Fishwife Seafood

Y’all, the salmon bite is going crazy and Captain Sarah is killing it out there. I just had the most glorious dinner last night with our friends at Les Lunes, trying out some recipes and making some wine pairings. We will have some of their beautiful bottles available for pickup at this weekend’s sales- it will all be preorder for the wine, so keep an eye out in the next couple of days for an email!

06/30/2020

Imagine waking up to this! Fishwife salmon, cured by the fabulous Clarissa, on a Wise Sons everything bagel, with scallion cream cheese, cucumber, dill, and edible flowers. This is peak self care 😍

06/24/2020

Just a girl and her big ole boccaccio! Excited to bring the catch to folks who ordered today!

06/23/2020

One of the things I love so much about Fishwife-ing is how it brings people together. Warms the cockles of my heart to see friends and family sharing in the bounty of our beautiful fish. Thanks Jonathan and Ashley for the magical pics! Hope the Maker Farm piggies got to try some halibut scraps!

05/31/2020

Oh man, Sonya of Spirit Marine Services at it again! She makes me want to keep all the salmon for myself! Thanks so much to everyone who came out to our SF and Oakland pickups today! See you tomorrow, Pescadero!

05/21/2020

Teach ‘em young (thanks Nathan Houchin for the pic!)

05/21/2020

Y’all...the unfavorable offshore conditions are kind of killing us. The boat won’t be out for salmon for a few more days, so we are going to do some halibut fishing in the bay on Friday. I’ll contact those of you who marked yourselves interested in halibut on the sign up form. Meanwhile please enjoy these pics of the gorgeous salmon happy customers Todd and Ecco got from us in the first round. I wanted to point out a bunch of stuff they did really well: filleting the fish outside if possible for easy cleanup, enjoying some straight away in a simple prep, trying a new recipe (beet lox! Who knew?) with some more of the fish, and vacuum sealing the rest for best preservation in the freezer. Hope everyone is staying safe, healthy, and sane!

05/15/2020

Gorgeous plate of sunset fish and chips aboard floating home. This was Sonya’s first time filleting a halibut! So clean! Back to our regular salmon content soon, season opens up again on the 18th!

05/15/2020

We definitely have more to learn about halibut fishing 😄 But all things considered it went ok yesterday. We only caught a few and they were kind of pre-spoken for so we didn’t get a chance to offer them out to the general list, but I’m going to see if any of my fishing pals want to offer y’all halibut. I’ll keep you posted. Meanwhile, salmon reopens on the 18th and fingers crossed for good conditions and hungry fish!

05/12/2020

Wow you guys, the response has been just incredible. We are so thankful for everyone’s support!! Our inaugural sale was a lot more fish than I expected (Captain Sarah, showing us how it’s done) so I decided to keep it simple and only offer fish to the SF and East Bay parts of the list. We sold out within hours in the presale, and then had the best day meeting y’all at pickup and the few deliveries I managed to squeeze in. I’ll be posting some of the gorgeous shots that people have been sending me- if you have your own, tag us here or send em on over if you don’t mind my sharing them! Today’s post is of my ever glamorous old friend Clarissa, who kindly hosted the SF pickup. Cannot decide if I’m more jealous of the outfit or the gravlax (I forgot to keep any salmon for myself y’all!) Anyway, Sonoma County pickup tomorrow, and then we are going halibut fishing on Wednesday! Stay tuned!

05/05/2020

I know most of you probably haven't broken down a whole salmon before, so I found a few videos that I thought showed good methods. I'll post them in the comments. Two different filleting styles and one way to just steak out the fish (the easiest method if you don't have the hang of filleting yet- though you know, the only way to get better is to practice!) And as the last photo shows, even if you do a messy job and there's meat left on the frame, just scrape it off and make a spicy salmon bowl!

05/01/2020

Fish on! Tricky conditions, but we are getting them!

05/01/2020

Heading down to Monterey for the salmon opener tomorrow! Fingers crossed the weather holds so we can bring you fish next week. Also, check out the “About” section on our page to get the answers to most of your questions!

04/27/2020

It's now easier to sign up for Fishwife Seafood's updates.

04/27/2020

I’ll be bringing you salmon from Captain Sarah of FV Bounty. She’s been fishing commercially since 2006 and bought her own boat in 2007. Needless to say, she’s a total bad*ss and it’s both invigorating and humbling to fish with her. Counting down the days...the weather is not looking great right now for heading down to Monterey for the opener, but we will keep you updated!

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About Fishwife

THE FISH

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).

THE METHOD

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!