It’s unusual to catch one opah on a sportfishing boat, but anglers out of San Diego manage to land three of the brightly colored ‘moonfish’ on one day. Anglers aboard the San Diego-based Excel have spent the past several days loading up on tuna and yellowtail, during what many are describing as the most phenomenal bite in regional waters in decades.
But standing out among the yellowfin tuna, bluefin tuna, and yellowtail are three enormous fish shaped like the moon and nearly as radiant.
They are opah, weighing in at 151, 180, and 124 pounds, caught respectively by Armando Castillo, Joe Ludlow, and Travis Savala (see photo).
To catch one opah on a Southern California-based sportfishing boat (or any sportfishing boat) is rare. To catch three on the same vessel, on the same day, is extraordinary.
This is because the brightly colored fish do not typically swim in large schools. They’re more commonly found in tropical and sub-tropical seas, and their appearance in local waters is often associated with warm-water events such as conditions are what lured the tuna and yellowtail into Southern California waters.)
Wikipedia – Opahs (also commonly known as moonfish, sunfish, kingfish, redfin ocean pan, and Jerusalem haddock) are large, colorful, deep-bodied pelagic lampriform fishes comprising the small family Lampridae (also spelled Lamprididae). Only two living species occur in a single genus: Lampris (from the Greek lamprid-, “brilliant” or “clear”). One species is found in tropical to temperate waters of most oceans, while the other is limited to a circumglobal distribution in the Southern Ocean, with the 34°S as its northern limit. Two additional species, one in the genus Lampris and the other in the monotypic Megalampris, are only known from fossil remains. The extinct family, Turkmenidae, from the Paleogene of Central Asia, is closely related, though much smaller.
Opah specimens are rarely caught by recreational anglers. They are prized trophies for deep-water anglers as their large size and attractive form lend themselves well to taxidermy. Opahs are frequently caught as bycatch in many longline tuna fisheries. Opah is becoming increasingly popular in seafood markets. It first became popular as a sushi and sashimi in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The meat is lightly flavored and lends itself well to a variety of preparations, principally saute. Opah flesh has a light-pink to orange color, but turns white when cooked. It is popular in Hawaii, especially in restaurants. An average of 35% of an opah’s weight is consumable, with the remaining 65% being bone and thick skin.
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