Good sources to buy live fishes in the Bay Area?

Lots of king salmon and many other fishes like sand dabs, rock fish, halibut at Princeton Harbor on Saturday.

Got an eight pounder king salmon from Kimberly Rose. $10/lb cleaned already. Such great deal. Except I did a terrible job fileting the poor fish.

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Or even live fish.

November 2

November 15

https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/regions/marine/calendar#november

Huh, not exactly fish (though shellfish does have fish in its name…), but just saw these at the Daly City 99 Ranch Market.

Didn’t expect to see the Pacific razor clams in tanks! Usually see the Atlantic razor clams in restaurants so maybe these Pacific ones will be available

California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) Director Charlton H. Bonham has issued a preliminary determination that the Nov. 15, 2019 start date for the California Dungeness crab fishery south of the Mendocino/Sonoma county line poses a significant risk of marine life entanglement. The anticipated management response is a delay of the opening of the commercial Dungeness crab fishery in that area from Nov. 15 to Nov. 23, 2019.

We finally scored some fish from Johnson’s Pier down at Half Moon Bay. We like the drive down from SF, and have been driving down every couple of weeks or so. The pier, parking lot and bathrooms were closed until a few weeks ago. Today, the pier was opened for business, and about 6 boats, in addition to the wholesaler at the end of the dock was open for business.

The wholesaler, Pillar Point Fisheries, at the end of the pier had live Halibut, and frozen squid harvested earlier this week. We bought 5#'s of squid for $20, I see sauteed Calamari and Calamari Salad in my near future. (loved the calamari salad ala U.S. Restaurant in North Beach)

Off the boats, there were live Rock Cod, Ling Cod, Halibut and Rock Crab. Fresh Salmon also available off at least one boat.

My wife tried buy some Rock Cod from a salty fisherman docked in a dinghy < size of Kanye West’s bath tub.

The gentleman, to put it kindly was taciturn. Realistically, he was cantankerous. He shut down my wife; doesn’t do “nickel and dime” business. My wife, not one to be easily dissuaded when it comes to food, drew out the big gun: me.

Me: how much y’want for the fish. He: don’t do nickel/dime. Me: I’ll take everything in your bucket. He: glimmer of interest.

Told him we wanted more, really got his interest. Turns out he wasn’t planning to sell to retail buyers, and had to trek back to his car to get his scale and official DFG (Dept. Fish Game) tally sheet. I guess we made it worth his while.

Scored 22#'s of assorted Black/Blue/Yellow Rock Cod of various sizes. Exchanged phone#'s with the gentleman and settled on how we may benefit from each other going forward.

@sck
@Night07

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Woah! Nice find! they look good.

I grabbed this fish called soon hock yu or … whatever they claim it to be:


off the little market near to Tak Kee Lee on Noriega and they steam up pretty nicely. I … just have no idea where its from since I didn’t ask. Just never tried it before

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Gobies are delicious. Haven’t had too often, but enjoyed the few times. Must check out the Noriega store.

The Pacific fish market (On Stockton) is our go to these days. Turnover is quick there, so their live fish are very lively. They almost always have Black Cod, one of our favorites. Usually 3 or 4 varieties of rock cod as well.

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Wow. 22 lb! What are you doing with all that fish? You cleaning and freezing them?

A few weeks ago Mark Wiens did a youtube video from Surat Thani in southern Thailand on a huge Marble Goby that he was served in a steamed presentation.

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We cleaned, vac pac and froze most of the catch. Well… my wife did.

She wanted to go on a fish diet to shed a few COVID lbs. A bucket of rock cod fit the bill. 23 fish. Should be good for a couple of weeks.

** off topic. A shout out for WEEE, an Asian grocery delivery service. Very impressed with their quality and service.

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Lol. 23 fishes in two weeks!!!

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I’ve kinda avoided Chinatown for a while since the last time I was there, the stores were so crowded even though there are definitely less people. Sigh… go Covid… though I do think they’re able to follow the masking policies a little bit in Chinatown so that’s a plus.

Is it better right now? Off topic but I do wonder if Golden Gate Bakery is even open.

I was reading up on the marble goby and it seems like its grown or caught around Asia. I’m surprised we would get them in SF. But yeah, I had it steamed with some scallions and ginger. Good stuff! The flesh was relatively firm and delicious (though … I do wonder if its because its also a soy sauce delivery device…).

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I was concerned at first about the potential lack of social distancing in Ctown. The streets and shops are definitely less crowded, especially less tourists. Small shops are mostly adhering to the 3 shoppers at a time rule.

I google the infection rate for Chinatown and pleased and surprised the neighborhood has some of the lowest % in the city. The mask wearing rate is almost 100%. I actually feel safer in Ctown than in other parts of the city.

Golden Gate has had their perpetual “Closed for 3 weeks Holiday” up for months.

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Some more info for those that want to read up on it.

Ha!

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Restocking our fridge/freezer today at HMB. This boat takes good care of their catch, and fish are normally out of the water no more than 2 days prior to sale. We enjoy their Yellowtail Cod, Red Chili Pepper rock fish, Black Cod, whatever else on the line.

Subject: F/V ADVENTURE has Rockfish for you!

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F/V Adventure is selling live rockfish this weekend. We will be open Saturday the 3rd and Sunday the 4th from 8am - 5pm with live fish or until sold out. The Adventure will be in slip G8 at Pillar Point Harbor in Half Moon Bay. We will have live Yellowtail rockfish and a variety of other species. We look forward to seeing you at the docks this weekend!

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Website

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GIANT SEAFOODS 650 730-3625

PILLAR POINT HARBOR ​
​ONE JOHNSON PIER G-8
Half Moon Bay 94019

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This sunday’s haul from Pillar Point:

Feisty live smelt, from a boat towards the right side far end of the dock before Morning Star. $20 for a net full of them. Probably about 5 pounds. Yummy pan fried.

Also got some a 2 lb bag of frozen spot prawn tails from Alaska. Still thinking about how best to cook them.

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From the New Day? Their flash frozen Spots are good, they will usually also have Coonstripe prawns at the same time. Both are great, Thai/Scicilian/Cerviche.

New Day will usually have flash frozen salmon. Good for sashimi and cooks up well. Albacore tuna whole at times at very reasonable prices, I’m thinking ~$5/lb.

Yes, New Day. I went there, thinking they have prawns. They first told me about their tuna, then told me about their salmon. I wasn’t looking for those so I thought that’s all they have. As I was leaving they offered up the prawns. I was like you hiding the prawns from me!

Spot prawns are the first item from New Day on the offer board you posted above. :slight_smile:

Spots run $25 ~ $30/#. We usually go for Coonstripes, usually around $13/#. Now, Coonstripes is something you usually have to ask for.