| I can understand the
reasoning behind California’s lack of a bag limit for albacore and
bluefin tuna. I can’t, though, understand why anyone would want to keep more than, say, 5
albacore -- the bag limit in Mexican waters. Don’t get me wrong -- of all seafoods, my hands-down favorite is little medallions of same-day-fresh, steak-cut albacore marinated ever so lightly in good teriyaki and a bit of crushed garlic, grilled to medium-rare over a hot charcoal fire in the back yard and eaten by hand as soon as they’re cool enough to touch. But I do have to wonder at the pictures you see of cockpits two fish deep in albacore caught by just three or four anglers. You have to wonder not only how long it’s going to take to fillet and properly package all that fish, but also what’s going to be done with it afterward. Say an angler takes home 15 albacore averaging 20 lbs. Even poor fillet-ers can get 25 percent of gross weight in good meat. That makes 75 lbs. of fillets. If the average serving is a generous 0.75 lbs., we’re looking at 100 servings, or 33 dinners for a family of three, or, if that family eats albacore two nights a week, four months’ worth. Makes sense if it’s your only or last trip of the year, but not if you’ve already got plans to go next weekend. I’ll admit that I’ve thrown out hopelessly freezer-burned fish a few times, and I never want to again. Better to err on the conservative side for me, to keep too little rather than too much. Not many will ‘fess up, but I have a feeling most of us have thrown out sport-caught fish, which is pretty tough to excuse, even to ourselves. |