Mystery Fish rare catch

[captnemo]

very colorful looking fish.


‘Mystery fish’ turns out to be 125-pound opah, a rare catch aboard Southern California half-day boat

Species prized for its tender flesh is more commonly caught off Hawaii

May 06, 2013 by Pete Thomas


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Western Pride crew members pose with 125-pound opah landed off Newport Beach. Bottom image shows Capt. Jeff Patrick (left), who made the catch. Photos courtesy of Davey’s Locker Sportfishing.


Anglers and crew aboard a Southern California half-day boat were astonished last week to see what the captain had reeled from the depths: a stunningly gorgeous moon-shaped denizen with a speckled body and bright-red fins.
It was an opah, a species more commonly found in tropical and sub-tropical waters much farther offshore. Opah catches are rare off California, and extremely rare in coastal waters. To have landed one of these pelagic beauties from a half-day boat, within view of the shore, might be unprecedented.


Capt. Jeff Patrick of the Western Pride hooked the 125-pound opah on a sardine at a depth of about 250 feet, while on a rockfish excursion out of Davey’s Locker Sportfishing in Newport Beach.

The “mystery fish” was so feisty that he thought he had hooked a shark. The fight lasted 45 minutes and at one point the captain contemplated cutting the line because the rockfish had stopped biting and he wanted to relocate to a more productive area.
“I couldn’t get any line [back on] this fish,” Patrick told Phil Friedman Outdoors. “I tried to pass the rod off to a deckhand because I was getting tired, but he walked away and said do it yourself.”

When the fish finally came to within view, Patrick realized that he had something special on the line. The opah’s tender white flesh is considered a delicacy in Hawaiian seafood restaurants.
[Related: The biggest fish ever caught from a kayak.]

There is no commercial fishery for opah, largely because the fish do not travel in schools. But they’re occasionally caught by longline fishermen targeting tuna, billfish, and sharks in tropical and temperate waters. Most U.S. catches are in Hawaiian waters.
The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program advises consumers to avoid opah caught internationally because of the indiscriminate and destructive nature of longline fishing.

But Seafood Watch lists U.S.-caught opah as a good alternative to imported opah because U.S. longliners “have made great strides in reducing interactions in recent years through changes in regulations and modifications to longline fishing gear.”
Said Patrick: “I’ve been doing this for 30 years and it’s the biggest fish I’ve ever caught. It’s the fish of a lifetime, a real blessing.”


http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/excur...half-day-boat/

[seamonkey]

Never saw a fish like that thanks for posting!

[bababooey]

There is no commercial fishery for opah, largely because the fish do not travel in schools. But they?€™re occasionally caught by longline fishermen targeting tuna, billfish, and sharks in tropical and temperate waters. Most U.S. catches are in Hawaiian waters.
gline fishing.

These guys had 5 on at once.
August 16, 2014 by Pete Thomas
http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/natur...sh-well-know/O

Opah
Opah caught recently by Joe Ludlow (pictured) weighed 181 pounds and could become new world record; photo courtesy of Excel Sportfishing

Also called moonfish because of their oval shape and silvery-red bodies, which are polka-dotted. Fins and outer edges are a bight vermillion. Opah roam tropical and sub-tropical seas and are largely solitary except during spawning periods. Deep-water denizens most of the time; found as deep as 2,400 feet. There is no directed fishery for opah, but they’re caught in large enough numbers, indiscriminately by long-line fishermen, to make them available to consumers. Caught very infrequently by sport fishermen. Two weeks ago anglers aboard a San Diego-based tuna-fishing boat experienced a super-rare quintuple opah hookup, and landed three of five fish, including a 181-pounder that might qualify as a sportfishing world record. The opah’s flesh is rich and fatty, a chef’s delight. In Japanese cuisine, opah is often served as sashimi or sushi.

[J Barbosa]

Wow...pretty fish