My partner and I love poke poling and, therefor, have tried quite a few different ways to cook monkeyfaces. Our current favorite is in a yellow or green Thai curry. Because the meat is so firm/resilient/almost bouncy it works amazingly well in a simmering context. It doesn’t fall apart when you stir the pot like rockfish and the mild flavor doesn’t overpower the other ingredients. Also makes a kickass ceviche for the same reasons.
Hey Doc, Subscribed, liked, bell .... hell I beat the hell outta that bell... Anyway, it's rung. Shout out to Fisherman's Life ! Go Matt ! We love you! Sorry... Back to this channel. Just wanted to say, John Stewart looks like you... kinda, in a good, NO HOMO way ! Just joking. Love all that is you Channel. I've watched for 2 years now and am catching up on a ton of stuff ! We're Neighbors ! I'm in Santa Cruz...
im a no skin type of eel dude. Never had any luck with the skin personally! I also have felt like a medium sized eels taste better than the giant ones from a muddy taste standpoint! Sweet video as always!
Eel is one of my favorite sushi dishes, and I absolutely love the flavor and sauce. I will admit, though, that one of Taku's video poke poling for Eel made me super wary of trying to harvest them - because in the video it seemed like it was incredibly difficult to kill them and really hard to watch. That video spoke of how hearty this monkeyback species is, how they can breath air for a long time and how hard they are to dispatch. I love sustainable harvest but I obviously don't want undue suffering - do you feel like out of water killing is different than your underwater processing? It certainly seemed like your method was way more straightforward than pole-poling that i'd seen!
Julia, good question! No matter what this species is much harder to kill than a more fragile species like a trout. This is partly due to these eels being adapted to withstand getting battered around in high-energy surf in the intertidal and high subtidal zone for much of the year when conditions would be way to rough for us to even go near the water. That being said, I use the same method to dispatch them on land at low tide and it works just fine. It likely takes about 5 seconds for them to die with this method rather than about one second (like another species with a swift strike to the head), but it is still quite fast and much faster than its death would be if it were grabbed by a rock crab (which I have seen) or a seal. A swift hit to the head really does not kill this species and while I tried it for about a year I eventually gave that method up for this method. I also tried braining them with a knife like I do with most fish while diving. I now do this braining after severing the gills and spine simply for safety. A knife to the brain on an eel will not kill it instantly like other species and causes them to writhe around like crazy with a sharp blade now in the mix. The method outlined in this video is the fastest and most humane method of dispatching this species that I have found so far. Thanks again for watching and for the excellent question.
Thanks! Convergence is similar to homoplasy where two distinct species can evolve nearly identical traits even though their common ancestor did not have these traits. In other words, birds and bats both have (derived traits) wings but their shared common ancestor millions of years ago did not have wings. Wings evolved independently in birds and bats as a phenotypic shift (the way we look) due to genotypic mutations (copying errors in the genetic code) that proved advantageous under certain selective pressures. You can see such selective pressures at work each day and night. The bats with wings catch insects and are therefore well fed and have fit offspring that pass on the genes that code for wings, while the birds with wings catch more game (in the raptors for instance) or avoid predation by flying away and therefore also pass on the gene for having wings. Eel-like traits for a fin fish in the intertidal zone seem to have been advantageous for the prickleback family. I suppose I should discuss this in more detail in a future video since it is totally fascinating!
I am sure you are right. I pretty much followed his recipe here but the funny thing is we were hanging out just a few days ago and I completely forgot to ask him!
I'm not a big fan of eel but when it's added with some sushi rice...something like a sushi roll...it's delicious. Maybe the missing ingredient is rice? As always, great informational content.
My favorite of favorite "fish" to catch ah poke poling is wonderful...now to free dive for them..pick and choose love it. Skin on or off- off for me I use catfish skin peeler a wide type of pliers. Score the skin on each side grab the tip nearest head and one(hopefully) long pull and is off. Then filet for fish tacos..strange everything for me is tacos.. Thanks for all the great informative and encouraging videos.
One of our favorites! Maybe because we have the best luck when targeting them... I have cooked them several ways. My 2 favs are Ceviche and Italian Style Bake. Tomato, Onion, Garlic, Basil, White Wine, butter, S&P Mmmm mmm.. Great video! Thank you!
I lived in California for 8 years and have just learned about spear fishing and been wanting to learn everything or anything fishing related 😃. Do u ever hold classes or know of any good place where I can start learning how to dive Or should I just buy equipment and send it… Your videos are awesome man!
