Sablefish
By: U.S.Fish Wildlife Alaska
Tags: Foodies, Oceans, Alaska, Fishing, Podcast

When I get a fish on, I hit the throttle. There’s a default where the line will stop ~15 feet underneath the boat—I don’t want the fish swimming around the top and my leads or jigs banging against the boat or outboard. Then I just crank the last 15 up manually. Using the throttle can create problems like sucking the line all the way in through the rod and breaking it.

How far offshore do you go?

It’s such an abyss out there in Prince William Sound. You could be in Port Wells not too far from Whittier and you’re in great sable habitat. Pretty much any bay that salmon feed into. I fish outside bays where they drop off into those extreme depths. As they get flushed out by the tide, Sablefish wait for that fall to come down. There’s also a ton of spot shrimp for them to vacuum up and squid and octopus too.

A spot shrimp from Prince William Sound 📷 Katrina Liebich

In terms of what Sablefish are eating naturally, what’s your preferred bait?

Primarily octopus. It’s a little tougher and won’t get robbed by other fish. I’ve noticed if I put herring or anything like that it gets robbed and picked at piece by piece—we’re displaying this bait anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour. When you’ve got 800 yards of line down there, it’s hard to see a nibble. You’ve got to see the main take down when they get hooked up.

I have colored indicator line that lets me know the depth. I crank up a color after I hit bottom. That lets me know that I’m 15 feet off bottom.

“My theory to catch them is: sight, sound and scent. A blinking light, the clanking of my jig, and the scent of the bait.”

That blinking light is key because of the bioluminescence. You’re at 1,500 feet and there’s no light penetrating down there. It’s a pretty good beacon.

You jigging it up and down slightly? What’s the motion? Other tips?

I try to let the boat do the work for me. I get too excited. Then I get frustrated if I’m on top of the rod. So I just let it do its thing until it starts dancing. Meanwhile, my friends are fishing a different part of the water column because not everybody has an electric reel.

Similarly, I use circle hooks, since I’m not really paying attention to the rod and reel. I let the hook do its job.

And I watch the moon phases and try to fish lower tides. That way my bait’s displayed a little better and my gear isn’t getting thrashed around. It can be quite turbulent down there.

Once you find a Sablefish, can you hook into them all day? Or do you need to keep searching around?

This is a species that you have to search around for. When it comes to the adolescents, they’ll school up more. Adults are more sporadic. I’ve even seen them at the 100 foot mark and have caught them jigging for rockfish.

Tell us more about the bioluminescence. Are they eating stuff that glows?

Prince William Sound’s got that high abundance of spot shrimp. They’re an abundant food source for Sablefish. Also squid and octopus.

When spot shrimp feel attacked, they poop. And when they poop, it’s actually thrown out as a blue light. The predator thinks it’s the shrimp, giving that shrimp a chance to swim away. When I learned that, I started putting blue lights in my shrimp pots and on my my black cod jigs.

You mentioned grilling these fish. Is that your favorite cooking technique?

Grilling is probably the most popular. I don’t need do much to Sablefish. Literally a little bit of garlic, salt and pepper. And that’s it. It is a very white meat…very soft and buttery.