We are offering the freshest wild California king salmon, aka chinook. The king salmon is the most popular salmon both for it’s rich flavor and healthiness (so much omega-3 fatty acid!) Also, the California king happens to have a rounder midsection than the Atlantic salmon, giving a thicker, more succulent fillet (or also makes excellent steaks if you choose to cut the salmon crosswise). A whole salmon (head on but gutted, as ours are) will yield approximately 75% weight in skin-on fillets. But don’t take the head and frame for granted! If a fish head soup isn’t in your wheelhouse, simply salt and bake the head and frame and then take the meat off. This is perfect for a beautiful salmon salad, and it’s a short step from salmon salad to salmon cakes!
Salmon tend to be 8-12 lbs at the beginning of the season, and that average goes up by about a pound per month throughout the season. We sometimes get outliers of course, but they will all be at least 27” (the minimum legal size for commercially caught salmon in California).
Our salmon is exclusively troll-caught (very different from trawling, which involves pulling a net through the water, and can result in a lot of bycatch). Each boat trails a maximum of 6 wires from the downriggers, with 2-10 leaders on each wire. The boat trolls through the water at a few knots with lures or bait at the appropriate depth for salmon (which are usually suspended in the water column).
Particularly when we are fishing close to the ocean floor, rockfish or ling cod will also bite on the lures (early in the season) or bait (later in the season). We’re allowed to keep a certain amount of the rockfish and ling cod, which we’ll offer up to the folks who indicated interest in the google form. The only other bycatch we sometimes get is striped bass, which we aren’t allowed to keep and are promptly released. The advantage of the trolling method is that there’s very little bycatch because of the kind of the lures/bait we use, and the depths and speeds at which we fish.
Unlike most commercial fish, our salmon is immediately bled and gutted after landing on the boat. The gills are removed, the bloodline along the spine is scraped out, blood is massaged out of the meat, and the whole fish is washed inside and out with a hose circulating seawater. The salmon is then put into a hold with crushed ice and saltwater, quickly bringing the temperature of the flesh down to close to freezing (without actually freezing the meat). Since salmon is so fatty, it’s important to take these steps for maximum freshness.
All the fish will be from Northern California waters- the boats are based in SF and will go down to Monterey for the first week of the season if the weather permits, and may go up as far as Fort Bragg later in the season, but will in all likelihood be fishing between Half Moon Bay and Bodega. This makes the salmon hyperlocal, meaning you will get the freshest salmon with a low carbon footprint.
HOW TO GET IT
Chances are you’ve already filled out the form to get on our email list. Right? No? Ok here it is:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfZtuhCJyj9DYMRS07wRT3lb9IBtUD9D_hF1AE-KpfdZoSkgg/viewform
Once you’re on that list we can email you when we have fish available. What with fishing, the weather, and the sea being what they are, we can’t really predict exactly when we’ll have fish. But I’ll list the dates that the season is open below, and if all goes well we should be able to offer fish on about a weekly basis. If not salmon, then perhaps halibut or black cod.
Currently there will be a regular pickup point in Oakland in the Temescal neighborhood, and deliveries available in San Francisco and most of the East Bay. We will also be doing a less regular pickup point in Pescadero at Root Down Farm (thanks Dede!) and in Sonoma County, probably in Petaluma. Please contact me at [email protected] if you would like to arrange a one-time pickup point for you and your fish-fan-friends. Depending on what the catch numbers are (and this can vary wildly) other deliveries around the Bay Area will also be available. Delivery will cost $5 while pickup, of course, is free.
As of right now the price of salmon has still not yet been agreed upon. The powers that be tell us they will know by the afternoon of May 1st what the dock price will be. We are going to offer you fish at above dock price (of course. We aren’t eccentric millionaires just doing this for fun) but below market price. Often significantly below for fresh local king salmon, and especially compared to the fillet price. You save money by buying a whole fish, and by buying direct! Keep in mind that the price can fluctuate throughout the season based on weather, competing fisheries in Alaska and Oregon, holidays, ahem changes in the state of global pandemics…We’ll always include the price in each email we send out when the fish are available.
At the moment we will be accepting cash or checks. We’ll have a certified scale on hand for pickups and deliveries so you might get to choose among a few options of which salmon in the tote is speaking to you. We recommend having a large cooler with plenty of ice, though we can probably give you a little ice to get you home. And of course, during these times, please observe social distancing and wear a mask.
Come join us on social media if you’d like to see photos from the boat, random fish facts, or recipes! Instagram @fishwifeforlife or Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Fishwife-Seafood-103732324652757/
THE SEASON
These are the dates that commercial salmon fishing will be open. Keep in mind that sometimes the weather is terrible or the fish have moved from where they’re expected, or they are suddenly on a diet, and we may not have fish even if the season is open, but we’ll sure be doing our best to chase them and invite them to dinner!
May 1 - 12
May 18 - June 6
June 13 - June 30
July 13 until the middle of October
The season tends to be best in August, and peters out a bit toward the end, so maybe keep that in mind for any potential salmon hootenannies you might be dreaming of.
LASTLY
We are so excited to be your Fishwife! Please let us know if you have any questions. And send us pics and/or recipes if you want to be featured on our Facebook or instagram pages!
