256MFEfillets.jpg
The fillets were chunked and breaded with panko, then oven baked and served with yummy miso soup that Lee also made. The big eel had so much meat that there were actually leftover pieces which were snacks the next day. That is the most meat off of a single fish we've ever seen, be it one we've caught or something we've bought at a supermarket or fish counter. The next weekend, we bought a huge (4.7 lb) rockfish at a market but the resulting fillets were nowhere near as much meat as that eel. He cooked the fillets from the 16" MFE with butter and avocado "Fishermen's Life Style" for lunch the next day. Delicious. Quite a poke poling debut, but a difficult act to follow, just as Lee's 22" cabezon plus family PRs on kelp greenling and striped surf perch of 14" apiece on same day in April of 2017 has not been equaled since. That won't keep us from trying, though.
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Since my fishing (etc.) website is still down, you can be distracted by geology stuff at: http://www.fresnostate.edu/csm/ees/facu ... ayshi.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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c9h13no3
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Re: Poke Pole Debut and Monster MFE, San Mateo Co Coast June 23.

Post by c9h13no3 »

That's pretty awesome, had no idea that kind of fishing was in my backyard. Course, I'm a terrible fisherman, so I doubt I could do half as well :P
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Re: Poke Pole Debut and Monster MFE, San Mateo Co Coast June 23.

Post by TahoeJeff »

That is a monster MFE!
And Matts butter and avo style is a great way to go.
His "Fisherman's Life" videos are very informative, without spot burning.
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Re: Poke Pole Debut and Monster MFE, San Mateo Co Coast June 23.

Post by windknot »

Nice! Never thought to fish for much less eat these eels, but your post just made it look incredibly appealing.
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Re: Poke Pole Debut and Monster MFE, San Mateo Co Coast June 23.

Post by SSSdave »

gb, impressive. I haven't fished that jetty for a couple decades and usually just lost hardware in snags haha like someone tossed in some nylon nets.
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Re: Poke Pole Debut and Monster MFE, San Mateo Co Coast June 23.

Post by robertseeburger »

Didn't know you could get these in San Mateo County.. wow.. looks like fun..
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Re: Poke Pole Debut and Monster MFE, San Mateo Co Coast June 23.

Post by jeremiahkim »

That is a monster MFE. I first learned of the MFE from the YouTuber "Outdoor Chef Life" who is a sushi chef and does the catch and cook style videos similar to Fishermans Life. He has prepared it a number of interesting ways. But beyond that channel, haven't seen/heard many catching to keep.
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Re: Poke Pole Debut and Monster MFE, San Mateo Co Coast June 23.

Post by giantbrookie »

jeremiahkim wrote: Sun Sep 15, 2019 5:22 pm That is a monster MFE. I first learned of the MFE from the YouTuber "Outdoor Chef Life" who is a sushi chef and does the catch and cook style videos similar to Fishermans Life. He has prepared it a number of interesting ways. But beyond that channel, haven't seen/heard many catching to keep.
I very much enjoy watching Taku on Outdoor Chef Life. He goes seriously high end with his cooking, including spectacular presentation--pretty amazing to do that in a car camping or picnic sort of set up. His MFE video has one heartbreaking aspect when he loses his biggest MFE down a hole after he's dispatched it. I can sympathize. MFE's are super slippery and hard to hold on to. On a recent (two weeks ago) trip I had one wiggle out of my fingers and head under a rock. I couldn't grab it well enough to pull it back out but I had enough of a grip so that it couldn't get all the way out of my hand. I had to wait until my son could come along and hook the back to pull it back from from under the rock. Lee and I have had some fine fishing sessions since his big MFE but that's still our best one. Two weeks ago we each caught one in the 20-22" range, plus several other nice ones (17-18") and I caught a 24-incher with a rod and reel in a spot I really didn't expect an MFE a couple of months ago. Which reminds me, I am way late about posting some of the more recent stories; the 24-inch MFE was associated with Lee rescuing himself from the waves at Marin. The MFEs we've caught the past few trips provided main courses for something like 7 dinners for the family of 4. And I had an epic kelp greenling day (4 keepers in one short session) that provided another two dinners. We just got skunked yesterday (10-27) at the HMB N Jetty and have decided we won't go there for awhile; we have two other spots we like better: one in Marin Co. and the other in Pacifica.
Since my fishing (etc.) website is still down, you can be distracted by geology stuff at: http://www.fresnostate.edu/csm/ees/facu ... ayshi.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Poke Pole Debut and Monster MFE, San Mateo Co Coast June 23.

Post by TahoeJeff »

giantbrookie wrote: Mon Oct 28, 2019 8:10 pm Taku on Outdoor Chef Life
He's headed to Japan after Hawaii.
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Re: Poke Pole Debut and Monster MFE, San Mateo Co Coast June 23.

Post by giantbrookie »

TahoeJeff wrote: Tue Oct 29, 2019 8:58 am
giantbrookie wrote: Mon Oct 28, 2019 8:10 pm Taku on Outdoor Chef Life
He's headed to Japan after Hawaii.
Yes I'm looking forward to it. It was interesting to see what he caught in Hawaii, although there's no way I would have had the nerve to fish that last spot on the cliff where he was nearly getting washed off by the waves. I'm very interested to see what he catches in Japan and the places he visits. I saw a lot of interesting shoreline when I was there in 2017 looking at geology-I remember seeing a lot of spots that I would have thrown some casts into if I had the gear and if I knew what might be out there.
Since my fishing (etc.) website is still down, you can be distracted by geology stuff at: http://www.fresnostate.edu/csm/ees/facu ... ayshi.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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