Pricklebacks are slithery, elusive and ugly as sin, but their taste is little short of divine.
by Peggy Knickerbocker  Special To The Chronicle

   On a foggy Saturday morning near Stinson Beach, some 30-odd friends gathered just before Easter for an annual eeling expedition.  Not true eels - those are mostly found off the East Coast and Europe.  We'd be trying to catch the monkeyface prickleback, a perch-like game fish that looks and acts like an eel, slithering under rocks and seaweed, and writhing on the end of a poke pole's hook.

   They're also ugly as sin.

   Local fishermen call them eels out of habit.  What's surprising, especially after looking at them, is that pricklebacks are positively delicious to eat, with mild, slightly sweet white flesh similar to rockfish.  The only way to taste them is to catch them - they're not available commercially, although really fresh rockfish make a fine substitute.

   The reward for all of us who's risen at dawn to meet the minus tide, the ideal condition for fishing pricklebacks, was an eel meal at the end of the day.  The cooks: two of the fishermen - French chef Jean-Pierre Moullé of Chez Panisse, and Italian cook and master forager Angelo Garro.

   The eeling expedition is the legacy of the old Marin County family of political activist Amy Harmon.  It was started by Harmon's grandfather, Al Hausel, who discovered the secret location, then passed it on to Amy's father, retired Marin County dentist Mark Boero.  The tradition has been passed down from father-in-laws on the maternal side of the family for three generations - four, if you count Harmon's young son, Mark, still in his mother's arms.

   Last year the eeling expedition grew to include Garro, Chez Panisse founder Alice Waters and other friends, now numbered in the dozens.

   And so, on the craggy seashore for a second year in a row, a loosely related crowd of friends and family assembled with fishing licenses in pockets and nine children in tow, who were cautioned about the rough waters and rogue waves.  Waters slipped on a rock and hit her head, only to use the most organic compress known to man - cold seaweed.

   We fished for the pricklebacks (Cebidichthys violaceouse) with poke poles - long old-fashioned bamboo poles or modern plastic telescoping poles - with short wire leaders and hooks baited with squid.  We poked the poles under and around rocks in cracks and crevices in tide pools and surge channels where the pricklebacks lurk, feeding on crustaceans and algae.  The long, slender fish, about 1 to 2 feet long, have the unfishlike ability to breathe and survive out of water under seaweed or rocks.

   Teetering on the slippery seaweed-covered rocks, young and old alike pulled in their catch, one after another, with startling expediency.  A small bite on the bait would be followed by a formidable jerk on the line.  A considerable amount of struggle would ensue before the fisherman pulled in the prickleback.

   Because fishing is a waiting  game, the gaps in time were filled with tales of eeling.  The mention of eels in "The Tin Drum," by Gunter Grass, was old hat compared to fisherman Garro's stories.

   Garro described the arrival of the eel man in his hometown of Syracuse, Sicily.
   "He would go house to house, opening the lids of rain-filled cisterns to see if an old eel needed to be replace.  A slight 'off' aroma would indicate that the eel was not living up to its job description - to keep the tank clean by ridding it of insects and algae," Garro explained as he eased his pole under a rock.

   The eel man was not unlike like a modern-day gossip columnists, relaying juicy tidbits of the lives of residents from on village to the next.
   Boero would not leave the fishing hole until everyone had caught a fish, then cooking details were discussed and jobs were assigned.

   By mid-afternoon, Moullé and Garro were preparing the catch for the evening extravaganza.  They wanted their dishes to show off the mild sweet taste of the fish.

   Moullé's contribution was a soupe de poisson made with a double broth.  A few of the group had fished for eels a couple of days in advance so that the meat could be smoked and the eels' spines sued to start a broth.  Moullé called it a double broth because he poured the broth made from the trimmings of the first catch (which he smoked) over the spines from the newer catch.  However, it's easy to make a fine soupe de poisson without this extra step (see recipe).

   Garro brought homemade farro pasta that would go with a sauce made of pricklebacks and wild young fennel fronds he foraged on his way to the coast.  With the rest of the fronds, Garro made bright green bite-size fennel cakes, bound together with egg, breadcrumbs and Parmesan.

   It would all be washed down with an assortment of wines, mostly from Domaine Tempier.  They were perfect for toasting the endurance of the family tradition of fishing, cooking and eating together.  It's now become a legacy for every generation to pass on to the one that's yet to follow.

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Fishing for monkeyface pricklebacks...
Things to know if you're interested in fishing for monkeyface pricklebacks:

Requirements:  A Pacific Ocean fishing license, available at most sporting goods stores.
Season:  All year.
Tide:  Check a tide book for a minus or very low tide.
Limit:  10 per person, per day.
Where to look:  Ideal spots are often well-kept secrets; look for small,
protected rocky coves up and down the coastline.
Danger:  Rocks are slippery and covered with seaweed; always keep one hand on a rock
as you move around the slippery area.

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Foraging for wild fennel...
Wild fennel grows as a weed in backyards, in parks and other open spaces in and around cities
in the Bay Area.  The foraged green is a reminder of the fundamental link between
Italy and the Bay Area, as the first fennel seeds were probably carried to California
by early Italian immigrants.  Following are a few pointers for foragers.

>>>Harvest tender, young, bright green fennel shoots in late winter and spring months
when the fragrant wild shoots have not toughened or begun to flower or gone to seed.
>>>Do not trespass onto private property.
>>>Select fennel away from automobile fumes and the path of dogs.
>>>Once harvested, wash the fronds carefully.  Chop and blanch for incorporating into recipes, or scatter them, whole, over hot coals when grilling fish, meat or fowl.

For Prickleback Recipes, click here...