Keep rollin' rollin' rollin' rollin'

If you go down to a Newfoundland beach in June or July you'll probably see more people by the shoreline than at any other time of the year. It's summer yes, but few of them will be taking a dip in the sea (I can assure you the water is still cold!). When you approach the water you'll notice people with nets and buckets, flocks of circling seagulls and if you're lucky, the waves will bring flapping fish onto the beach with every splash of the tide. This is the phenomenon of rolling capelin.

It's been something on my Newfoundland bucket list since I heard about it, and as I didn't manage to see it last year, I was super determined to see it this year. Capelin are small pelagic forage fish that live in the Arctic and sub-Arctic water of the Atlantic. They spend most of their time offshore but every year they come inland to spawn. This is what the rolling is all about. If you go at the right time of day you will sea schools of fish coming onto the beaches to lay their eggs. This makes them easy pickings for humans and birds alike.

A male capelin simply picked up off the beach.

We heard through various social media sources that the capelin had started appearing, so with equal determination a couple of us rushed out to the beach. Our first capelin hunting trip to Middle Cove however proved unsucessful. There were some fish coming in, but they certainly weren't rolling. The trip had was fruitful however; it allowed me to practice my photography 
(See http://northerngeologist.blogspot.ca/2014/06/photography-exercise-textures-of-water.html)

The next time we went out we tried to time it to coincide with low tide, the most logical time for the capelin to be rolling surely? We turned up with great anticipation and sure enough...they weren't rolling. 

A line of dead capelin on the beach from previous rolls.

We hung around for a bit, as it would be a waste to just turn back. We could see some capelin in the water and there were plenty of people out in the water with a variety of different nets and methods of fishing.

Standard nets.

A two person fabric approach.

The more inventive milk crate method.

The milk crate was one of the more novel approaches and we kindly laughed at the idea. All the while I was holding an empty 2kg peanut butter jar to keep my stash in. Then all of a sudden Milk Crate Man caught a bunch of capelin! They weren't quite rolling but they were hanging out very near to the shoreline. It then emerged that we had a milk crate in the back of the car, and minutes later I was in the water fishing! As one of two people in shorts and certainly the most enthusiastic I waded into the icy waters. 

The trick to surviving the temperature was to stay in for
more than 5 minutes until your legs went numb.
Then you could stay in for as long as you wanted.

It worked!!

After working out the timing of the waves and how not to scare the fish away I managed to successfully catch some capelin. A lot of them too. The holes in the crate were just the right size to stop them escaping, although some did manage to get their heads stuck,that unfortunately and more often than not led to a gruesome end.

After deciding that we had a good enough haul and that my body temperature had decreased sufficiently we headed to Ches's for some chips and then home to cook our capelin and watch the World Cup. They're similar to whitebait in the UK, that is you can just fry them up and eat them whole. The skeleton is very thin and the guts do not need to be removed. You can eat the head and tail too, but my preference was to just lop them off.

So, here's my simple steps on how to cook capelin:

These are all male capelin, as they have larger anal fins.

1) Simply chop the head and tail off each capelin. You can often cut one of the smaller fins off with the head too. The other fins you can leave on or off, it's up to you. The guts can stay in but again, it's up to you if you want to simply pull them out.

Decapitated capelin, with a full capelin for comparison.

2) Wash the capelin in a little water to clean them up a bit.

3) In a bowl coat the capelin in flour, seasoned with salt and pepper. Fresh parsley can also be added to make them more scrumptious.

4) Heat up oil in a pan and throw the capelin in. The oil should be hot enough to make the flour crackle and crisp up.

Sizzling away.

5) Cook evenly on both sides until golden brown.

6) Simply serve straight out the pan, with a drizzle of lemon juice! If you don't want to eat the skeleton you can easily get the whole thing out by cutting the fish open in the middle, it should fall right out. Or you can just eat the whole thing!

I was brave and tried one with head and tail.
I prefer them without...

A couple weeks later I had another capelin experience, although this one wasn't planned. We went out on a sea kayaking tour out of Bay Bulls (a thoroughly enjoyable tour from The Outfitters, highly recommend it!). As we went exploring in one of the caves, we saw some dark masses moving around in the water. Upon closer inspection we discovered it was a school of capelin trying not to be eaten in the sheltered cave. Our instructors rued not bringing out a net with them, but at least thanks to an underwater camera we could take away something.

Great shot T!

Despite not seeing the capelin roll I am satisfied that I at least caught some, by whatever unconventional means. I have a stash in the freezer, ready for any time that I fancy stinking out the kitchen. And who knows, while they're still around I might actually get to see them roll. If I do, I will certainly sing Limp Bizkit.