Suffering from cabin fever? Go fishing!
There’s some easy winter fishing just offshore for sand dabs, once the waters calm down just a bit. You won’t need to venture far, just a few miles to 200 feet or so of water. Sand dabs can be found both along our mainland coast and around our islands, so there is plenty of area to search for them.
Rigging up for catching sand dabs is pretty simple. One common rig is a double dropper loop. To set this up, run the line through two hook eyes, and then tie onto a weight. Slide the hooks up the line and tie each one into its own four-inch dropper loop about a foot or two apart. Squid is the bait of choice for these voracious critters, and they compete fiercely for the tasty baits. Cut squid into strips about four inches long and a half-inch wide. Run a hook twice through the end of a squid strip so there is a couple of inches of the strip left to undulate in the current. That’s what attracts the sand dabs.
Drop the rig to the bottom and take up the slack. It is important to fish right on the bottom because these fish lie on the bottom just like their big cousins, the California halibut. Wait for a couple of wiggles, like the angler said, and reel up the catch. Unhook them, check the bait and drop back down to do it all over again. Load up on sand dabs in short order and get back to harbor before the next storm hits.
These fish do not get very big. A 10-inch sand dab is a big fish. Seven or eight inches is more the norm. When really small ones — say four or five inches — come up, they are quite easy to release, providing the hook doesn’t tear flesh while being removed. Sand dabs do not have air bladders so the pressure decrease doesn’t bother them on the ascent. The hook can be carefully removed and the fish released, with a minimum of handling. They usually swim away unhurt, and that is gratifying. Put the keepers in cool water in a fish box or on ice to keep this delicate-tasting fish at its freshest.
It is important to be able to distinguish between a sand dab and a baby California halibut, although you’re not likely to catch a baby California halibut in 200 feet of water. One way is to look at the lateral line on the underside of the fish. The lateral line on sand dabs is straight, whereas the line makes a substantial curve up near the gills of a California halibut. That’s one way a game warden will tell them apart. Always check fishing regulations before heading out.
Capt. David Bacon operates WaveWalker Charters and is president of SOFTIN Inc., a new nonprofit group providing seafaring opportunities for those in need.